[David Huggins]

Excellent questions and I see many reoccurring themes in the answers. I guess for myself it goes back as far as I can remember. I do recall been fascinated by two very well illustrated books in my infant school, one retelling The odyssey and another the volsung Saga. I was always drawing Knights, Vikings, Normans. Greeks and reading as a kid, endless hours in the local library reading and pouring over Oakshott's childrens books and even a copy of Blairs book on European Armour where well thumbed and treasured. As well as my other overriding interest inhorroe movies, and as well as selling Famous Monsters of Fimland, the local barbers also sold second hand issues of Classics Illustrated, the barber's was frequented by Merchant Seamen who bought in such items to exchange and sell.

In the Junior school we had a brilliant history teacher who had a collection of such magazines as Look and Learn, Tell Me Why which contained comic strip style stories and brilliant illustrations by Gerrry Embelton Senior and Angus McBride.

I always remember a striking back cover illustration titled Invaders, which showed a Pictish warrior, Roman Centurion, Sutton Hoo dressed Anglo-Saxon, Viking Chiefain and a brutish Norman!

Another source was the Ladybird history books, again also well illustrated, Then of course there was Airfix Models and figures, Britains 'Swoppet' figures of The War Of the Roses range, Tempo's Crusaders and Roman figures and I think it was Marx who did a range of Greeks at about the same time. As well as doing the Universal Monsters Kit range , Aurora figuers also did a range of Knights in Armour Kits. Making a Roman legionnaires .carboard outfit and helmet in a school nativity play!

Then there was Henry Treece and Rosemary Sutcliffe childrens hitorical fiction. And of course the movies and television series. William Tell, Ivanhoe, Robin Hood,Francis Drake, Hawkeye and of the brilliant 'Spartacus' and 'The Vikings' etc

Endless hours making dens as imaginary fortresss, Dutch Arrows and make shift bow and arrows.

It all ended when I was thirteen and discovered girls where interested in me!! LoL

Of course these passions never went away...even girls

cheers
Dave

[Jeff A. Arbogast]

If I had to pick a time or place, I guess it all began for me in Germany in the early to late 60's when I was about seven or eight years old. We were there for about four years, living in Wiesbaden, on the Rhine. There were castles, towers, and ancient ruins everywhere you looked, from pre-Roman times through WW2. It always amazed me to see people's tidy little homes built into the sides of ancient walls and such, and no one thought twice about it! Every hill had a castle or SOMETHING on it, and my heart would leap at the sight of every one. I visited as many as I was allowed, being small, and saw some memorable sights, some of which are in the history books.
It was also a real treat for my Mom to take me once a week or so a few blocks from our downtown apartment to a little German toy store where they sold beautiful hand-painted knight figures, and she would let me pick one out (If I had been good). I was ecstatic. I used to laugh up my sleeve at the German kids who would want to trade their fancy knight figures for my cheap plastic cowboy and Indian figures, which I could have cared less about (Germans LOVE cowboys and Indians). Needless to say, I was happy to oblige, and we all parted delighted with our trades, although to this day I still believe they got badly ripped off.
We traveled all over Europe back through the 60's, basically as civilians attached to the military, and we lived in Athens, Greece for a couple of years too. Naturally, I love the ancient Greeks as well (AWESOME helmets ). After all, we are the direct inheritors of their civilization, the first we know of where reason prevailed over superstition. No small feat for the time. We visited the Acropolis (naturally),Corinth, Marathon, Delphi, Salamis, Knossos on the island of Crete, and many other famous sites. Like any of you, one cannot visit these places and not be moved if you have any sense of history at all.
So that is the fountainhead of my current obsession. I may have turned out this way anyhow, but those unforgettable sights certainly sealed and intensified my fate.

[Colt Reeves]

I was thinking of starting a topic such as this, but suspected it had already been done...

