? for Albion folks... -- myArmoury.com

Jeremiah Swanger · Posted: Wed 19 May, 2004 11:39 am Post subject: ? for Albion folks...

I'm kinda curious as to how you folks picked the name "Albion" for both the kitty and the company. I recall the series "Robin Hood" which was on cable TV (Cinemax? Showtime?) back in the '80's. "Albion" was the name of the sword given to Robin of Locksley by Hern the Hunter, a powerful spirit inhabiting Sherwood Forest. Is there a correlation between the kitty's name (and, subsequently, the corporate name) and that TV show, by any chance?

Felix Thieme · Posted: Wed 19 May, 2004 1:41 pm Post subject:

Albion (I believe) is one of many names for the main island of England (in the same sense that Hibernia/Hyberia is one of many names for Ireland)

Amy Christensen-Waddell · Industry Professional

Hi Jeremiah,

Howy can answer this better than I, as he has the knowledge of history behind him, but he's going to be down in Production all day. So I'll give it a go - it'll just be an answer in more general terms.

Howy adopted Albion in Maryland, during the snowstorm of 1996. The first thing he noticed about him, other than the fact that he was frighteningly thin, was that the brown and black spot on his back was the same shape as England. As Felix explains, Albion was a name used for England, and Howy, being a history fanatic, liked it as a historical term. And so it became the cat's name.

Howy had a business called Avalon Armorers before we started this company. We didn't want to resurrect that name (plus the name Avalon is used so frequently now, it wouldn't have much originality), and really liked how Albion Armorers sounded. Albion was our spokescat and Chairman of the Board for a long time - much to the envy of our other cats... Sadly, Albion was driven away (or so we're told) in the back of a truck full of straw. It is believed he fell asleep in the straw one warm October day in 2001, and wound up on a dairy farm. We haven't yet found out which one, but we still keep our eyes open. As many know, Wisconsin is all about dairy farms, so it's like finding a needle in a haystack, as they say.

Admittedly, the tie-in to the TV series is a nice one -- Howy's always loved the British Robin Hood series that does feature the sword Albion. It's circumstantial however. Otherwise, we'd probably be paying royalties... :p

Lee Watts · Posted: Thu 20 May, 2004 1:26 pm Post subject:

Robin of sherwood as it was called in the UK was my all time favourite series.even to this day i dream of a replica of the 2nd season version of the albion sword.

"Nothing's forgotten....nothing's ever forgotten"

http://ce.et.tudelft.nl/~tirza/RoS/ for the robin of sherwood official site

Jeremiah Swanger · Posted: Thu 20 May, 2004 3:54 pm Post subject:

James Byrnes · Posted: Thu 20 May, 2004 3:58 pm Post subject: Great Series

That was a great series. I sure hope they bring it out on DVD. BTW, am I the only one who noticed a certain resemblance between the Saracen in the series and one Drizzt Do'Urden of R.A. Salvatore fame?

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Thu 20 May, 2004 6:20 pm Post subject:

Anybody remember an earlier Robin Hood series of 1950s staring Richard Green? This series is one of my favorite chilhood memories.

Does anybody remenber the Ivanhoe series staring Roger Moore, this was before his The Saint series.

Lee Watts · Posted: Sat 22 May, 2004 2:19 pm Post subject:

Jim Lindsey · Posted: Tue 25 May, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject:

How very well I remember the Robin Hood series with Michael Praed and, later, Jason Connery. It's definitely been one of my favorite series of all time and I loved the incidental and theme music of Clannad ... I always thought the Albion sword in the first season was pretty cheesy, but the second season Albion sword was definitely a winner and I flipped over the full length episode "The Swords of Wayland" which featured all of the Seven Swords of Wayland of which the sword Albion is one ... there were Murax, Elidor, Solas, Balef, Flaurus, Orias and Albion. I've often wished that someone (hopefully Albion Armorers, someday, hint hint) would replicate the Seven Swords of Wayland ... what a set those would be! :D But, I would definitely be pleased with the sword Albion itself if it were the only one replicated. ;)

Jim Lindsey · Posted: Tue 25 May, 2004 7:07 pm Post subject:

*blush* By the way, by saying "I always thought the Albion sword in the first season was pretty cheesy" I'm meaning (of course) the sword of Robin Hood called Albion and not a sword made by Albion. I just read my own post and thought "oh my gosh, that could easily be taken the wrong way". :eek:

Jeremiah Swanger · Posted: Tue 25 May, 2004 7:29 pm Post subject: Re: Great Series

Jason Elrod · Posted: Tue 25 May, 2004 9:49 pm Post subject: You are my Hero

Ian Chin

Hi there all. I'm a massive fan of Robin Of Sherwood . In my opinion It was defineatley the most difinitive of all Robin Hood tv series/ films. I am also fortuneate in knowing several people connected to the series and one of my friends is the proud owner of the sword Orias which features for several minutes in the the beginning of ' The Swords Of Wayland' series.

For the record. The majority of these swords were auctioned off at a Robin Of Sherwood convention held by my friend, several years ago. Phil Rose (Friar Tuck) was originally the keeper of the swords once the series was over. Phil was the auctioneer at the ' Silver Arrow' convention. These were purchased by those lucky to enough to attend the convention and it was there that my mate Dan, had the opportunity to purchase one of the swords, Orias.

Other than Albion the other six swords were one off specials for the series ' The Swords Of Wayland' . They are more rarer than Robin's sword Albion. Around 12 versions of Albion were made for the series. Some were for close up shots, fighting etc. Nine of these broke throughout the series and there are only three of these in exsistance today. One being on display at 'The Tales Of Robin Hood' in Nottingham. I had the privilage of holding one the fighting Albion's and upon close inspection, the blade is quite badly jarred and jagged from its used in the show. Still, it is nicely balanced and well made. I believe Michael (Praed), owns one of the series 1 Albions. But I defineatley prefer series 2 and three Albion versions. If you watch the series carefully, you'll notice that Albion changes versions between series2 & 3 versions.

It would be my dream to own one of these swords. I very much doubt that these would be reproduced by a sword manufacturer. However, I have a friend who has made a replica of Albion. The pics of his replica can be found through this link. His website is currently in redevelopement:- http://homepage.ntlworld.com/p.thorpe-willett/swords/swords.htm

Roger Hooper · Posted: Wed 26 Dec, 2007 10:23 am Post subject:

Jean Thibodeau · Posted: Wed 26 Dec, 2007 11:21 am Post subject:

Howard Waddell · Industry Professional

Alex Oster · Posted: Wed 26 Dec, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject:

My elder sister was a huge fan as well. I grew up with the series on in the background most of my youth. I, in turn, have a fondness for it, but I can't claim to be a huge fan. I would hazard a guess that a replica of herns arrow (silver arow) would be a low cost/high return marketable prop to sell. Way eaisier to make and import/export than a whole sword.... just a thought. ;)

Thomas Hoogendam · Posted: Thu 27 Dec, 2007 1:56 am Post subject:

I just bought the entire Robin Of Sherwood series on DVD!!! WooHoo!!! I loved that show as a kid, and I'm already falling in love with it again. :D

Ian Chin

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Thu 27 Dec, 2007 7:29 am Post subject: