Info Favorites Register Log in
myArmoury.com Discussion Forums

Forum index Memberlist Usergroups Spotlight Topics Search
Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > origins of the sword Reply to topic
This is a standard topic  
Author Message
Devin McCarthy





Joined: 26 Mar 2004

Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 11:14 am    Post subject: origins of the sword         Reply with quote

Why do people like swords today. i know why i do but i think alot of people would call it crazy but if so why love the sword.

i think i might have posted this in the wrong section... opps Worried
View user's profile Send private message
Joe Fults




Location: Midwest
Joined: 02 Sep 2003

Posts: 3,646

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 4:59 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Reasons are going to vary wildly.

For my part I grew up reading the Hobbit, LOTR, The Three Muskateers, Robin Hood, and watching Erol Flynn(sp?) movies on Saturday afternoons. I've always had a fascination with the cavalier/swashbuckler/knightly hero stereotype but I don't really know why. Maybe its all connection with a time of inoocence long past for me (ie childhood).

I also watched quite a few of Godzilla movies as a kid too but they don't seem to have stuck with me.

"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
View user's profile Send private message
Devin McCarthy





Joined: 26 Mar 2004

Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 6:40 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

right on !!!! to overcome a hero who could never be bested, i think, makes for a better persion becuse they are alwayse striving for heroisum
View user's profile Send private message
Scott Bubar




Location: New England
Joined: 21 Aug 2003

Posts: 120

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 7:11 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two!
And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, hast though slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
View user's profile Send private message
Stephen A. Fisher




Location: Kentucky USA
Joined: 17 Oct 2003

Posts: 455

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 7:25 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Quote:
"Why do people like swords today?"


Good question. For me, my love of the sword is to the point of obsession. (crazy, huh.) In the beginning, it was fueled by cinema. I love the past: the history, customs, etc. I feel a bit dated for my age, when my friends would go to rent a movie, they woud check out the new releases. I would always (& sometimes still do, I own most of them now. Happy ) go to the classics section to check out these "old" movies like The Mark of Zorro (1940), Scaramouche (1952), The Three/Four Musketeers (1974), etc.

Once I started sport fencing when I was twelve (1996) I already had a decent collection of books on edged weapons. I was intrigued with the swords of the past, thankfully my parents encouraged my interests, I started to collect reproductions, In the 6th grade I paid for my first sword by setting up a lemonade stand in my front yard! (Windlass Culloden Basket-hilt)......anyway, jump to present day. I now collect both antique & reproductions, a historical & sport fencer.

There is something about wielding a sword that just seems very unique to me, sort of like a connection to the days of old. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird. Cool
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Devin McCarthy





Joined: 26 Mar 2004

Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sat 27 Mar, 2004 11:40 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I beleave my love for swords my be a greate un easyness of todays world. So fake and vistigial. Swords seam to be the only key to whats real its. whats real to me is in the furthest conner of this worlds reality. So distint yet calling to me to overcome. Keys that are kept of sacred groves with pools of silver water and carpits of moss.
View user's profile Send private message
Kenneth Enroth




Location: Finland
Joined: 04 Dec 2003

Posts: 288

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 4:02 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Why do the sword people always ask themselves why?
View user's profile Send private message
Devin McCarthy





Joined: 26 Mar 2004

Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 8:03 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

why is very hard to know. If nobody asked why then we would all be zombies acting on impulse and without knowing why we loose free will.
View user's profile Send private message
W. Patrick McGuigan




Location: Ohio
Joined: 23 Aug 2003

Posts: 30

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 9:26 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I think I first discovered an interest in swords when I was about eleven when my friend showed me his sword collection. It wasn't until I was fifteen that I got my first "sword," a wallhanger of course.

I'll be honest. I think what really got me into medieval swords was Dungeons and Dragons and the medieval fantasy video games. Went through about six or so wallhangers before I figured out they weren't real swords. Then after acquiring real, functional swords, I gained a new appreciation for them.

What really appeals to me about swords is the historical significance, the look of finely crafted steel, and the functionality.
View user's profile Send private message
Kenneth Enroth




Location: Finland
Joined: 04 Dec 2003

Posts: 288

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 10:35 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Kurgans greatsword probably made an indelible impression on my young mind.
View user's profile Send private message
Alexi Goranov
myArmoury Alumni


myArmoury Alumni

Location: San Francisco, CA
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
Reading list: 72 books

Spotlight topics: 2
Posts: 1,191

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 10:50 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I "blame" the many bulgarian movies depicting our history during 7-11c AD. Since these were the times that we could be proud if, several movies were made and constantly played on national tv. I guess all the sword waiving and battling rubbed on me Laughing Out Loud History has some strange, mystic appeal.

