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THE TILL EULENSPIEGEL SERIES : TALE 26
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The twenty-sixth story tells of how Eulenspiegel bought a piece of a farmer's field in the land of Lüneburg
and then sat on it in a cart.
This one plays on the same theme as the previous story, and Eulenspiegel reappears after being kicked out twice. Still, it's an entertaining
little piece in which he purposely risks his life and sets out to taunt his victim rather than running into him by chance, and spares no expense to do
so. Tempting fate, as usual.
Soon afterwards, Eulenspiegel returned, went to a village near Celle and waited for the duke to ride to town. There he saw a farmer going to work in
his field. In the meantime, Eulenspiegel had acquired a new horse, along with a dump cart. So he drove it up to the farmer and asked the farmer
whose field he might be tilling there. The farmer replied, "It is mine, I inherited it." So Eulenspiegel asked him how much he would charge him
for a dump cart full of soil from the field. The farmer replied that he would ask for one shilling. Eulenspiegel counted out one shilling in
pennies, filled his cart with soil and drove before the castle of Celle on the river Aller.
As the duke rode up to the castle he noticed Eulenspiegel sitting on the cart, buried up to the shoulders in earth. And he said to him,
"Eulenspiegel, I had banished you from my lands and should have you hanged were I to find you on them." Eulenspiegel, though, replied: "Your Lordship,
I am not on your land but am sitting in mine, which I bought for a shilling. I bought it from a farmer who said it was his inheritance."
The duke told him, "Drive off and take your earthly kingdom out of my earthly kingdom. And don't come back or I'll have you hanged along with
your horse and cart."
Eulenspiegel quickly climbed out of the cart, jumped onto his horse and rode out of the land of Lüneburg. He left his cart standing before the
castle. So Eulenspiegel's earthly kingdom is still lying by that bridge.
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English translation based on text in the public domain and available at Projekt Gutenberg-DE.
Source URI of original: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/bote/eulenspg/eulen26.htm
Commentary preceding story text added and, where applicable, researched by writeup author.