Okay, so maybe I have been a little swept up in the World Cup lately, but that's not the only reason for this newest idea for a series of posts. Characters tend to have serious things that they're going through while we're telling their stories, but everyone needs downtime. Hell, kids had to do something for fun back then, it wasn't all toil and drudgery. So, time to look back on how our ancestors had fun (apart from drinking and killing each other).
While ball-games have long been popular around the world, even ones that require the use of no hands, they were not what the world now knows as association football (soccer/futbol/futebol). It is commonly agreed that association football was formalized in the 19th Century to give a consistent set of rules to the games having been played in English public schools since at least 1303. It was this period that differentiated association football, rules football (now, most commonly Australian), and rugby. The term "soccer" was coined in the 1880s, in England, as an abbreviation for the word "association."
Early games were rather rough (as might be imagined, if you've ever seen rugby or rules football). The legend connected with the origin of the games comes from an 8th C tale of soldiers kicking the head of a defeated (obviously) Danish prince around a field (though this makes me think of Tolkien's legendary history of golf). In fact, the earliest record we have of football being played in public schools, is related to the death of a player. The Lord Mayor of London forbid its playing in 1314 to try to cut down on the chaos it encouraged. These negative sentiments were echoed by kings in England, Scotland and France in hopes of keeping their soldiers in line and engaged in more useful pursuits (like practicing their archery). Other proscriptions were related to breaking windows or breaking the sabbath (remember, no weekends at this time, so Sunday was the only real free time during the day for most people).
Football, in the early days, was played by an indefinite number of people (different versions of "mob football" developed around the globe, including thousands of Native Americans on the beach at one time). Whole villages might take part, playing over any ground. Local rules might allow play with any part of the body and a certain level of violence was expected. Not even the ball was formalized in size or weight, until nine years after the modern sport was codified. The ball to be used and the duration of the game were agreed upon between the contending parties prior to the onset of hostilities. While most play was disorganized, a record from a public school (1581), does describe a recognizable football league with organized sides, small numbers, standings and a formal referee.
All kinds of materials have been used to play ball games around the world. In South America, the natives used a light elasticized ball (the process for vulcanizing rubber coming much later). Other cultures used bundles of rags or animal skins stuffed with feathers, cork, furs, what have you. I'm not sure we can consider skulls to be "balls," but it is said that some folks kicked them around at play as well. We get closer to the modern definition of a football when those playful Medieval folks started inflating pigs' bladders to bop around, though it was too delicate for football. Later they were covered in leather to protect the bladder and produce a more regular shape. It wasn't until the 19th Century that rubber bladders were invented, creating uniform balls.
Obviously, the modern sport of soccer (again, using the modern American term) was not present in the Medieval period, but there were many similar games which led up to this phenomenon. The benefits of play were recognized by early schoolmasters, who encouraged the children to participate, though they tried to tone down the violence. Football was widely played by men as well as boys (even women were known to have participated, though not in public schools). For a fantasy setting, it seems a rather simple task to devise some basic rules, toss a ball out there and let your characters hurt each other. See? You can still torture your creations even when they're having fun.
That looks like enough for a first installment. In the future, I'll cover some of the related ball games and well as spill over into other arenas. If you have some suggestions as to what I might cover, or you want to write one, just drop me a line. I'm always happy for input.
History Timeline - http://www.topendsports.com/sport/soccer/history.htm
Soccer Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football
English Public School Football Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_public_school_football_games
Government Opposition - http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/the-game/opposition-to-the-game.html
Early Games - http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/the-game/Britain-home-of-football.html
Game Balls - http://www.soccerballworld.com/History.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment