<HTML>Last evening I was overcome by the desire to pop into the local pub, a real leading. And seated upon the bar stool reading my newspaper I overheard the person next to me speaking about being an archer, and during his chat to the barman he mentioned the 303 rifle which curiously I was studying that very day. So I thought to myself, led to pub, heard about the longbow from an archer and a few words about the 303. This meant that I had to check out the longbow, which I did just now, this Saturday afternoon, and so.
The Yew Tree and the power of Horus
Horus, the falcon head god, the merciless killer of from the sky.
This is not so much an n-game in itself, but a story of a fascinating coincidence.
But first to the long preamble, and to England green, to a place called Steventon where Jane Austen's father was the rector, and her oldest brother was rector thereafter. Now in the churchyard there is a large Yew tree. A plaque in the church tells us that the Yew tree is at least 900 years old. And so where the remains of death are, death’s very symbol grows.
Sir Walter Scott, in a footnote in Ivanhoe, mentions that King Edward I (who ruled 1272-1307), decreed that Yew trees should be planted in all English churchyards, in order that there would be a plentiful supply of wood for longbows.
In Japan, the Yew tree is called "Ichi-i", which means the highest rank in society. The staff of Ten'no (Emperor) is made of Yew, so yew trees are very noble wood in Japan.
The skill of the English archer army certainly took the French by surprise at the Battle of Crecy in 1346. . In this, the first major test of the English long bowmen in the English army, the English inflicted great losses on the French.
In 1359, the Tower of London received 20,000 bows, 850,000 arrows, and 50,000 bowstrings from the counties. In May and June of 1360 alone, the Tower of London received 10,000 bows and 500,000 arrows. English trade agreements with other countries (such as Spain) often required the shipment of yew staves and other important archery supplies for the production of longbows.
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").
And thanks to W.F. Paterson (1990) was published data from Stephen V. Grancsay about an experiment comparing a longbow and a crossbow and there was little difference, although more arrows per minute could be fired than bolts from the crossbow.
The standard 5ft 6 inch to 6 feet longbow has a draw weight of 68 pounds and a standard arrow weighing 2.5 ounces is let loose at a speed of 133.7 feet per second.
So to the coincidences that showed that the Yew tree, the symbol of the graveyard, the gravestones, the death beneath the stones, has out of its branches the making a most powerful personal weapon of the Middle Ages, the longbow.
For the 6 feet longbow has a draw weight, that is a power of 17 pounds x 4, the serpent goddess four times, which sends an arrow at a speed of 133.7 feet per second.
And at 133.69 feet per second, x Pi the arrow would travel at 420 feet per second. Or 1,260 inches x 4 lots, the label of Horus.
So Horus, the falcon headed god, the merciless killer of the sky, is seen in a round-about way, as the arrow of death and injury, which has been given the power of the serpent, the goddess of the Delta region of ancient Egypt. Whereas, the vulture, the goddess of Upper Egypt, cracks its shell after some 42 days, so is part of the very make up of the arrow of Horus.
Yes, another set of coincidences to add to the many, many others that I have collected.</HTML>