How did I start? Well, in addition to Robin Hood, Disney also produced a fairly popular movie called Sword in the Stone. But that was only the tip of the ice berg. What really got me going was in books. My mother home-schooled us, each and every one, and she felt reading was perhaps the most important skill we could have. So I had many many different books, and of course quite a few featured knights in shining armor. (I can still think back to one particular King Arthur book...) As time went on and my brother and I got old enough, we went out back to wave sticks around. Our sisters usually pretended to be the noble princesses shortly before joining in. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, mom kept good track of us, and nobody got any serious injuries. Anyway, random acts of violence aside, the selection of books began to change, moving from fairy tales to historical books I still own today. And now I've finally done more than day-dreaming about it and went out and bought a couple of swords.

So really, what set me up on this crazy hobby? Mom. Yeah, that's right, she did it. Can't whine now, only doing as I was taught.

[Sam Gordon Campbell]

Let me spin you a yarn, a tale of wonders beyond you most vivid dreams...
Well, not really, but a story of sorts none the less...
It all began in primary school, year 3 or so if I recall, and we had a sub-teacher come in to teach us aboot medieval things.
With him he brought a great-helm, a hound skull with aventail, a buckler, a horn, a mail byrine(?), and lots of enthusiasm.
Anyway, one day after being pinned down in the corner at recess because I had volunteered to wear the mail, and being the pudgy small chap that I was (also being about 10 or 11 or whatever), we were discussing how a knight was Identifyed in battle. Me, being the eager lad I was, shot up my hand and said "It's by the feathers in their helmets!" A little chuckle later came the reply "Not quite, but by the coat of arms on their shields". And, I kid you not, the heavens parted and a beam of light shone through the ceiling window and ever since then my quest has been to do what I do best as a job: Talk about stuff I think I know, and dress up in armour.
Oh, and many other adventures were had; from an excitable child (he was called Kosta I believe) nicking the great helm and buckler and horn and running around (and me asking if I could take the hound skull to catch him), to sausage pirates and nickers Snickers and all sorts. But those are stories for another time...

[Justin Thompson]

How did I get started in this hobby? I'm sad to say that I have a weapons fixation, and I can't turn it off. If it was designed to, or can be deployed in a similar manner, for warfare and fighting, then I'm interested in it. Movies about medieval combat, with the use of sword and shields did nothing but add fuel to the fire.

As a kid I'd get into battles with other neighborhood kids and we'd go to war with sticks, sometimes trashcan lids if we could get them. Unfortunately I was behind the curve as far as imagination technology went, I never got the sword that was made from two pieces taped together; not because I didn't try, but because I was never allowed to play with real scissors and I didn't get to borrow the electrical tape my dad used.

I think that inability to do as others did had an affect to be. Whenever I make something I sometimes feel like I'm overcompensating for my previous inability to simply keep up with everyone else.

[Ed Toton]

Wow, an old thread indeed!

I have to echo what Bill said a few posts above-- I definitely got interested initially through D&D. Soon after starting to play the game (around the age of 11), I got my first sword around the age of maybe 13, which was a cheap $20 wall-hanger.

It wasn't long before I saved up for something more functional, and the rest is history.

[Jean-Carle Hudon]

