Fortean Traveller – Ros Beiaard, Dendermonde, Belgium

The mostly unremarkable Flemish city of Dendermonde, half way between Brussels and Antwerp, is one tourists normally wouldn't bother with. But every ten years (Covid permitting), over 80,000 descend on Dendermonde for the Ros Beiaard parade, named after its centrepiece, the red horse Beyard. This gloriously bonkers and very Belgian phenomenon involves a gigantic horse cavorting through the city, escorted by a considerable retinue including dancing giants. Occasionally the huge horse rears up, the four boys dressed as knights riding it raise their swords in the air, the crowd goes wild.

The Ros Beiaard on its "rounds" through Dendermonde, April 2022

The Ros Beiaard originates in the chivalric romance. The Four Sons of Aymon, a French-language work sung by the earliest of the proto-troubadours, was first written down around 1300. The Four Sons of Aymonwas an international bestseller in manuscript form before the age of printing in French, Dutch, German, English and Italian versions. A printed Dutch translation - Historie van den Vier Heemskinderen - appeared in 1508. William Caxton, who started England's first printing press, produced several English editions of The Right Plesaunt and Goodly Historie of the Foure Sons of Aymon, but the story never seems to have caught on here.

Most of the action of the story takes place around Dordogne and the Ardennes. Aymon of Dordogne is a loyal vassal of a fantasy version of the Emperor Charlemagne. Each of Aymon's sons - Ritsaert, Writsaert, Adelaert, and Reinout - receives a horse from him. Reinout is the strongest - so strong he accidentally kills one horse and maims another just by riding them. So Aymon takes Reinout to a castle where the much feared reddish-brown coloured stallion Beyard, who had "never had a master", was kept. Reinout faces Beyard, who rears up and kicks him over, he gets up again and "after a heroic battle" tames Beyard. (In other versions, Charlemagne gifts Reinout the horse.) Beyard was strong enough to carry all four sons on his back.



The sons of Aymon appear at Charlemagne's court, where in a brawl over a chess game, Reinout kills Charlemagne's son Louis in self-defence. The four sons are declared outlaw and flee to the castle of King Loup of Gascogne, escaping again on the huge horse after Loup betrays them.

There follow many adventures of the four sons and the horse Beyard, involving stays in and then escapes from castles. They hide out in the Ardennes forest and escape imprisonment by the wizard Maugis. Finally cornered by Charlemagne's forces in Aquitaine, a siege follows after which a deal is reached - the four sons surrender and are rehabilitated, Reinout gives up the horse Beyard, who has a stone tied to him and is thrown in a river and drowned. This event occurs where the River Schelde meets its tributary the River Denderhence the city of Dendermonde’s involvement. (Dendermonde means "the mouth of the Dender." The Ros Beiaard first appears as an entry in that city’s accounts for 1461.

The Ros Beiaard, with a stone tied to it, in his desperate death throes after being thrown into the River Dender.

Many of these elements of the story - knights fighting in the street, the proclamation of the Four Sons as outlaws, the escape from the wizard Maugis, a huge statue of a desperate, wide-eyed drowning horse flailing in a river – featured in spectacular carnival floats in the 2022 Ros Beiaard parade. There was even a battering ram pushed through the streets by medieval re-enactors and a gigantic open book in which a troubadour sat against an illuminated page of The History of the Horse Beyard and the Four Sons of Aymon, strumming his lute and declaiming from its verses.

A troubadour declaims verses from The Four Sons of Aymon from among its illuminated pages

The Ros Beiaard's normally a once-in-a-decade event, but Covid meant we'd had to wait "twelve long years" for the 2022 edition. Tickets for the 18,000 seats along the route sell out within hours. So the only way to see the "apotheosis" - the climax of the event in the Big Market square when Renaissance musketeers open fire on the gigantic horse - was to get press accreditation. Even then, I only got to see the "general rehearsal" night before the main event - there's no press allowed in the Big Market on the day of the Ros Beiaard itself. The police in their Thunderbirds-style forage caps arrived and banished most of the press pack to a platform in the corner of the square with a less good view.

When I signed up for my press accreditation, I agreed "not to startle the animals with brusque movements or flash photography". Little did I know at the time that the animals included over 150 heavy horses pulling the carnival floats, as well as a flock of geese trained to walk in single file and two Belgian mastiffs trained to pull little dog carts.

Belgian mastiffs pull carts in the Ros Beiaard, as they pulled ammunition carts in World War One

A flock of trained geese walk in formation past social housing in the back streets of Dendermonde. They and their trainers are celebrities who tour the festivals of Europe

While out and about in the streets in my "PERS" (press) bib, I was collared by a resident of the city, a Dendermondaar. He told me with great passion that as an outsider I couldn’t understand the fervour that Dendemondenaars had for "our horse," their Ros Beiaard. He told how townspeople in their seventies would turn up aware it may be their last chance to see the gigantic horse come by. There were many ancient local ladies with Zimmer frames or in wheelchairs, wrapped in emergency rain ponchos, who had already taken their seats along the route by early morning.

