Today we go to Bohemia, modern day Czechia, to look at two texts. The first is a German language text written in about 1401 by Johannes von Tepl (also known as von Saaz) called The Ploughman from Bohemia or sometimes known as The Husbandman and Death. The second text is a short Pastiche written just a couple years after by an unknown author in the Czech language called The Little Weaver (Tkadleček).

In The Ploughman the personification of Death debates a Widower mourning his wife, where God presides as the final judge. In The Little Weaver, the personification of Misfortune gives a monologue to a widower mourning his wife.

Michael Haldane’s Translation of the Husbandman and Death (aka the Ploughman from Bohemia) - https://www.michaelhaldane.com/HusbandmanandDeath.htm

The Little Weaver can be found in “The Czech Reader” (Duke University Press, edited by Jan Bažant, Nina Bažantová, and Frances Starn) under the chapter called “Tkadleček”

The Gospel of Nicodemus (aka the Acts of Pilate) can be found here - https://sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob10.htm

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