This anthology of twenty medieval tales contains a representative selection of the various
kinds of short narrative in verse that were transmitted together in German manuscript
collections from the later thirteenth century onwards. They include religious miracle-tales
comic tales moral-didactic tales and courtly tales. Considered together they offer an
insight into how medieval poets tried to entertain as well as instruct their audiences in
matters of faith and everyday conduct and just what it was that made medieval listeners (and
readers) laugh. The translations have been taken from DVN vol. 5 (Deutsche Versnovellistik des
13. bis 15. Jahrhunderts ed. by Klaus Ridder and Hans-Joachim Ziegeler) and revised for the
general reader they are presented here for the first time with a commentary and notes.
