Arms collecting and nostalgia

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Victrix

As a child of
7-9 years old I developed a strong interest in history. My favourite TV series was “Once upon a time.” (See pic below) Maybe it partly triggered my interest. My grandmother also encouraged it. When I reached my early teens she gave me the best Christmas gift ever! She gave me the cavalry sword of her late brother who was an officer in Kungliga Norrlands Dragoner stationed at K4 in Umeå. That triggered my interest in swords. Sadly her brother passed away at a relatively young age from tubercolosis. She kept his sword all those years and then gave it to me when she sensed an interest. Now it proudly hangs on the wall in my study.

While I dont know the series, I can see by the cartoons it explored the entire spectrum of history, and what a great way to expose youngsters to it!
If only our schooling of today taught history with any degree of dimension to kids, but thankfully these kinds of media venues provide the prompts to bring interest.

What an amazing and personal story of this cavalry sword! and all the better as it belonged to your great uncle, which brought you into the history it had seen with him. To have the actual weapon(s) of family members who have literally been involved in history themselves is pure treasure!!!
I'd love to see pics of the sword and him!

It is amazing at what a comprehensive interest this brought to you, and the knowledge on swords in general you gained and share here constantly.
Thank you for that and for sharing this.

[werecow]

When I was a kid I had already caught the more general collecting bug, and I was obsessed mainly with the Suske & Wiske comic books. I collected every one I could find and in several of them they went back to musketeer times:



I was already starting to become a bit obsessed with swords around that time and I really wanted one of those cup hilts. My first one was plastic. Now I have this one:



I still think of this as my Suske & Wiske sword.

Eventually I started a sword-like object collection with a friend of mine around the age of ten that consisted primarily of this kind of thing:



We used to playfight with these and they were pretty blade heavy. It's kind of a wonder we didn't bludgeon each other into the hospital. But that always had me wondering how those swordsmen could move those swords so fast in the movies, and because of that unwieldiness of those fake swords, I'm still very much fascinated by the feel of the weight distribution of various real swords and how big a difference that can make in their handling characteristics (which is why I am always a bit disappointed if a sword blade is loose when I buy it from abroad as it makes it more difficult to wave them around slightly). I was extremely jealous of my friend when one day he came home from vacation in Spain with a toreador sword and one of those Collada del Cid repros (we later did modern fencing together as an outflow of this shared sword fascination but I always found it a bit disappointing in how abstracted it was from the real thing and I was pretty terrible tbh; still, I should try my hand at HEMA some time).

I'll add here a story I told recently on Matt Easton's youtube channel. My uncle had a sword he got in Nigeria (a takouba, I later learned) and I was of course obsessed with it. Here in the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaas with presents which have a poem attached and are sometimes wrapped in a kind of arts and crafts project of sorts. One Sinterklaas in 1993, I got one of a paper maché dinosaur and my uncle's sword! The poem told me to slay the dinosaur. Inside were tickets to see Jurassic Park (dinosaurs were another obsession). I got to keep the sword, and I still have it until this day.



It's not sharp and it's not the highest quality takouba out there (and the blade is a bit loose in the hilt) but of course that one will never leave my collection.
It took me another 25+ years to start a real sword collection.

[Jim McDougall]

Very good points about the balance of swords and the impact of awkward weight and balance in wielding the reproductions in many cases, or the fantasy types. I recall in years later when I took fencing...my dad grumbled, 'oh good, something you can always use!'
We exercised for quite a while before we ever began using the blades, and it was surprising how quickly you could be spent in many forms of these combats.

With kids using 'real' swords playfully (this often accounts for many of the supposed combat nicks in blades) I can recall once I had been asked about a sword a guy had, and I called him to tell him it was a Caucasian shashka.
He had no idea what it was, and then asked, well what is it worth?

I told him.......he gasped and looked out at his young sun whacking away at weeds and brush with it in the backyard, instantly screaming....AUUUGHHH! STOP IT AND BRING THAT SWORD IN HERE , NOW!!!


