Football-art - 6/9/07 "Football" by THL Dagonell Collingwood of Emerald Lake. NOTE: See also the files: games-msg, games-cards-msg, sports-msg, Horseshoes-art, Curling-art, wintr-sports-lnks, Brf-Lok-Tennis-art, taverns-msg, Hopscotch-art. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator. While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file. Thank you, Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ [This article was first published in the November 2004. - Stefan] Football by THL Dagonell Surprise! Football is period, although our ancestors would probably have sneered at all the rules and regulations we've added to our game. Medieval football was called "Gameball", `game' being the Old English word for fight or battle. The rules were much simpler ... there weren't any! First team to get the ball into their opposing team's goal, wins. The ancient Greeks and Romans played "Harpastum", a game which combines elements of Soccer, Rugby and American Football. The Romans imported this game into England during the time of Julius Caesar; however it wasn't until the Middle Ages that the game really caught on. The sides were seldom equal. There were no limits to the number of players. Women as well as men played. In a friendly pickup game among knights on a campaign, the goals were probably only a few dozen yards apart. In regular games between neighboring villages, with everything the phrase `traditional rivals' implies, it was not unusual for the goals to be hundreds of yards or even one or two miles apart. The ball was a pig's bladder, at first stuffed with dried peas and later inflated with air. We still refer to a football as a "pigskin" even today, when modern footballs are made from cowhide. From _Sports and Pastimes_ by Strutt, originally published in the early 1700's. "The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder and cased in leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved, the game is won." The illustration is a woodcut from Strutt's book showing a football being inflated. A neutral person would throw the ball into the air as high as possible between the two teams and then run for dear life as the teams converged. There was no penalty for roughing the ref. The ball could be carried, kicked, passed or thrown, whatever got it closer to the goal. The medieval version of the Superbowl took place on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Entire towns participated and some games literally lasted for several days. The tradition continued off and on from the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries. As you may have realized, the potential for mayhem was enormous. Documented instances of crippling injuries, including several fatalities, abound. A papal dispensation was issued in 1321 to a player who accidentally killed an opponent. Kings Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry V, Henry VI, Lord Oliver Cromwell, and Queen Elizabeth I, all prohibited the game due to the number of injuries it caused and because it took time away from archery practice. The laws were ignored. In the mid-fifteenth century, a variation called "Kicking Camp" developed. The ball could ONLY be kicked, not carried or thrown. This game later developed into European football, called Soccer. The game of American Football evolved from the original game of "Gameball" which continued to be played right up to the Renaissance. Bibliography ======= Football History -- http://wwwwbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/user/tiny/fhistory.html The History of English Football -- http://www.the-english-football-archive.com/football_history.htm The History of Football -- http://www.nenyl.org.uk/history_of_football.html Reeves, Compton Pleasures and Pastimes of Medieval England (England; Alan Sutton Pub.;1995; ISBN 0-7509-0089-X; 228pgs) Barnes and Noble recently bought the printing rights for this previously out-of-print book. ------ Copyright 2004 by David P. Salley. . Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author receives a copy. If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan. Edited by Mark S. Harris Football-art Page 3 of 3