My father brought back swords and a dagger from Europe, and my parents married in august of 44 while my father nursed a wound taken in Normandy... so as a child my curiosity would push me in that direction, but my father would not talk about the war.. those who were there, as opposed to those who held supporting roles, just don't talk about such things... so I moved on to litterature and my mother was both welsh and a litterature professor, so Arthur filled my thoughts, especially as there were tv show back then ( late 50's early 60's) dealing with relted subjects such as Ivanhoe ( in English) or Thierry something or other (in french), but we also had Daniel Boone ( in english ) and Radisson & DesGroseillers (in french), for the later colonial period.
As children playing, we had space, a few burned out basements to use as forts, so we could either play with swords or shoot each other, with only minor modifications to our favorite piece of wood... until such time as my godfather bought me a real metal cap revolver, which of course prompted me to move my friends in the general direction of cowboys & indians, but not canadian indians, as they evoqued colonial history. No, it then had to be american indians ... so the apache supplanted the Iroquois, though the war paint was ever the same..
Years passed, we got to study latin & history, and in the summer of sixty-seven, working at Expo, American college kids brought me into contact with Tolkien. He was popular on american campuses at that time..that opened up the whole world, or worlds, of fantasy, and whenever my studies in Politics or Law got too heavy, I would go back to check out what was going on in our parallel fantasy worlds.
Eventually, many years later, I came into contact with the world of sports fencing, preside over a competitive club ( People do that with lawyers, they put us in positions where we raise funds for other people's kids) , and from ther was put into contact with the SCA as they had people who fenced, but would sometimes cross over.. at the same time I made friends with a Polish immigrant who made fine arms and armor and didn't know where to sell his work... we went off to Pennsic together, and he sold all his best stuff in a very short while.. I made good friends at Pennsic and we keep in touch, despite the demands of everyday life, and in the meantime, in Quebec, we have develloped a cottage industry of armorers and LARP organisations which compare quite favorably with whatever else is out there. I try to keep up to date on their activities.
I have Del Tins, Cervenkas, Dabek, Arms& Armor and Hanwei products on my office wall and floors, german and russian originals on my fireplace, a pavillion and a few kits... and just about no time to use them... and I am now reading Sharon Kay Penman's take on Henry and Eleonor of Aquitaine....and I lurk on myArmoury at least once a day to see what is being discussed, payinf special attention to those events that I just never get the time to check out for myself...
Yup, this thread is pure therapy....
My best to all of you,
Jean-Carle

[Jean Thibodeau]

Jean-Carle;

Thiery " something or other " was Thiery la Fronde: Sort of a French Robin Hood set in the 100 years Wars, a bit of guerrilla warfare mixed in with the usual heroic deeds and using a " sling " instead of a longbow. ( I assume you remember all this except the full name and I'm giving some details about the program for others reading this. ).

Ivanho was with a very young pre " The Saint " Roger Moore.

There was also a series about William Tell: So a Swiss Robin Hood with a crossbow.

Another series I remember was " Thibau et les Croisades ": A half French, half Arab Knight in the Kingdom of Jerusalem some time between the first and second Crusades.

Another series was " The Vikings ", probably a translation in French of an American or British series: A Kirk Douglas look alike character as the main hero and his " little friend " a really giant guy with an enormous wooden club/mace carved with a stylized woman's face called " Matilda ": Matilda being very blood thirsty with a high body count of smashed heads in each episode.

Oh, the Disney " Long John Silver " both the film miniseries and a T.V. series.

And then the many Charlton Heston movies like " Ben Hur ", " El Cid " and the less know " The Warlord ", " Major Dundee ", Khartoum.

Errol Flynn: " Robin Hood ", " Captain Blood ", " Charge of the Light Brigade ", ' They Died With Their Boots On ".

Tyrone Power: " Zorro ", ' Prince of Foxes " this one I would like to find if there is a DVD of it ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Foxes_(film)

Anyway, a lot of stuff that I enjoyed a great deal and feed the " passion " for history and weapons.

[Douglas G.]

I had the same holster Gordon has in that pic, mine had a Hubley 1851 Navy (well, that's kinda what it looked like) in it. I found my old Fanner Fifty and holster a couple of months back at my folks house. A

HUGE plus, there were some old caps with it as well.
Now, as for swords I blame Disney too, Robin Hood (Riding through the glen) and Guy Williams as Zorro. I had the Zorro set, a mask, cape, hat and the cup hilted rapier with a pice of chalk at the end so you too could make the Zee for Zorro! My Dad tells me I lost the rapier early on as they didn't like all the "Zee's" popping up on the walls two and a half feet above the carpet! I think a neighbor kid a had a Zorro cap flintlock pistol too. Later cool Disney efforts didn't have tie in toy swords, "The Fighting Prince of Donegal" comes to mind. Those would have been COOL!


