New High German
The Middle High German period is conventionally taken to end in 1350, while the Early New High German is taken to begin with the German Renaissance, after the invention of movable type in the mid-15th century. Therefore, the literature of the late 14th and the early 15th century falls, as it were, in the cracks between Middle and New High German, and can be classified as either. Works of this transitional period include "The Ring" (c. 1410), the poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein and Johannes von Tepl, the German versions of "Pontus and Sidonia", and arguably the works of Hans Folz and Sebastian Brant ("Ship of Fools", 1494), among others. The "Volksbuch" (chapbook) tradition which would flourish in the 16th century also finds its origin in the second half of the 15th century.