The Fifth World: Magic and Landscape in Vidvilt and Wigalois

Abstract: This article analyzes the Old Yiddish Vidvilt and its German predecessor, Wirnt von Grafenberg's Wigalois , and argues that the Yiddish writer's approach to the story's magical and geographical elements distances it from the contemporary geopolitical themes, including courtly and Crusader culture, which are a primary concern of the German text (BB).