[Regia-NA] viking bows

[Carolyn Priest-Dorman]

Wulfhere wrote:

>Until then, I'll stick to the SCA archery range where I'm considered an 
>authenticity freak. Wood self bow with no sealant, handle grip, wrapping 
>or arrow shelf. Heck, the tournament marshall wasn't going to let me shoot 
>off the hand because it was quite unsafe.

Sounds like a marshallate problem rather than a regulatory problem to 
me.  What kingdom are you in???

At one point in time, we used to joke that if you wanted to be 
Captain-General of Archers in the East Kingdom, you had to have shot a hole 
in your own hand first.  This entirely unofficial rule came about because 
three successive CGs had done so (at least one while shooting off the hand 
on his longbow). ;>  Even so, there's never been a rule requiring a shelf 
in the East Kingdom archery handbook.

Nevertheless, and sadly, it is not always possible in an organization as 
large as the SCA to ensure complete uniformity of enforcement.  (In this 
way I suspect it is much like the US Army.)  At some events you may find 
overly-zealous marshals who think it is their job to build a fence around 
the regulations by arbitrarily prohibiting things that weren't previously 
prohibited in the regulations.  Even now, from time to time some poor 
ill-informed marshal makes the mistake of telling my husband he can't shoot 
with his linen Flemish twist string "because it has a knot in it." 
;>  Usually all you have to do is ask the marshal (or the marshal in 
charge) to show you the official regulation prohibiting same, then politely 
take your place at the line when they fail to do so.


Carolyn Priest-Dorman              Þóra Sharptooth
  http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html