The clock and the dragon

Today David is practising again, so I have the chance to explore Roskilde some more. Earlier we had a look at the mechanism for the bell tower at Roskilde Domkirke, and saw how the 3 pipes are blown to make the sound of the dragon being slain on the hour each hour. This is turned off at night (and when we are recording). David feels it might be nice to put it on the CD however. It seems Buxtehude would have known about it. The clock mechanism allows the woman to strike her bell once, twice or three times each quarter hour and on the hour, after the dragon shrieks, she strikes her bell four times, and the man then strikes his bell once for each hour. The whole thing is mechanised - the woman's head turns back and forth and the knight strikes the dragon. Our guide noticed that the clock was running a few seconds fast, so he stopped the pendulum for about 40 seconds to bring the time into line with his wrist watch. The clock dates from 1640.