Malcolm Douglas often falls into a logical trap of his own making: he tends to confuse lack of proof of X existing with proof that X does not exist. Granted we do not have texts with dialogue of a Hero Combat/Death and Resurrection drama from 1500 or 1066 or whatever. This by no means proves that Hobby Horses did not die and get resurrected by semi-humorous Doctors at the time.I am perfectly happy to presume that the widespread existence of these Death and Resurrection routines throughout Europe and Asia do indeed come from a very long-standing, widespread custom/religious practise which antedates Christianity.
Obviously customs and formats change radically with time:one community may stick to animal disguises and a dance performance, others adopt dialogue-rich plays with St George and Turkey Knights. But the central core of these related activities would seem to me to go back a long long way, and that seems to be the simplest explanation of a lot of related facts.Certainly more sensible than some theory that the customs sprang up from nowhere in 1750 or whatever.. ... .