The Story of The Middle Finger...

Gather round all ye who wish to hear the story of the middle finger and how it came to be.

A long time ago in a far away land called the british isles lived two nations(i think). One was called England, and the other, Scotland. Occaisionally these nations would get mad and fight each other. For a while though, the people of Scotland had an advantage. The Longbow. The longbow was an extraordinary weapon at the time. It provided much more damage to the enemy than a regular bow. The english knew this and therefore feared the longbowmen. During the course of battles they discovered that when the scottish longbowmen pulled the arrows back, they would use the middle finger. The british then decided to cut the middle finger off of any longbowmen they could during a certain battle. The scotsmen would come back with a simple war injury of a missing middle finger. So, at the next battle, the Scots Paraded all the Longbowmen Out in front on the top of a hill. All of the longbowmen then to show the British their middle fingers as a sign of power and dominance as well as anger and hatred. This is how our common expression of "flipping the bird" came to be.

I learned this today as interesting tidbit in social studies. I figured you all would like it. Especially those who are from scotland.

It was the saxons I believe.

sweeet.

Wow lol, now that was interesting.

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Originally Posted by Smokin EnDo

It was the saxons I believe.

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Arent the saxons and the english the same? In fact doesnt england get its name from the anglo-saxons? It used to be called Angleand (england). Theyre similar see.

I heard the same explanation, except it was the English and the French. THe other bit I read was that the bows were made of yew. If you were missing your middle finger you couldn't pluck yew.....the English would taunt the French, waving their middle fingers and shouting about being able to "pluck yew"!!

Peace

Here's what Wikipedia says about its origin:

"The origin of this gesture is highly speculative, but is quite possibly up to 2500 years old. It is identified as the digitus impudicus ('impudent finger') in Ancient Roman writings [1] and reference is made to using the finger in the Ancient Greek comedy The Clouds by Aristophanes. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another. It has been noted that the gesture resembles an erect penis.

Ancient Romans also considered an image of an erect phallus as a talisman against evil spells. As a consequence, displaying this gesture to another may not have been a pseudo-sexual insult but rather an insulting statement along the lines of—"I'm going to protect myself against your witchcraft, before you even start" but an even earlier reference is made to ancient farmers using this finger to test hens for coming eggs.

Jean Froissart (circa 1337-circa 1404) was a historian and the author of Froissart's Chronicles, a document that is essential to an understanding of Europe in the fourteenth century and to the twists and turns taken by the Hundred Years' War. The story of the English waving their fingers at the French is told in the first person account by Jean Froissart. However, the description is not of an incident at the Battle of Agincourt, but rather at the siege of a castle nearby in the Hundred Years' War. Adding to the evidence is that by all accounts Jean Froissart died before the battle actually took place; it was therefore rather difficult for him to have written about it.

One should note that Jean Froissart's writings aren't the most reliable and that a similar story is told about the English giving the V sign. This can be further looked into at the Battle of Agincourt."

The article on the Battle og Agincourt says this:

"It has long been told that the famous "two-fingers salute" and/or "V sign" derives from the gestures of English archers, fighting at Agincourt. The myth claims that the French cut off two fingers on the right hand of captured archers and that the gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated.

This may have some basis in fact - Jean Froissart (circa 1337-circa 1404) was a historian as the author of The Chronicle, a primary document that is essential to an understanding of Europe in the fourteenth century and to the twists and turns taken by the Hundred Years' War. The story of the English waving their fingers at the French is told in the first person account by Froissart, however the description is not of an incident at the Battle of Agincourt, but rather at the siege of a castle in another incident during the Hundred Years War. Also, Froissart is known to have died before the Battle of Agincourt. If it was used at Agincourt, it was not invented there."

Eh, like everything, the origin can be debated.

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Originally Posted by spacelamb

I heard the same explanation, except it was the English and the French. THe other bit I read was that the bows were made of yew. If you were missing your middle finger you couldn't pluck yew.....the English would taunt the French, waving their middle fingers and shouting about being able to "pluck yew"!!

Peace

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^^ that info comes from some HBO special that was quite interesting