Better A&A and Albion late than never!

Doug Gentner

[Martin Murd]

I started it in fantasy land.


Local TV-channel started broadcasting "Highlander".

[Stephane Rabier]

Hi,
I've watched the same movies and TV shows as Jean and my favourite was a British TV show called "Le roi Arthur" ( "Arthur of the Britons" in original version), rather realistic compared to wat we could see in the 70's.

When I was 8-10 I had a crusader suit for Christmas with a white tunic, red cross, a plastic sword and a kind of Roman helmet made of the same metal as the sword. Later my grandmother brought me a sword, a shield and a flail from Spain. The sword (renaissance style court sword) was made of cast aluminium for the hilt and (very)soft iron for the blade, the shield was the classical iron wall hanger but the flail was pretty efficient with a strong shaft, a strong chain and a huge cast iron spiked ball.

After I've broken a few stones in the garden with the flail, sharpened the sword using my father's grinding wheel and at last been caught fighting with the other kids who used they fathers' axes, the sword disapeared forever, the shield and flail where hung at the wall (their proper place) and I still remember it hurt me during a few days everytime I was sitting down

[Philip Montgomery]

[quote="Sean Flynt"]I'm curious about how people come to this hobby, and finding this photo inspired me to think about my own path to myArmoury.com.

Fun topic. I am a late comer to making blades and using them, but I have been a student of arms and armor since I was a kid.

Two early influences were the old Robin Hood tv show, which several of you have mentioned. Later I was enthralled by the Steve Reeves Hercules movies: Hercules and Hercules Unchained and all those sword and sandal movies. The latter led to an interest in Homer's Iliad when I was 12 years old.

Then I started "the Robin Hood Club" in my neighborhood and taught my friends how to make shield from plywood and spears with burnt points and swords cut from 1x4s with ground down blades. There were about six of us hacking and slashing that summer.

I had a world history teacher who introduced my in the 7th grade to the Penguin books by Tacitus, Livy, Herodotus, Caesar, Xenophon.... I also discovered girls in a big way just as the Spartans were dying at Thermopylae. I think the combination of influences warped my brain in a good way.

All of that led to a curiosity about how men fought one-on-one, in units, and in armies, and how those armies were housed and supplied and how they were wielded by the men or women in power. This fascination with how we bashed one another also led to an interest in poetry (Beowulf and more Homer) and music and metal work.


As a result of those influences today I am reading:
1. Nero's killing machine : the true story of Rome's remarkable XIV Legion by Dando-Collins, Stephen
2. Three Byzantine military treatises by Dennis, George T.
3. The late Roman army by Southern, Pat.

Now I am grinding out a 10th century replica of a broken-back seax and seriously considering buying an anvil to start forging in my back yard. All thanks to Robin Hood and Hercules. That movie ticket for "Hercules" was the best investment I ever made.

[Brandon B]

What a great topic. I'm surprised there aren't more responses. For me I remember being fascinated by the TV series Zorro starring Guy Williams. I still remember that as one of my favorite Halloween costumes, I was probably 3-4 years old at the time. I was fascinated by the sword on the Sword in the Stone, and it is still one of my favorite sword types. I often wonder if the artist was inspired by the Edward III Historical sword. I still remember seeing a wall hanger variation of the Excalibur sword at one of the shops in Disneyland and I thought it was so cool (little did I know)

I remember seeing the tournaments of the Kings when I was about 8 years old in Las Vegas and that ruined me for life. I felt like I was right there in ancient history. Another major factor was Conan the Destroyer. I remember seeing a Conan the Barbarian live show at universal studios and just absolutely loved it. I can't count the number of times I watched Conan the destroyer as a kid, and realized when I got older why I wasn't allowed to watch Conan the Barbarian ha ha.

