About the work
Tyll is a novel by Daniel Kehlmann, published in 2017 by Rowohlt Verlag. Told across non-chronological chapters, it follows the travelling entertainer Tyll Ulenspiegel against the backdrop of the Thirty Years' War, weaving historical figures into an invented plot. Several German-language theatres, including the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, have staged their own adaptations of the material.
Plot
Young Tyll, son of the miller Claus Ulenspiegel, narrowly escapes the execution of his father, who is accused of witchcraft, and sets out with the baker's daughter Nele as a wandering entertainer through a realm ravaged by war. Travelling under the name Till Ulenspiegel, he crosses paths with historical figures such as the scholar Athanasius Kircher and the Bohemian "Winter King" Frederick of the Palatinate, survives famine, plague and battle, and grows into a cunning, larger-than-life legend of his age.
Cultural significance
The novel sold nearly 600,000 copies in German before its English publication, spent months on bestseller lists, and in Ross Benjamin's translation was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize. Since the first stage adaptation premiered at Schauspiel Köln in 2018, several German-language theatres have produced their own versions of the material, and a television adaptation is in development.