Personification of Death in "The Husbandman and Death" by Johannes von Tepl

The problem of death and human attitudes before the end is one of the topics that have been considered for millennia. In fact, the image of dying man became a reach source of inspiration for literature at various time. This piece of research is an attempt to analyze the image of Death in medieval German dialogue the “Ackermann aus Bӧhmen” (“The Husbandman and Death”) written by Johannes von Tepl in the beginning of the XVth century. Despite the fact that this text is common for this time scholars’ opinions on it differ greatly. The present paper describes a proposed study that will seek to explore distinctive features of medieval image on death given by Johannes von Tepl. Analysis will focus on the various approaches to the problem of man’s end that historians have advocated, in order to try to establish new understanding of the “Ackermann aus Bӧhmen”. The initial research questions can be stated as following: how can we interpret the image of death in the Ackerman, according to the traditional Christian way of thinking? What was the basis of this text?