The author in their official Ros Beiaard Association "Press" waistcoat, in the Press Centre

My colleagues in the Press Pack, shortly before the police banished them to a platform at the edge of the Big Market Square.


On my way to the press centre before the parade, I suddenly saw ahead of me, silently emerging from a side street, the Ros Beiaard himself! The massive wooden horse was making his way to his parade starting point. He's tall enough that his dark brown head, carved from oak in the 16th century and decked with a plume in the red and white colours of the city, can touch spectators watching from first floor balconies. He wears a long equestrian coat that goes down to the ground. Under this coat you can just see twelve pairs of white trainers walking in short steps in unison, like a millipede.

The Ros Beiaard escorted through the streets by a band and an entourage of halberdiers. On the left is Kalleke Step, the jester, who leads the horse. The Fiddler (centre) sets the tempo for the march of the horse.

The strong men of the Pijnders guild escorting the horse

The Ros Beiaard is carried by twelve very strong men from the Pijnders Guild. Back in the day, these used to be market porters and pull boats into the their berths in the harbour on ropes. The Pijnders are selected five years ahead of the parade in The Wildmen Run, in which candidates strip to their underpants and glue feathers to themselves so they look like hairy wildmen and perform feats of strength. The big horse with four riders on it weighs almost a metric tonne, so his 12 bearers lift around 85kg each.

There are a total of 60 Pijnders, with the reserve shifts walking behind the horse. There's also a Pijnder pulling a handcart full of fortifying strong drinks. There are frequent shift changes in which the huge horse is raised on little trestle stools while one crew free themselves and another take their place.

Round the corner in one of the backstreets, the reuzen, the Guild Giants, stood waiting. They were slightly taller than the huge horse.

There are over 1500 giants in Belgium, with Dendermonde’s three "Guild Giants" among the best known. The oldest is Goliath, David's antagonist from the Old Testament. He wears a 16th century floppy hat and sports a villain’s moustache. Then there's Mars, the Roman god of war and The Indian, the latter sporting a peacock-feather headdress and carrying a bow and arrows. He's a 17th century take on fantastic tales of "Red Indians" emerging from the New World when it was still brand new. Both Goliath and Mars have swords with ornate handles hanging from their belts.

I followed the huge horse and its gigantic escort to Our Dear Lady Church, with the giants occasionally dancing, whirling like dervishes with their tunics billowing and their arms flopping by their sides. It being Sunday, there was a service in progress, which the Pijnders joined after parking the massive horse at the door. Passing local families lined up, holding up their babies and small dogs, to have their photos taken with the Ros Beiaard. A priest came out and blessed the Ros Beiaard and the Pijnders with quick sprinkle of holy water, declaring that the parade represented "solidarity".

Cavorting Guild Giants - Mars and Goliath

The Indian, Mars and Goliath

Then it was on to a cordoned-off road on the edge of town, where the Ros Beiaard, giants and all were again parked awaiting the considerable number of horse-drawn carnival floats and trained animals, marching bands and - in a rare nod to the 21st century - an interpretive dance troupe re-enacting in the streets Reinout's chess game with Louis. People pushed along their accompanying sound system in a vast wheeled box. There were more townsfolk on horseback in Medieval attire than you could shake a stick at. Each float was followed by a suitably costumed volunteer pulling a small trailer and carrying a shovel to scoop up the horse poop.

Endless marching bands played over and over The Ros Beiaard Song. The crowd frequently sang along, as did some of the regional press photographers while at work. In local dialect as spoken in 1754, the song describes how the "beautiful horse" and the boys sitting on it is the most beautiful sight in the world, and - more importantly, how the citizens of the rival city of Aalst further down the river Dender, "are so angry/Because the Ros Beiaard is going past…"

Showing contempt for people from Aalst is an important element of Dendenmondenaar identity. Turning ancient insults from Aalstenaars into badges of honour is a Dendermonde thing. "Shipdraggers" was one such taunt, as was kopvleeseters - "head meat eaters", cheapskates who ate the meat from animal’s heads. This resulted in a surreal float in which costumed kopvleeseters prepared the local cold meat delicacy and served it up to the audience as canapes.

The mayor put in an appearance as "Kalleke Step", the jester, showed up. Costumed in the city's red and white colours, the jester pulled the horse along by long ribbons while throwing various capers, handstands being his speciality. With him was the fiddler, walking to the left of the Ros Beiaard, playing The Ros Beiaard Song all afternoon. An honour guard of halberdiers formed up the rear.

Finally, the Heemskinderen, the Four Sons of Aymon, arrived after being made ready in the doctor's surgery over the road. Tradition dictates they must be four brothers, with no sisters in between. Dendermonde has ten years to find such a family, even today they somehow still manage it. Clad in spray-painted plastic and zinc armour and plumed helmets, one by one the four helped by the chief of the Pijnders, ascended a ladder to climb onto the back of the huge horse - in the rain, with the youngest in front.

