folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, stories
A regular theme in the foolosphere has the fool besting someone supposedly wiser, smarter, holier or otherwise superior. There’s a whole raft of stories of jesters engaging with scholars and tying them in semantic knots, and in China this extends to grappling...
16th century, folk fool, India, quotes, stories
This short story regarding the Indian folk fool Tenali Rama illustrates perfectly the literalness of the fool, which you might have encountered in children, perhaps with occasional exasperation. I shared this during a talk to a group which included professional...
16th century, Europe, folk fool, German, Germany, medieval, Poland, primary source, quotes, stories
Till Eulenspiegel is a folk fool and trickster whose exploits were recounted across Europe and translated into multiple languages. He moved freely, sometimes as a jester, sometimes a wandering rogue. There are cheeky children’s tales about him and then more...
16th century, English, Europe, folk fool, primary source, quotes, Scotland
A fine story-telling version of the many tales about George Buchanan, celebrating him as the king’s fool. Buchanan (1506-82) is one of those tricky characters who begin life as an historical, living person and somehow, over centuries, morph into a jester of...
16th century, 17th century, English, Europe, historical figure, primary source, quotes, Scotland, stories
A recurrent theme in the fool-king relationship is that of role-swapping, more formally known as ‘inversion’.Fools, jesters, clowns, are often said to turn the world on its head – in medieval Europe there was even a genre of art focused on this...
16th century, folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, stories
Another example of Tenali Rama’s quick-witted defiance. He is said to have served King Krsnadevaraya (r. 1509-1529), though in all probability was a vivid figment of the collective imagination pegged to a real king.This curious anecdote concerns the scatological...
