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ried out a mock assault against the Holle, and, as in the fire-festi-
vals, the fools and demons were expelled in a blaze.46
The first Holle of the Schembartlauf, figured in the MSS under
the year 1475, provided the Ldufer with an excellent target for
their attack, for it is the familiar medieval symbol of evil, the
dragon, which appears on the sleigh in the miniature, on f. 26r of
our MS (Fig. 33). The text above it includes the simple note:
"sie hetten auch ein Hoel war ein grower Trach auff einer
Schlaiffen/."47 The artist's phantasy has produced a very dynamic
dragon: his red and orange claws grip the runners fiercely, while
his red tongue darts forth like a flame. The tossing head, the
flexed body, the spread wings and lashing tail are brightly colored
in green, purple, and yellow, with some gold on the body and
wings.48 Dragons of this design appear in illustrative material of
the latter part of the Sixteenth Century.49 It is not the dragon-
head of the religious drama, but the Fabeltier known to the folk
throughout the ages and become almost real in the folk proces-
sions.
In the Fifteenth Century, according to Heinrich Deichsler,
Nuremberg had been treated to the spectacle of a dragon which
was apparently a mechanical masterpiece, fitted with three heads
and covered with green scales; on June 10, 1500, the dragon flew
high in the air over the city.50 Sixteenth-century Nuremberg

an analogous custom symbolical of the penitential season: he served as a target

for missiles during Lent, and was destroyed in triumph on Palm Monday, cf.

Chambers (Folk-Play), p. 157.

46 Cf. Frazer, X, 328-46, for the solar and purificatory theories of the cere-
monial fires. Many examples of the summer-winter combats and the fires accom-
panying them ("Winter- oder Todaustreiben, Winterverbrennen") are cited by
G. Buschan, Altgermaniscke Uberlieferungen in Kult und Brauchtum der Deutschen
(Munchen: J. F. Lehmann, 1936).

47 Some MSS have "Lindwurm" for the dragon, e.g., MS No. 58 (Drescher, p.
7) f. 65r: "Hetten einen Lindwurmb auf einer Schleiffen, zur H611." MS No. 14 adds
the comment: "Das ist die erste Holl gewesen, Unnd sindt/ nit alle mal H611
gemacht worden. Aber nach Jarn/ kam es darzu. das schier alle Jar ein Holl zum
Schempart gemacht wurde."

48 In MS No. (f. 58) a Ldufer is shown standing on the dragon. For reproductions
of the Hollen, cf. App. C.

49 Cf. Schottenloher, op. cit., Abb. 18: Titelblatt zur Flugdichtung von Hans
Sachs, "Der Eigennutz" (1554); Jost Amman's Thierbuch (Franckfort am Mayn/
Jm Jar 1592), "Vom Drachen."

50 Chroniken, XI, 586: "Item 1496 jar da kom her gen Niirmberg ein track, hieB