Alexi
View user's profile Send private message
Dan Tucker




Location: Cotonou, Benin
Joined: 22 Feb 2004

Spotlight topics: 1
Posts: 30

PostPosted: Sun 28 Mar, 2004 9:15 pm    Post subject: fascination with weapons         Reply with quote

why are we so fascinated with weapons and armor? is it the admiration of beauty and functionality in a tool? is it the power of a killing device that attracts us?
View user's profile Send private message
Nathan Cole




Location: Philly, PA
Joined: 08 Dec 2003

Posts: 36

PostPosted: Mon 29 Mar, 2004 10:16 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Early influences on me were Tolkien, LLoyd Alexander, Howard Pyle, Edgar Rice Borroughs, Princess bride, and even star wars. One appeal of swords is the power leveling aspect. Strategy, dexterity and elegance, beat out over brute strength.

But the reason I don't ever intend to "grow out of swords" is the spiritual quality of swords. I personally have a christian take but swords have supernatural beauty recognized by most cultures. In eastern martial arts the "way of the sword" is spiritual as well as martial skill. A sword is supple yet hard. It defends and it kills. The discipline and skill with a sword can teach and strengthen skill in personal growth. The sword is also a symbol of justice in the courts. Justice as a blindfolded woman with sword and scales apparently stems from classical and Egyptian myth. She represents fair, impartial, and powerful law protecting the good people with the truth.

"Let the saints exult in glory; let them sing upon their beds. Let the exaltations of God be in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand (Ps. 149:5, 6)."

"Jesus said, Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I am not come to send peace, but a sword. (Matt. 10:34)"

"When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will lead you into all truth. He shall not speak from Himself but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak (John 16:13)."

"A "sword" in the internal sense signifies the truth combating falsity." -Emanuel Swedenborg

Forgive my enthusiasm... Happy ...Anyway, I think this subconscious awareness of spiritual or idealized(in the platonic sense) qualities is at least part of the reason people are so powerfully affected by swords.

Pax vobiscum,
Nathan Cole
View user's profile Send private message
Douglas Peters




Location: Baton Rouge,LA
Joined: 17 Nov 2003

Posts: 25

PostPosted: Mon 29 Mar, 2004 3:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I really think the fascination with weapons in general(at least for males) could well be biological. I know when my friends and I were younger we were always fascinated by anything from a knife to gun, and even more mundane weapons like staves. Though not everyone loves weapons to the same degree, most people seem to share some small fascination, especially with something like swords that not everyone is used to nowadays. Maybe it's testosterone, or maybe it's genetics, or even maybe it's conditioning, or of course some combination. As for the reason why in this modern age we actually collect swords I think the reasons above sum it up pretty well.

As for me, when I was a little kiddy my father read about a chapter a night of the whole Hobbit, and half of the Lord of the Rings as bedtime stories, which I finished much later and went on to the Silmarillion. Of course as a child I loved Lego's, especially the medieval ones. Much later I started playing D&D, which most definately contributed since I practically only played a fighter with a sword, or the infamous dual wield with a "longsword" and short sword(shields don't seem to mean much in D&D). That's around the time I got my first wallhanger "sword". Not too much later I was playing Shogun: Total War, which probably got me looking for something about katanas, and I found SFI where I learned about real swords. Later I got my first real sword.
View user's profile Send private message
James Nordstrom




Location: Sacramento, CA
Joined: 18 Sep 2003

Posts: 90

PostPosted: Mon 29 Mar, 2004 5:43 pm    Post subject: Re: origins of the sword         Reply with quote

I love swords because they are cheaper to buy and own than tanks. I would LOVE to own a nice Tiger 1 or Panther. Even a T-34/39 would make me swoon.
Big Grin


Devin McCarthy wrote:
Why do people like swords today. i know why i do but i think alot of people would call it crazy but if so why love the sword.

i think i might have posted this in the wrong section... opps Worried
View user's profile Send private message


Display posts from previous:   
Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > origins of the sword
Page 1 of 1 Reply to topic
All times are GMT - 8 Hours

View previous topic :: View next topic
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum






All contents © Copyright 2003-2024 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Basic Low-bandwidth Version of the forum