Der Stricker

DER STRICKER. - German wandering poet, of whom it is known only that he came from Franconia and that he lived in Austria around 1250.

Besides a poem on Charlemagne, he composed the chivalric poem Daniel von dem blühenden Tal, in which he elaborated, in Hartmann's style, an Arthurian legend, exploiting traditional motifs and citing Alberic of Besançon as his source. He is better known, however, as a burlesque poet, for his Schwalnke or facetiae and for his Bitpel or parables of a satirical tendency, and especially as the author of that collection of jests attributed to Prete Amis, a type of cunning trickster who begins with innocent jokes and ends by deceiving even his bishop by means of false relics or by pretending, with clever tricks, to work miracles. S. can be considered a precursor of that satirical poetry which, while professing a moral purpose, directed its mockery at entire social classes and which later culminated in the famous Till Eulenspiegel.

Bruno Vignola