Archery its myths, Archery its history, Archery its form
Archery its myths, Archery its history, Archery its form
Good day and welcome once again to another BargainBrute.Com short informational narrative. Today, with America’s favorite place to shop online, BargainBrute’s help, we will look at the sport of archery. A sport which has over the past had so many myths and strange happenings surrounding it that even the ancient Gods of Greek mythology sometimes looked down in sheer wonderment as they watched that little arrow traveling through the skies on its way to its target. Sometimes it was a human target, sometimes an animal target, but usually, a straw-packed circle with different colored rings etched into its face.
So, where did this strange game come from?
Golf took on its modern-day form in Scotland, where innovations like the underground cup and 18-hole course originated. However, its journey to what we know of it today was full of obstacles and strange happenings.
In Fact, for a time back in 1457, golf was temporarily blacklisted in Scotland. It was so generalized and widespread everyone was playing it, which meant that the day’s armies did not spend enough time practicing archery, which was crucial for national defense.
However, the ban was not a long-term ban, and by 1500 golf was back on, and the Scots took their time perfecting their sport. However, it wasn’t until 1744 that golf rules were changed and, despite all its unfortunate problems, became the game we know it is today.
The first documented game of golf in Scotland happened, we are told, in 1457, and as I said, the game of golf had a rough time before it became known as the game of golf of today.
Because military personnel was playing so much golf, their archery skills diminished to such a point, through lack of practice, that the King of that time, King James II of Scotland, passed a special act in the Scottish Parliament prohibiting the playing of the games of gowf and futball (gowf being golf and futball being football). These were a distraction from archery practice for military purposes. Luckily, the ban did not last that long, but just over the horizon, even worse news for the sport of Archery was looming.
Bans were again imposed in Acts of 1471 and 1491, with golf being explained as “an unprofitable sport.” Golf was then blacklisted again by parliament under another monarch King James IV of Scotland. However, he turned many an eye when golf clubs and balls were purchased for him in 1502 when he visited Perth and on subsequent occurrences when he was in St. Andrews and Edinburgh.
Then it was the turn of a Queen to have a go at the sport of golf. Mary, Queen of Scots, was caught playing golf after her husband had died at the family home of Seton Palace. Her husband, by the way, did not die of natural causes. He was murdered in 1567. George Buchanan wrote that she had been going after her “usual amusements in the adjoining fields that were plainly not accustomed to women.”
OK, it would be remiss if I did not talk a little about the word Archery, where did it come from, etc.?
As mentioned above, archery had many faces and still does. The actual word archery comes from the Latin “arcus,” which literally means “Bow,” there you go, yet another bit of trivia for the next pub quiz you are at. If you want to know what a good shot is when using a bow and arrow, then he or she would be called “a toxophilite,” a mouthful in itself.
We know that archery has been used for survival for thousands of years, and some of the oldest remnants of bows and arrows were recently unearthed deep within some caves in South Africa, the Sibudu Cave. All the bow and arrow bits and pieces found were all at least 70,000 years old, a testament to just how Archery has been used throughout the years.
Other archery equipment has also been found in Europe, mainly Germany, and all are believed to be at least 17,000 years old. One extremely odd find was found in Switzerland, where at the mouth of a cave, a hunter was found lying next to a dead bear he had just presumably killed. Again, the find was estimated to be at least 18,000 years old.
Then, of course, we get to the mythologies of Archery. Where would we be without Archery as some of the mightiest princes, Nymphs, Goddesses, you name it, come from the art of Archery? It seems to have influenced many countries as well, the Greek Apollo, Artemis, the Roman Cupid and Diana, and that man, if you were brought up in the 1950s, we all used to run home from school to see “Robin Hood,” and of course the guy who shot an apple off his son’s head Wilhelm Tell. Even though I love my old Dad so much, I do not know whether I would have trusted him enough to shoot an apple off my head, but apparently, Tell’s son trusted his Dad so maybe I should have trusted my own.
