The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak

"The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak" ( _fr. La Légende et les Aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au pays de Flandres et ailleurs, 1867) is a novel by Charles De Coster. The novel recounts the allegorical adventures of a legendary Flemish prankster "Thyl Ulenspiegel" during the Reformation wars in the Netherlands, a figure based on the 14th century Low German figure Dyl Ulenspegel, on which the German version Till Eulenspiegel is based.

De Coster was one of many 19th Century nationalist writers who made use of - and considerably adapted and changed - pre-existing folk tales. In this case, Thyl Ulenspiegel is made into a Protestant hero of the time of the Dutch War of Independence (or rather, of the major part played in that war by the Flemish, even though Flandres itself was doomed to remain under Spanish rule).

De Coster incorporated in his book many of the original amusing Ulenspiegel tales, side by side with far from funny material - for example, graphic depictions of tortures by the inquisition and auto de fe. As depicted by De Coster, Ulenspiegel carries in a locket around his neck the ashes of his father, burned at the stake on charges of heresy - a feature never hinted at in any of the original folk tales.

The novel was later illustrated with a series of linocuts by Frans Masereel, the foremost Belgian modernist painter and engraver.

Ulenspiegel was mentioned in Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" as a possible prototype for the Black Cat character Behemoth.