Killing Dragons Bavarian Style

Hell yeah, a giant robot dragon!

Furth im Wald, a small Bavarian town close to the border of Bohemia: A mighty dragon is awakening from its sleep to bring chaos and death upon humanity. It needs a brave hero willing to oppose the gruesome beast! This is happening every year around here, for more than five centuries already.

If you walk about the steets of this bavarian town you'll quickly notice that its people seem to have a very special affinity to scaled monsters. Everywhere on facades, walls, doors and handrails there are pictures or statues of dragons to be found; frequently together with a dragonslayer. All this is grounded in an age-old tradition the Furthers are quite proud of: It's about a popular theater - to be exact probably the oldest of its kind in Germany - which is attracting thousands of visitors from the surrounding region every year. No wonder this place is decorated abundantly with dragons and there's even a roadsign near the highway pointing out the Drachenstich ("Slaying of the Dragon") festival.

Centerpiece of these festivals is a theater play that takes place around the Hussite Wars' time and ends in a battle against the dragon. Performers are all dresed in historical fashion and horses as well as requisites are decorated opulently. But what about the dragon? Extinct mythical creatures that have to be killed (like witches for example) are normally just seamed up from whatever fabric remnants are around... but wait! Not here in Furth. Not anymore. Textile beasts are for pussies, something really impressive was needed. So they just had a realistic, life-sized robot dragon built for about 2 Million Euro. Life-sized means: Considerably huger than an elephant. This behemoth here ist the world's largest four-legged walking robot™, to sprinkle the obligatory superlative.

And noooo, just size is not enough. Tradinno, that's what he's been christened, is equipped with mimics, even can blink and - of course - spit fire. Optionally from his nostrils or throat. And I can assure you: It's getting really warm when the beast unleashes its fiery breath, even if you're several meters away.

Normally he's being kept in his very own storehouse, the so called "dragon's cave", but in August they fetch him for the theater plays. So what exactly are those about?
In August 1431 a large army has been assembled in Furth im Wald to lead a crusade against the Bohemians, who started to follow the teachings of reformer Jan Hus (thus being called "Hussites"). But every drop of blood oozing away into the ground brings an ancient dragon back to life, that used to be a protector of humanity and became evil because of their lust for war. Only a pure soul that never has killed can defeat him...

All that is being performed in the city square with wonderful Upper Palatinate dialect and lots of spontaneous applause. The play lasts for two and a half hours, starts out in the evening sun end ends with the final battle after sunset. This brings to bear the fire even more, both visually and thermally. But even before the fight there was a lot to see, one personal highlight was the argumentative showdown between a Hussite und a Cardinal, while both of them were climbing up the castle's wall in each their own way.

All in all it wasn't half-bad. Only huge point of criticism: Snapping photos wasn't allowed. So it was necessary to switch into stealth mode and to be quick...

Well at least I tried. Stage design and stuff. There was a short rainshower yet no roof above the tribunes, but at least you could get a rain poncho beforehand. Luckily I already had one as part of my cycling equipment.

I tried to secretly sneak pictures again when he was spitting fire, but, uhm...

Help

Well, just get your imagination going for a change.

Whatever, after the dragon is finished the common people are allowed to flock around this evening's celebrity in the arena and to take photos of him - but also of the human performers.

You also had an opportunity to converse with the dragon's tamers: That friendly Mister with a box there at the left is controlling the Tradinno. Or more precisely: Part of it. It actually needs four people and great teamwork to properly move the beast. One is responsible for fire, another one for mimics... oh, and then there's even a fifth one controling the trolley. Because the scaled dude might be able to walk, but he's not really the fastest one on foot. So they comfortably give him a ride when it's time to back to the dragon's cave. Accompanied by "Time to Say Good Bye" and lots of farewell tears...

Good night, Tradinno!

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Stooop, wait. That's not all yet. I talked about a festival: Its theater plays might be the centerpiece, but there's more. What would celebrating in Bavaria be without a proper funfair, including gingerbread hearts, swing carousels, bumper cars and shooting galleries? And the most important part: A large party hall with German Schlager music and lots of beer!

Hm... No, not enough. Thinking of all this history-laden traditions, how about a renaissance fair? With lots of tents and people cosplaying wearing medieval clothing, even conversing in medieval style (resp. whatever they think medieval style is). Yes, sir, I like that!

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And last but not least a scissors grinder. Because scissors grinders are awesome. So to close this post have a German song about scissors grinders.


(Alternatively this version, sound quality being not as good but it's a lot more catchy.)