Assisted by the chief of the Pijnders, one of the Heemskinderen takes his place on the back of the "beautiful horse"

And then we were off! It's hard to describe just how bizarre the parade was - I often felt I'd stumbled into a deleted scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail that had been cut because it was too weird. (Especially the bit with the stilt-walking knights!) There were floats celebrating footnotes in Dendermonde's history - the opening of its law courts, the building of its city walls, a local farmer's daughter becoming Duchess of Burgundy and so on. Town criers are big in Belgium (they'd borrowed some from as far away as Ghent,) some of these went ahead of each float declaiming in rhyming couplets what these represented.

Stilt-walking knights!

Occasionally the huge horse on its "rounds" through the city would turn and tilt forward, as if rearing up towards the crowd. The Heemskinderen would raise their swords, the crowd would go wild. At one point I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was the random Dendemondenaar who'd collared my earlier, he said, "It was worth it, wasn't it?"

You could tell the giants and the huge horse were approaching when a posse of strange armless brown furry figures appeared, with vaguely wolf-like heads with clacking jaws. They ran amongst the crowd threatening them with their teeth - snap, snap, snap! These carnival velociraptors are the knaptanden, the "snapping teeth". Not even police officers are immune from their harassment.

They're actually teenage boys looking through the necks of the costumes, operating a spring-loaded jaw mechanism built on top. Cryptozoology enthusiasts will be interested to note they're inspired by a very big fish seen in the local river in the 16th century. Their name is believed to be another ancient insult thrown at the townsfolk by the people of Aalst.

The knaptanden harrass spectators

Ticket-holders only were allowed into the Big Market Square for the "apotheosis" of the Ros Beiaard, but I'd got to see its dress rehearsal the previous night, from a very long way off. With the ancient Town Hall decked with the flags of Burgundy, medieval England and the Hapsburg Empire, the apotheosis involved the jester and the fiddler leading the gigantic horse into the square.

There the horse reared up in front of a phalanx of the Schuttersgilden - the shooter's guilds - Dendermonde's Renaissance citizen's militia, a bit like Rembrandt's Night Watch, only even older. Now they're all off-duty firemen. At the climax of the parade, the Schuttersgilden lined up and fired from shotguns three volleys-worth of gunpowder only into the air, aiming at the Red Horse Beyard. (Earplugs were provided at the press centre.) Three times they opened fire on the Ros Beiaard and prevented him from leaving, until they eventually gave way, allowing him to break through their cordon to escape from the Big Market. Each time the enormous horse reared up, the crowd went wild.

The apotheosis of the Ros Beiaard, from the dress rehearshal at night

The parade finally ended at the massive old brick former army barracks on Barrack Street. I waited there for the ceremony in which the Ros Beiaard, the giants and all the floats were put back into storage for the next decade. Before long, the marching bands, the snapping-jawed knaptanden, the whirling dervish giants and the huge horse itself showed up. As the huge horse came down the street, it stopped and reared up, the crowd went absolutely wild.

The big horse then began to move through the huge arched doorway of the barracks. The crowd booed - as this meant it would all be over soon. The huge horse hesitated, moved back and forth as if unsettled, then marched out of the barracks, and up and down as if at speed, as if cantering, occasionally rearing up, with the Heems Children waving their swords in the air, at which point the crowd went wild again.

Then the giants, starting with The Indian, danced, walked toward the big horse. He reared at them, the crowd went wild, the giant walked past the horse and into the barracks. There followed half an hour of the big horse teasing the crowd by trotting up and down in front of the barracks. He appeared to go into the arch a couple of times, to booing, then he came out again, charged up and down, reared (the crowd went wild and sang The Ros Beiaard Song), before he finally backed into the huge arch, the Schuttersgilden launched a final couple of loud volleys at him above their heads. To boos, Dendermonde's "beautiful horse" finally disappeared form view and the doors finally closed.

The Ros Beiaard's swan song outside the Old Barracks before he put into storage for another decade

The next Ros Beiaard is in May 2030.

Dendermonde has The Katuit, a shorter parade featuring just the Guild Giants and the knaptanden every year - the next is in August 2023.

The next Wildemannenloop (Wildmen Run), with feats of strength to select the Pijnders, is planned for - provisionally - August 2025.

There is a permanent display of giant blown-up photos of elements from the Ros Beiaard on the walls of the old barracks in Kazernestraat,, Dendermonde. There is a permanent exhibition of Ros Beiaard artefacts in the Vleeshuismuseum (Butchers' Hall), Grote Markt, Dendermonde.

© Words and photos Matt Salusbury 2022

Flag wavers throw the official Ros Beiaard flag on the air

The escape of the Heemskinderen from the castle of the wizard Mauigis, complete with revolving astrolabe, immortalised in a horse-drawn float in the 2022 Ros Beiaard

The Knaptenden again

Medieval equestrianism in the streets of Dendermonde

A medieval battering ram dragged through the streets, referencing Charlemagne's siege of the castle where the Four Sons of Aymon sought shelter in Aquitaine.