SOURCE: Ziolkowski, Jan M. “A Medieval ‘Little Claus and Big Claus’: A Fabliau from before Fabliaux?” In The World and Its Rival: Essays on Literary Imagination in Honor of Per Nykrog, edited by Kathryn Karczewska and Tom Conley, pp. 1-14. Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, 1994.

In the following essay, Ziolkowski traces the origins of the tale “Little Claus and Big Claus” to an anonymous medieval poem.

Albeit on a humble plane, this essay seeks to celebrate some of Per Nykrog's intellectual range, both geographical and chronological, and a little of his personal background. His highly individual keenness of literary insight and wry sense of humor … I can aspire not so much to replicate as to acknowledge and admire. In devising the topic of this essay, I had Per doubly in mind. The first half of the title contains an implicit tribute to his Danishness. Immediately on reading the first clause...