Jaron Bernstein wrote:For a very long time, there wasn't much known of Icelandic mythology until someone found a really great book by Snori Sturleson that had been misfiled for some centuries in a library. I am also skeptical, but one never knows. The burden is on the exponents of this system to show some books. It they can, it would be very cool. Hell, look at our own efforts. If you tried to do this art in 1950 (what is a fechtbuch?), good luck to you. Say hello to sport fencing. But today due to the manuals coming to light it is a different story.
Sorry to differ, but the fechtbuchen we use and examine were always there; it was only when people tried to look at them seriously for use in reviving European combat arts did they become valuable to us for those reasons. Anyone in theory could have looked at them since the time they were written (although with the arrival of the information age, it certainly has become much easier). If someone in 1950 had the academic interest and the physical ability, he could have translated Talhoffer or any of the other fechtbuchen and gotten started. Some of the Victorians who tried to ressurect "Old Swordplay" took the first steps. John C wrote an article on this somewhere.
Likewise, the Icelandic Sagas have been around for centuries. Anyone, in theory, could have read them at any time since they were written.
Don't hold your breath waiting for a manual to come out on lost Finnish martial arts. First, I'm sure if you tracked down this person he will say that it is all an oral tradition, passed from father to son. Second, Finnish was not reduced to a written language until appx. 1550 and even then that was only for the New Testament. The first novel in the language was not published until the 19th century. So, hoping for a Mid/Renn Finnish fechtbuch is hoping for a bit much, although if one were found it would revolutionize Finnish linguistics. Third, once again to state the obvious, I find it amazing that after so many centuries in "isolation," these fantastic martial systems are coming to light in Finland. Where were these "systems" when they were needed, like when Finland was placed under Swedish and later Russian domination? People really needed to know how to defend themselves then. Thanx for nothing, Kaspin!
I don't know if a "lost" Finnish martial art exists. I don't know for certain either if Sylvia Brown has "psychic" powers (for which she charges dupes massive $$$ and gets to appear to dumbfounded hosts like Montel) or if Carlos Casteneda managed to hook up with some Indian mystic in a bus station who taught him the secrets of life. One cannot prove a negative. However, as the great Carl Sagan once said: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
I for one will not give lip service to something which smacks of a dubious claim. If the purveyors of Kaspin can come up with some credible evidence and have this evidence examined, then I await the day. The burden is theirs, however, not mine or ARMA's. Saying that "one never knows" is like saying "keep an open mind." "Keeping an open mind" is just another phrase for mental laziness. "Open" to what? Binge drinking? Nazism? Creationism? Scientology? Belief in the Flying Spaggetti Monster? (have YOU been touched by his noodly appendage?)
Let's instead try and keep an objective mind. To quote Ayn Rand: An objective mind is open in a very important sense. It is open to all facts, and their connection using logic. In other words, it is open to the use of reason but closed to the use of anything else-unjustified feelings, faith, "divine revelation," hunches, or cultural heritage.
Since the "Kaspins" here are arguing a cultural heritage, we can safely close our minds on this one. When they get some objective evidence for this "system," we can examine it. Don't hold your breath. The Stav people haven't gotten around to getting any objective evidence for what they claim; why should the Kaspin people be any different?
Looking back I realize this post may be kind of harsh and no insult was intended. However, I am sick and tired of these "lost" martial systems cropping up like mushrooms with no supporting evidence.
