SPIELMANN

( (German: player, or entertainer), ) plural Spielleute, wandering entertainer of the European Middle Ages who performed at fairs, markets, and castles. The Spielleute included singers, mimics, and sword-swallowers. Also among them were the storytellers credited with keeping alive the native Germanic vernacular legends at a time when nearly all written literature was religious and when the court poets, under foreign influence, were concerned chiefly with love lyrics and Arthurian legends. A number of carefree adventure tales, such as the 12th-century Knig Rother, are evidence of a highly developed underground literature characterized by its humour, amoral tone, and powers of social observation and presumably propagated by the Spielleute.