Posted by Ed Kiser on October 26, 2002 at 14:19:01 from 205.188.209.46 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: CROSSBOW posted by Bob on October 26, 2002 at 14:04:04:
I saw where Nancy used a crossbow from the Beckfoot launch in Swallowdale, so it is reasonable for a picture of a crossbow to be in that publication. However, it is the misconception that a crossbow is what was used in Swallows and Amazons that I am addressing. The text simply refers to a bow, with no particular reference to its length. When the quiz in question offered its options, it listed "longbow". I do not necessarily interpret that object of having any specific length, although the official longbow that was used against French armored knights was rather long. Such was also the weapon in the typical Robin Hood tales. If a child is to make a bow, it is essentially a stick with a piece of string tied to both ends, whatever length that stick is. It is this type of thing that I suspect the Amazons were using. For them to have fashioned a crossbow is a much more complex construction, with a trigger mechanism, a channel for the bolt, a catch to hold the string to be released via the trigger. Such is not likely for a child to have created. The crossbow used in Swallowdale could have been one of Captain Flint's possessions, picked up on one of his assorted trips abroad, rather than being fashioned by some child, even an imaginative one like Nancy.
It is therefore my claim, that the quiz expected reply of "what weapon did the Amazons use" should be longbow, and not crossbow, as it seems to suggest, as there is no substiantiation of any such type of object being used in this situation on Wild Cat Island.
As for the Amazons' being in a crouch position, that could be accomodated by holding the bow, regardless of its length, in a horizontal firing position. That "kneeling" does not rule out a curved stick with a string tied to both ends, nor does it prove the existance of a crossbow.
Ed Kiser, South Florida