How or why did the English become a bow culture?

[SimonUK]

Yes Loki, another beautiful example of insular art - a fusion of ....can I call it 'indigenous' instead of celtic? and germanic art. The Pictish kingdom bordered the ango-saxon kindom of Northumbria, so I'm not surprised there are elements of both in there.

[Dane]

And thus all cultures that collide or collaborate with each other infuse one another in all sorts of ways - bloodlines, art, technologies, philosopies, religions, etc. And I personally, on a gut level, feel that all that came before on your green island contributed to the emegence of a bow culture. 

Thanks guys for contributing to this thread.
Dane

[axel]

all people have been using the bow. th e english culture is a dominating culture now, most focus is on that  today. people of english origin writing the bowyersbible and so on.   ....silly, but therefore most people think that they are more bow culture than for example the scandinavian or other. england is a tiny little country with 60 milion people. a lot of archeology has been made there and a lot of finds have been made thanks to over population. and so on and so on. dont think its about bow culture.


axel

[Dane]

Axel, by bow culture, I meant a culture that adopted the bow as a war tool, not hunting and such, to keep within the context of the English Warbow section. And just because you write and read English doesn't mean you are of English heritage.

Dane

[Loki]

all people have been using the bow. th e english culture is a dominating culture now, most focus is on that  today. people of english origin writing the bowyersbible and so on.   ....silly, but therefore most people think that they are more bow culture than for example the scandinavian or other. england is a tiny little country with 60 milion people.. and so on and so on. dont think its about bow culture.


axel

 
What dont you think is about Bow culture?
The difference between the English and the Scandanavians (the same people) is the English used the Bow en masse for War,making laws to encourage Archery etc etc blah blah...

A lot of finds have been made in England because we have excellent archeologists and the bogs and peat marsh's are excellent for preserving artifacts.Its not because were tripping over each other in our tiny overcrowded bit of the Isle ,were not Hobbits you know we dont live in the ground  .

[jb.68]

all people have been using the bow.
axel

Just to pick you up on this statement, I think you'll find that NOT ALL people have had the bow. The Aboriginal peoples of Australia never used the bow. They got by with other weapons, ie the boomerang. The reason for this I believe is that the land mass that is Aus' separated from the main landmass before the invention of the bow and therefore the knowledge of the bow was not taken with them.

[SimonUK]

Out of interest, are there many sayings in other countries related to archery? For example in England we have sayings such as 'highly strung', 'two strings to his bow', 'bolt upright' etc. We have many of these which shows that archery used to be an important part of every day life.

[Dane]

all people have been using the bow. th e english culture is a dominating culture now, most focus is on that  today. people of english origin writing the bowyersbible and so on.   ....silly, but therefore most people think that they are more bow culture than for example the scandinavian or other. england is a tiny little country with 60 milion people.. and so on and so on. dont think its about bow culture.


axel

 
What dont you think is about Bow culture?
The difference between the English and the Scandanavians (the same people) is the English used the Bow en masse for War,making laws to encourage Archery etc etc blah blah...

A lot of finds have been made in England because we have excellent archeologists and the bogs and peat marsh's are excellent for preserving artifacts.Its not because were tripping over each other in our tiny overcrowded bit of the Isle ,were not Hobbits you know we dont live in the ground  .

What, you are not all hobbits over there? I myself would love a hobbit hole, if it is nice as Baggins' place.

[Loki]

Nah mate,we have even given up the Fatch Roofs! 
Did Axel register here just to make that post 
 

[axel]

No i didn't register here to write this post even though it may be my first. Maybe it was too harsh put by me but, we have those sayings in scandinavia too about bows in everyday life. But I do not think britain is more of a bow culture than scandinavia, hungary, mongolia, turky, buthan etc etc. It might be a bowculture. one contry among many other.

by the way. have alots of mideaval longbows been found exept the mary rose?

Axel

[SimonUK]

I think only a handful of other bows have been found axel. I understand that the Scandinavian bows were very similar to the English longbow. So you're probably right - the whole of northern europe had this culture. Maybe it's the fact that it was used so famously in France and Scotland that gave the english longbow it's reputation. What kind of archery sayings do you have in Scandinavia?

[axel]

several different are about taking the chance of drawing the bow. Aim higher and draw the string further , one is from a really nice poem saying something like "better listen to the string that broke than never even draw a bow". we have highly strung here too. will try to think of more.

[SimonUK]

better listen to the string that broke than never even draw a bow

I like that one. It's like 'better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'

[markinengland]

Recent books like The Great Warbow seem to have moved away from the idea that the "English" longbow derives in any way from the Welsh bow and say that it was brought in by the Normans. The Normans were basically of Norse descent. the Norse used longbows identical to the English Warbow. Many of the Britians fighting William the Conqueror were of Norse descent, some actually related to him. The fight was after all about William's claim to the English throne!
From what I have read it seems that the English were able to develop the use of the warbow because of the tightly controlled fuedal system. In England they were able to ensure that the fuedal lords provided set amounts and types of men for war. As the use of archery was realised to be effective and as the king could command that archers be provided it was possible. In countries like France where there was less control over the Lords and peasantry it was impossible to command the same. Hence we won and the French lost until eventually the French did finally put archers on the field to combat us, mainly Scots and other mercenaries.

[Pat B]

..."the rule of thumb" (fistmele) and "A parting shot" are a few archery related sayings I know of.   Pat