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John Cooksey
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 Posted: Tue 06 Dec, 2005 12:47 pm Post subject: Questions about the roles of swords . . . . |
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. . . . in the modern world, and their importance.
Just why are swords important to us, as individuals, groups, or cultures?
What is it that draws us to swords, distinct from other weapons?
Is it their symbolism, their functions, or both?
What first drew us to the sword, as an important part of our lives? Was it history, art, martial art . . . . . ?
I am just looking to stimulate some discussion here on why swords, in particular, are important to us, as collectors. practitioners, and aficionados of all types.
Any and all responses are welcomed and encouraged . . . . .
I didn't surrender, but they took my horse and made him surrender.
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Tue 06 Dec, 2005 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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Less expensive and harmful than most approaches to the traditional midlife crisis.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
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Shawn Mulock
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| Posted: Tue 06 Dec, 2005 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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To address this in as serious a tone I can muster.
I was a soldier, I am a student of the martial arts. I have studied and investigated many martial arts, they were all interesting, in depth and honest. Yet they did not seem to resonate with me. I felt like I was borrowing somebody else's culture.
Then I discovered that Western Martial Arts were being revived. I looked into it, did a little bit of it and was hooked. I had found what I had been searching for. I began to study in earnest and came to a simple conclussion. I needed a sword. Not just a waster or a fechterspeil schwerte, but a sword, something a gentleman of the renaissance would use.
"It is not what you have, but what you have done".
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Tue 06 Dec, 2005 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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BTW my answer was serious... 
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Alexander Ren
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| Posted: Tue 06 Dec, 2005 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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I could give you Freud's answer to your question but since I don't agree with much that he said and the fact that it would be inapropriate 
For me it is that a sword represents power, authority and justice as well as being analogous to the word of God.
Alex
"The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle."
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Jonathan Blair
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| Posted: Wed 07 Dec, 2005 5:57 am Post subject: |
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| Alexander Ren wrote: | I could give you Freud's answer to your question but since I don't agree with much that he said and the fact that it would be inapropriate
For me it is that a sword represents power, authority and justice as well as being analogous to the word of God.
Alex |
Agreed on all points. Plus they are so cool 
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." - The Lord Jesus Christ, from The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, chapter x, verse 34, Authorized Version of 1611
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Edward Hitchens
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| Posted: Wed 07 Dec, 2005 8:20 am Post subject: |
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| Joe Fults wrote: | | Less expensive and harmful than most approaches to the traditional midlife crisis. |
My 'quarter-life crisis' was probably my NextGen Talhoffer. 
To answer John's question, I actually don't know why I find swords (and all of Medieval history for that matter) so fascinating. This is something I've been thinking about myself lately. I can tell you the how's, what's, and where's of howI got into this hobby but I'm still an avid student of the European medieval sword as well as a die-hard Rennie. I've been into this stuff for nearly a decade now. But that too is a fascination of mine -- I don't know why I'm so hooked; I just am. I imagine a vast majority of us feel the same way. We can all tell of HOW we got into this hobby, but being able to say WHY seems a whole different question. An answerable one? To me so far, no -- but one definitely worth thinking about now and then. 
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." Thomas Jefferson
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Jeremy G
Location: Massachusetts Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 53
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| Posted: Wed 07 Dec, 2005 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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Well...I've always been fascinated by swords I remember playing with cardboard tubes, then sticks and plastic swords with friends and always wanting to know how to really use them. As i grew into my teens, they kinda got pushed by the wayside...I thought nobody uses them anymore and I didn't think anyone made real swords. I'd seen wallhangers at "sword stores" but never really took much interest in them---they just didn't feel right. Then my wife took me to a renn faire about 4 years ago, and I drooled over the Angel sword booth....I was re-hooked! I bought one the next time we went, and from there learned more and more and now I finally have a small collection, one of Christian Tobler's books and Guy Windsor's "Swordsmans Companion" and am finally starting to be a kid again! (only a grown-up kid ) Sometimes my wife sorta wishes she didn't bring me to that faire cuz now the only thing I buy myself are swords or equipment. Now if I could only find or start a study group I would be in 'sword student bliss' I guess I just sorta think that guns are impersonal and too "easy" as it were...I believe in honor, and defending yourself with a sword face-to-face with your opponent seems more honorable than a Hollywood shootout. nonetheless, if a thug broke into my home and threatened my family I wouldn't think twice about a firearm for protection...I may romanticize, but I ain't stupid.
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