The gate of the year

Illustration of a Wild Man, datable between the XV and XVI centuries, now in the Nürnberger Stadtbibliothek, Nuremberg, Germany. The character shown was part of the masked parade which was held during the Carnival (Schembartlauf) in Nuremberg, and was organized, according to tradition, by the butchers guild.
The Wild Man shows common characteristics widely diffused in folk beliefs all over Europe: great dimensions, long unshaven beard, body covered by thick hair and sometimes with foliage, a rod in his hands as a recurrent attribute which is occasionally substituted with a tree, to which is hanging, in this example, a human being (which seems to suggest the cannibal nature of the personnage).

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schembartlaeufer_10.jpg]




Wild Men

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Illustration of a Wild Man, datable between the XV and XVI centuries, now in the Nürnberger Stadtbibliothek, Nuremberg, Germany. The character shown was part of the masked parade which was held during the Carnival (Schembartlauf) in Nuremberg, and was organized, according to tradition, by the butchers guild. The Wild Man shows common characteristics widely diffused in folk beliefs all over Europe: great dimensions, long unshaven beard, body covered by thick hair and sometimes with foliage, a rod in his hands as a recurrent attribute which is occasionally substituted with a tree, to which is hanging, in this example, a human being (which seems to suggest the cannibal nature of the personnage). [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schembartlaeufer_10.jpg]