Note on Orthography and Transliteration
Chelm has many spellings: Chełm in Polish; Холм (Kholm) in Ukrainian and Russian; 
(Ḥelem) in Hebrew; and 
or 
(Khelem or Khelm) in Yiddish, though with an initial khes, not a khof, in the earliest Chelm tales. A similar range of options applies to the names of any number of places and people mentioned in this book—names that may be attested differently in Polish, Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew, or German settings. For the sake of simplicity, I have used common English spellings where these exist—Chelm, for example, instead of the Polish Chełm. Otherwise, I have generally tried to follow the spellings adopted in the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Where Romanization of Yiddish is required, for example in the titles of books and stories, I have used the YIVO transcription system, devised for Modern Yiddish, modifying it slightly, where appropriate, to represent Old Yiddish.