Werecow, FANTASTIC cuphilt BTW!!!!

[francantolin]

Thank you for have created this post !
A lot of different influences with movies but two TV series seems to be the most important for me:

Sandokan , the tiger of Malaysia
And Zorro from Walt Disney

A lot of fights in the schoolyard with sticks 😅

PS: in Zorro, my favorite character was the Sergent Garcia 😁😁

[francantolin]

I just read that Guy Williams , the actor who played Zorro in the serie did himself all stunts and fights in all episodes.
the swords tip were uncovered and he was hurted two times.
Hooray for Zorro 💪🙂

[Jim McDougall]

Francantolin, I absolutely was powerfully moved by the Zorro movies! from the old Fairbanks films, Tyrone Power in the later versions, and of course the Disney series. Growing up in Southern Calif. the Spanish influence, scenery and the architecture of course was all around.

It was of course the SWASHBUCKLING that piqued the 'heroic' gene in most of us as young boys, and for me in later years taking fencing. Actually much of what we studied was 'stage combat' which naturally was quite a bit different from the more regulated forms with foil, saber and epee.

From what I have understood, in many cases swords were somehow rebated or altered to prevent injuries, but not always adequately. Many of the stars were actually trained in swordplay, but one of the most dangerous situations were being paired with opponents less than properly trained. Usually it was the more dynamic actions used in staged combat that injuries might occur, as these were by no means part of normal swordplay.

Sgt. Garcia was indeed a colorful character, and these performances would not have been the same without him!

Im glad you guys have mentioned these comics and stories which I had not heard of and now am interested in learning more on them!

Werecow, great on that TAKOUBA! and you should NEVER let it go! It has served as the benchmark for the joyful adventure you, like us, have gone into lifelong! I still have my first 'purchased' sword too......it was a rusty relic of a British M1796 heavy cavalry sword, which had the blade broken and welded back together. It was a lot of $ for me in those days, but what excited my young awareness was it matched a picture of one in a book. Then I began reading about the history of these swords, and that they were carried at Waterloo! It was thrilling to have and hold a sword like the ones carried by the Scots Greys in that battle! History came alive!

[gp]

as a young boy I recall being wild about 4 series in the sixties;

1. Ivanhoe with Roger Moore, based upon Sir Walter Scot's novel about Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe during the 12th century reign of King Richard the Lionheart

2. the French series Thierry la Fronde ( the slingshot), played by Belgium actor Jean-Claude Drouot, during the Hundred Years' War, France occupied by the English, and the Black Prince rules France with an iron fist. In Sologne in the heart of France, Thierry of Janville is the hero.

3. a young Rutger Hauer in the series Floris , made by Paul Verhoeven, about the Burgundy wars in the Netherlands.

4. and a marvelous German series "Die merkwürdige Lebensgeschichte des Friedrich Freiherrn von der Trenck" / The Peculiar Life Story of Friedrich, Baron von der Trenck being Trencks history by the outstanding actor Matthias Habich

did any of you lads seen this series...?

[Victrix]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

While I dont know the series, I can see by the cartoons it explored the entire spectrum of history, and what a great way to expose youngsters to it!
If only our schooling of today taught history with any degree of dimension to kids, but thankfully these kinds of media venues provide the prompts to bring interest.

What an amazing and personal story of this cavalry sword! and all the better as it belonged to your great uncle, which brought you into the history it had seen with him. To have the actual weapon(s) of family members who have literally been involved in history themselves is pure treasure!!!
I'd love to see pics of the sword and him!

It is amazing at what a comprehensive interest this brought to you, and the knowledge on swords in general you gained and share here constantly.
Thank you for that and for sharing this.

Here is a photo of my great uncle and his cavalry sword. In the photo he is standing in front of Karlberg castle Military Academy in Stockholm where he received his officer training. He was an officer of Kungliga Norrlands Dragoner (K4) based in Umeå. Karlberg military academy est.1792 is allegedly the world’s oldest continuously operating from the original location military academy. The sword (a pallasch) was hung in a frog attached to the saddle.