Click the three pictures for more information.
It's impossible to talk about Lübeck's dance of death without mentioning the fragment in St. Nikolai's church in Tallinn (the capitol of Estonia, formerly known as Reval). This painting is supposedly made by the artist responsible for the painting in Lübeck - namely Bernt Notke. It has even been claimed that the fragment in Tallinn is a remnant of Lübeck's painting from 1463.
Originally the painting presumably had the same length as that in Lübeck, i.e. 30 meters, but most of it has perished after being stored for centuries in a damp room. What remains is a large piece measuring 6.40m and a smaller bit (with the king) measuring 1.15m. In 1843 the two pieces were joined and framed, between 1962-1964 the painting was thoroughly restored in Moscow and since the mid-eighties it has been available to the public. Click on the relevant parts of the picture for details.
The fragment shows us what the painting in Lübeck might have looked like and it gives us part of the missing text. 300 years ago and 1100 kilometers away Jacob von Melle was able to read 4 lines from the start of the text in Lübeck, and when you read the text in Tallinn it's almost like the old painting had magically reappeared.
To dessem Dansse rope ik alghemene
Pawest, Keiser unde alle Creaturen
Arme, Rike, grote unde klene
Tredet vort, wente nu en helpet nen truren.
To dussem dantse rope ik al gemene
Pawes keiser unde alle creaturen
Arm ryke groet unde kleine
Tredet vort went iu en helpet nen truren
The background behind the dancers is totally different from the
one in Lübeck,
but the sequence of humans is the same and
the similarity between the 2 paintings is striking. See for instance the
empress from Lübeck to the left and Tallinn to the right. And remember
that the picture from Lübeck is a black and white photo of a copy from 1701,
whereas the picture from Tallinn shows what it has looked like from the conception.
Lübeck and Tallinn share a unique structure of verses: All verses consist of 8 lines, each "participant" uses his verse to complain about having to take part in the dance. Death answers back with 7 lines, and in the 8th line he turns to the next in the sequence (this structure is only used in one other dance of death, namely the Spanish Danza General de la Muerte).
Linguists have come to the conclusion that the two texts are not identical, but that they probably are two independent translations of the same original from the Netherlands. In any case the pieces fit together so that the text in the Tallinn-fragment gives us a large part of the text that is missing in Lübeck.
Dansk 
Lübeck's dance of death
Tallinn's dance of death
Alternate spellings: tailinn tallin talinn revaler niguliste st. nicholas tallinna surmatantsu surmatants