Flos Duellatorum

Just for fun, I've been doing research on the crest-a-ma-bob that Heather brought into fencing yesterday. In case you didn't hear or weren't there, Heather dug up an ancient crest (turns out to be from the third oldest martial arts manuscript surviving) and showed it to us. There was a guy divided into seven sections, representing the seven guard positions, and in four sections there were animals: The lynx at the head, the tiger at the sword arm, the lion at the left arm, and the elephant at the feet. As Heather described it, the elephant was strength, the tiger was attack, the lion was defense, and the lynx was cleverness. Before you go any farther, I'll just say which people associated with which animals to give you a general idea of who associated with which characteristic:

Lynxes: Duncan, David, Matthew, Dylan, Kathryn, Grace, and Annie.
Elephants: Luke, Elliot, Aaron, Jacob, Michael
Tigers: Joseph, Connor, Oscar
Lions: Alex, William, Jared, Chris, Andrew V., Phillip

Just as an aside, the Lynxes won the huge battle. He he. Superior planning has always overcome superior force. (Yeah, I thought the Elephants were going to whoop up on everyone too, especially when they made an alliance with the Tigers.)

Oh yeah, now it is time to define what they really mean. I've read up on it and they are most literally fortitude, celerity, audacity, and prudence. Yeah, the lynx is "prudence." Sounds pretty lame right. Since it was translated from latin, I just counted it as a poor translation and changed it to "wisdom" or "intelligence." Oh yeah, as it turns out each animal has a motto that allows you to see exactly what sentiment they are representing:

Lynx: No other creature is able to see so clearly as me, the lynx, and by this I always reckon by compass and by measure
Tiger: I am the tiger. I am very quick to turn and run, that the arrow in the sky can never approach me.
Lion: None bears a more ardent heart than me, and I challenge anyone to battle.
Elephant: I am the Elephant and I have a castle for a burden. Never do I kneel down or lose my true place.

Just saying, the tiger has the wimpiest motto of all time. "I am very quick to turn and run"? Good luck selling that one to a fencer with an ounce of guts. The Lynx also doesn't seem incredibly manly to me. I suppose that's why our team was full of girls.

By the way, a long time ago I wrote a system of organizing fencers that is frightening similar to this and I've tried to apply the animals. Last summer David and I had a long talk about it and here's pretty much how it works: There are four types of fencers, Cunning, Aggressive, Defensive, and Direct. A cunning fencer is creative and uses disengages to defeat his opponent. He's like a baseball pitcher who uses nothing but breaking balls. An aggressive fencer attacks first and attacks repeatedly. A defensive fencer waits for his opponent's attack, parries, and then takes his attack. A direct fencer waits for an opening, and then attacks. I'd say if I apply the animals, Lynx would be cunning, Tiger would be aggressive, Lion would be defensive, and Elephant would be Direct.

Anyways, here's a summary:
Fiore Dei Liberi:
Lynx - A fencer with prudence, characterized by good point control and distance measurement
Tiger - A fencer with speed, characterized by keeping his distance and then moving in and out quickly after his attack
Lion - A fencer with courage, characterized by moving forward and relying on his bladework to defeat his opponent
Elephant - A fencer with endurance, characterized by good footwork and not wasting his energy

Heather:
Lynx - A fencer with intelligence, characterized by using disengages to defeat his opponent
Tiger - A fencer with ferocity, characterized by fast bladework
Lion - A fencer with skill, characterized by moving forward and relying on his bladework to defeat his opponent
Elephant - A fencer with strength, who attacks and doesn't need to fear his line of attack being broken. (As one author described using a pistol grip, he uses a hammer to do the work of a screwdriver.)

Duncan:
Lynx - A fencer with cunning, characterized by using disengages to defeat his opponent
Tiger - A fencer with ferocity, characterized by moving forward and attacking his opponent quickly and repeatedly
Lion - A fencer with patience, characterized by using a parry to open up a spot for attack
Elephant - A fencer with balance, characterized by using point control and footwork to exploit openings.

By the way, I'll put up a poll, just to see which one everyone likes best. If you stopped reading by the third paragraph because it was too much analysis, you don't need to vote.