One of the Condominiums my Grandfather had was decorated old world and they had a wooden coat of arms with a couple medieval swords hanging crossed between the wooden coat of arms. I always asked my parents to take them down so I could hold them, and remember that being one of my favorite parts of vacationing there.

Of course movies had the biggest impact. I never passed up watching a good sword fight. Princess Bride was an all time favorite due to the epic sword fighting scenes. I remember getting a Heman sword and Shield as a kid and absolute loved it. He-Man was my favorite cartoon as a kid. I can't remember how many times I held my sword in the air and said, "by the power of gray skull!"

Other movies and shows were Thundercats, Star Wars, Robin Hood, First Knight, and many others.

I still remember my first "Sword" picked up at some sort of fair. It was a very cheaply made steel small sword with an ornate hilt. It had square edges and looked more like a dagger than an actual sword. I didn't dare swing it at anything because even as a kid I knew it would brake in two. I also remember watching plays at a Shakespeare festival and loved the sword fighting scenes.

I'm sure the list goes on and on, but for some odd reason I have absolutely loved swords ever since I can remember. Thanks to Nathan and all the Moderators for providing such an amazing resource for exploring the mysterys of the sword and other aspects of history.

[Pieter B.]

Like the person above I watched the 1957 Zorro television series when I was young and my grandfather who is a veteran also fueled my interest in military matters. He always told me stories like William Tell, Robin Hood, Mutiny on the Bounty etc etc.

What really kicked off my renewed interest one and a half year ago I do not recall anymore. I believe it might have been a video game but I wouldn't know which one.

[Rim Andries]

Started as early as I can remember. Making swords out of sticks and swinging them at the kid next door.

Carcassone however was an experience that solidified my interest. I was 7 and my dad bought me a "morning star" as a souvenir.

After that... Highlander, Willow, playing D&D. It was hard to get rid of really I almost succeeded until I discovered HEMA.

Damn you HEMA!

[Jonathan Hodge]

I've been fascinated with Meeieval and Renaissance Europe for as long as I can remember. Like some others, I'm sure that Disney's Robin Hood played a big part. I can also remember loving action/adventure stories of this ilk forever. I can remember discovering The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings, etc. all of which were life changing moments for me, and part of the foundation that has driven my historical and cultural interest in my teen and adult years.

[Kevin Hughes]

The Ivanhoe mini-series from the 80s (with Sam Neil) did it for me. After that, my friend and I started cutting swords out of 1x4's on his dad's table saw. The Shogun mini- Series and Highlander contributed to my interest as well.

[Kuo Xie]

Must have missed this topic the first time around. I got into historical arms and armor via medieval-esque fantasy novels. They made me want to understand the real world historical struggles that inspired the fantasy books, and instilled the desire to collect functional medieval arms and armor. I can very clearly break down my life based on the fantasy novel I was obsessed with at the time:

Grade school - The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. Welsh myth reshaped into a coming of age story. Very melancholy for a kids' book, with themes of struggle and loss all throughout the story. Good triumphs over evil but what a bittersweet ending.

Junior high - The Belgariad by David Eddings. Classic prophesied-chosen-one-fights-the-dark-lord type story. Objectively not that great but after so many years the characters feel like old friends to me.

High school - Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. This one did more to get me into historical weapons than any other series. Jordan had a very cool way of writing sword fights in which he used poetic names of forms instead of describing every thrust and parry. Very extensively fleshed out world that strongly resembles Early Modern Europe.

College - Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin. Still unbelievable to me how this series blew up and became a media phenomenon. Good for Martin, I hope he's raking in the cash.

Post College - Prince of Nothing by R Scott Bakker. A very dark fantasy retelling of the First Crusade, with epic elements giving it a sort of Homeric feel. Bakker clearly knows his history so it's fun to spot real-world factions in his fantasy analogues (Nansur = Byzantium, for example)

College was a looong time ago so it's about time for a new series. Wonder what it will be?