Kalevalan society

From: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 12:08:53 +0300

> From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
> Subject: Finnish Longbows
>
> Adept Mikko:
> > Actually the pre - and Viking age Finns used the longbow in
> > everyday hunting, and of course, warfare. As these Finns were
> > also bear worhippers, at least myself and Vesa Lehtinen have
> > used them as the model for the Rathori culture.
>
> I agree that most of the Kalevala stuff would work for Rathori-level
> culture as well. There aren't too many mentions of agriculture IIRC.

Most might I suppose. There are windmills and viking style swords and armor. Using RQ culture definitions the Kalevala culture is barbaric, not hsunchen.  

> > The longbow is quite fine for hunting (try killing a european
> > moose or a bear with a lighter weapon!), and one quite usable
> > for a mobile force of raiders. The finnish longbow differs a
> > bit from the Welsh one, but the strength and impact are
> > practically identical.
>
> Do you have any info on what kind of wood they used?

Juniper. It takes about a hundred years to grow big enough, close to two hundred in the north, but it makes excellent bows.  

> > A longbow isn't _that_ hard a weapon to use, and when the culture
> > uses it for hunting large game the hunters tend to get very
> > accurate and deadly with it.
>
> Otherwise, they're likely hungry or dead.
>
> IMO the difference in difficulty of learning to shoot a self bow or a
> long bow lies mainly in building up the skill (not just the muscle) to
> handle the draw weight.

I agree, and it's guite possible to build longbows of different draw strengh. If making a bow for a 12 year old kid, of going hunting for small game one doesn't need the draw weight to kill bears. The heavy bows are for big game and war.

        -Adept

"thinker, dreamer and adventurer"

---