Found Item: Die Bitburger Gabestrepper

[jeriendhal]

So this afternoon I busied myself transferring a load of books and toys from Tom's old room to his new room, when I came across a book I hadn't seen before, and almost certainly didn't get for him myself.

It's a children's book named "Die Bitburger Gabestrepper", written entirely in German, featuring a gaggle of peasant kids crawling around in goatskin disguises on the cover. Judging by the illustrations on the inside, a nobleman visits medieval Bitburg (I'm presuming) and um, things happen, involving kids in goatskins.

I have no idea where this book came from. I suspect it might be a gift from my sister Rae, from the stash of books her daughters Tracy and Erica brought from Germany when they came back to the US. I'm not sure though, since I don't remember Rae ever giving us any other books except at Christmas, and I think I would have remembered this one if she had. I certainly didn't buy it, and niether did Tracy, since we don't speak German and aren't in the habit of frequenting foreign language bookstores.

Anyway, any German readers out there have a clue as what the story is about?

Comments

The Devil Made Me Do It!

[badasher.livejournal.com]

I'll have his Satanic Majesty give it a look. He knows enough German to be dangerous and should be able to figure something out.

Re: The Devil Made Me Do It!

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Thanks dude!

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Just a note: that's not a "b"; it's a German letter usually transcribed as "ss".

Googling a bit, I get the impression that it's a retelling of a story from the Thirty Years War: Bitburg was besieged by the Swedes, and some children managed to get out of the city, gather food, and get back in by disguising themselves as goats. This enabled Bitburg to withstand the siege, and eventually the Swedes withdrew.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Presumably the moral of the story is that Swedes are really, really bad at making Perception rolls.