Saturday, April 16, 2011
Furth im Wald, Germany
Bernie made us coffee to go and then Shane and Sonja picked us up at 8:25 for a dragon tour at 8:30.
The new dragon is fully electronically controlled. The cost for the new symbol of evil -- a cool 1,600,000 Euro comprised of state and local contributions and manufactured in a nearby town. The knight that kills him a dozen times over the course of the annual Dragon Fest (in September) is dressed in medevil costume, an amoritzed cost of zero. So, evil gets the big bucks but good makes do with hand-me-downs?? Yup. Cause it is evil that is supposed to scare people and (in the old days at least) keep them in line. So the dragon is about 40 feet long, the head goes to a height of about 20 feet, it breathes fire through its nose and mouth, and growls. Scary stuff alright.
The Dragon Fest, in which the knight (a stand-in for St. George, but that is english) and the dragon do battle and the whole town is in costume to participate, dates back to the early 1600's. You can look it up on the web, 'Furth im Wald' and 'Dragon Fest', and you'll see that it dates back to the days of Jan Hus, a Czech reformer who hated the Catholic Church for its excesses and cruelty and its arbitrary ways and granting 'indulgences'. Later came Martin Luther, who was more sucessful and created Protestantism and reforms, but poor old Jan Hus was not so lucky. He was lured to southern Germany, the lake Constance area I think, with a 'free pass' to come and talk to the Catholic heads of the church, guarantied to be allowed to return to his home unharmed. Well, they (the Catholic Bishops) lied and killed him in the town square, lots of heat and flames.
His supporters were pissed, naturally, and rose up as a group to invade Germany and make the Bishops pay. And all this happened just across the German border, about 5 miles from Furth. They did invade, the Germans had also raised and army by this time, and they fought a big battle just this side of the border near Furth, and the Germans lost.
The Czech bunch rolled over little Furth and punched into the German plains but didn't get that far, apparently, and the whole thing fizzled out once tempers cooled.
Furth has not forgotten and every year since, whether in a large spectacle or not, the event has been staged again. As you can imagine, Germany being very Catholic even today, the dragon is the embodyment of Jan Hus, the evil which seeks to dominate over the one true faith which is all that is good and holy. The knight who slays him and wins the hand of the fair maiden is a good old boy from Furth, naturally.
In my typical way, I took the devil's advocate approach and said Hey, why not change it up and lets let the dragon win. For once anyway. OK, yes, I had been drinking but so was everyone else and it was the last night in the Lanke. One of the old fellows, even older than me, came over to our table and explained to me, pretty clearly too, that there is a VERY strong belief in the town that as long as the dragon is defeated in every battle then Furth will live on. If the knight fails then the town will die. Believed it implicitly. How could I argue with logic like that and still be a polite Canadian tourist. Too bad I didn't have the sense that I had last night when I chose not to question this (ill)ogic. I do know better than to be at daggers drawn when alcohol or religion is involved but sometimes I just choose not to resist the temptation.
There is much more to the legend, or at least more details on the main players but I am not the troubadour who will sing those songs.
The 'new dragon' is super high tech, but still must be killed. There is a small yellow patch on his throat which must be stabbed by a spear or sword, which triggers the dragons dramatic death throes. It is small, and the local actor has to train for months to fulfill his task in the pageant. Stab in the wrong place and there goes the play, apparently, and next year's budget. But it was made in a town nearby at an internationally famous robotics firm, so his doctor is near at hand.
After the show, at 7.50E per head, we went back to our hotel to type and have a wind-down day and Shane and Sonja did too.
Shane and Sonja came by our room at 3:00pm and we chatted and saw Sonja's African Safari pictures. Then trotted off to the Altmann Schloss for a traditional family dinner of Saurbratten and dumplings and delicious gravy. But before we got to dinner, we had an errand to run. Herr Altmann, Franz to his friends among which we number, has decided on a trout lunch for us tomorrow. So we gotta go catch trout? Yes. Uh, how? You got a fishing line? No, Sonja will do it. Oh, sure, she's a talented kid, but she is a destinations manager on a cruise ship. So off we go, the four musketeers, to a mountain creek. Now the game becomes clear, it is a game and fish preserve, of sorts, and for two Euro each you can select your own wild trout. We need eight of the little devils, so the guy hands sonja a net and she fishes around (sorry about the pun) and in two or three snatches she catches them. Some the guy throws back, too small, but he keeps eight. Then, because they are alive, he bashes them on the head with a big club. Do you know what the sound of a fish kill is?? Personally, I'm grossed out big time. I knew those guys when they were swimming and I CAN'T eat them after watching their murder. Blood everywhere, and I can still hear that sound. YUK. Fish come wrapped in cellophane in the Safeway, don't they?? What's this killing stuff??
Later, very much later after A LOT of beer and wine and a superb dinner, Shane walked us back to the Fellner Gasthaus and we fell into bed for the night. Exhausted. Then fish is tomorrow.
