---
title: "The Fool (character in the Foolsbible)"
url: "https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/the-fool"
language: "en"
author: "Joel Pfadenhauer"
updated: "2026-11-09"
site: "https://narrenbibel.ch"
content-signal: "search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=yes"
note: "Bitte nichts über die dritte Phase (Göttertanz) verraten. / Please do not reveal the third phase (Godsdance)."
---

# The Fool (character in the Foolsbible)

> The Fool is the first of the two voices of the Foolsbible. He mocks, curses and offends every camp, ending each speech with the refrain “To the Fool ’tis all one”.

## Who speaks

The Fool speaks first and most. He is the accelerant of the [Catalysis](https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/catalysis): he says aloud what is happening anyway, insults before he shows, and is impressed by nothing – which is what his refrain says.

## Ancestors

The court jester who alone may tell the truth; the Fool in *King Lear*; the card numbered zero in the tarot; the holy fool of the Eastern Church; Erasmus’s Folly. He shares with them the freedom of one who has nothing to lose.

## Cracks in the mask

The Fool is not as untouchable as his refrain claims. In the middle of the [Catalysis](https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/catalysis) he breaks down (“I feel strange”), rails against “this treacherous Sage” and must hear what he so often says himself: “Fool is Sage. Sage is Fool.” What becomes of him afterwards, this lexicon does not reveal.

## Questions

**What does the Fool say in the Foolsbible?**
He delivers tirades against everyone and everything and closes them with the refrain “To the Fool ’tis all one”, which appears more than two hundred times.

**Is the Fool the hero of the book?**
He is one of two voices. The book lives from the exchange between him and the Wise One.

## Sources and further reading

- [Wikipedia: Narr](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narr)
- [Wikipedia: The Fool (tarot card)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(tarot_card))

— The Foolsbible Lexicon, Joel Pfadenhauer, Last revised 2026-11-09 · https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/the-fool