there is such gems on the interwebs, it can be a bane and yet also such a treasure to humanity if used for self growth. and yeah, reading and watching things about the old sword and knife fighting, it is a topic of life and death. and it happens in one shot. we all see holywood war scenes, but in reality one cut means your dead, and armor and such just is to keep you in the fight just a little longer than the other guy, but just a little longer but that time is minutes. and yet to get to that fight was years and years of training like modern pro athletes, and their superbowl was a fight of minutes or even seconds where they live or die. so the fencing was training at the highest level for a very mortal game.

I had a chuckle when doing my research. The article I was reading spoke of when the rules for the sport were established as a means of keeping things less lethal. Sports now do not hold a candle to how they played back then. Single Stick, which was in the original Olympics, was won by making the other fellow's head bloody. You're right that this was meant to teach a lesson.

Vix

Heh, yup back in the day even when they were playing, they weren't play'n.

I got a wonderful book called War Bows by Mike Loades. Talking about the history of bow warfare in Europe and Asia during the middle ages

I read a great article way back in 1980 pointing out the standard English longbow was 150 pound pull.

Vix

yup, and no mechanical advantage, to you had to hold 50 pounds with one arm and pull 100 pounds with the other. they can see the asymetry in the bone of people from that time. it was law every boy over some age had to practice every day so they'd be strong enough when the got to the age they can go to war. crazy! but it won henry 5 agincore

I love that sport but back then it was for life or death. Nowadays it's now a bout of touching.🤭🤭😋 I hope America's team of fencers do great this summer.

I do too- but absolutely the game has changed drastically...

Vix

Agreed fully. My Uncle used to fence and he was really good. I only got to see him fence a few times he came in first place in his college. It was real neat to watch him.

does he still fence?

Vix

oh he passed in 2016. But he did teach fencing in college.

wish I'd known him...

Vix

He loved to meet new people and he was the bestest uncle ever. You would have liked how quirky he was.🥲🥲🥲

*snickers... he sounds just like me.

Vix

giggles you're sweet 💗💗💗

Neat!

*smiles... thank you Walt...

Vix

It's too bad you didn't win the bid, but I love that you were able to figure out roughly when it was shot by visual cues and knowledge of the sport you love.

*smiles very big… thank you.

Vix

Some really cool history. Thanks for sharing. Sorry about the bid loss.

Thank you Helix... yes, I would have liked to see the picture go somewhere it could be preserved, but at least I had the fun of researching it.

Vix

Researching history, especially on a subject you adore, is always a fun thing to do.

Sorry you didn't win the bid though, but as they say; 'you win some, you lose some'.
Oh, and one last thing, I stumbled upon this gem while going through foreign movies and wondered if you have seen this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW3pTmiknHo

nooooooo I had not seen this one, thank you for the link. I shall watch it this afternoon.

Vix

You're welcome.

I liked it… thank you.

Vix

Again, welcome. Apparently, according to legend, the actors actually fought each other and none of it was choreographed that once they finished filming they took a break due to how disturbed they were.

how very interesting...

Vix

Sorry to hear you didn't win, Vixyy. One reason I don't bid myself, its often almost entirely unpredictable.

None the less, this photograph is quite a fascinating find, as is the history behind it that you were able to dig up, props for citing your sources too. More so that you were able to back up your estimate of the when it was taken through visual cues.

*smiles very big... thank you Hania.

Vix