legend

The Legend of Arrowl Flynn

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This is a story meant to be read to your young archers to be. There is a series of pictures from the story at the bottom of the page. It is recommende that the story be read through aloud first and then the pictures shown, so that the flow of the story is not broken...

The Legend of Arrowl Flynn

The Beginning……

Once upon a time, in a garage far, far away, there was a yew plank. He had been a part of a yew tree for many, many years and now had been a plank for years as well. He found being a plank rather boring. For one thing, all the other planks around him in the lumber yard were also yew, from the same tree, in fact. Though they had much in common, that was actually a problem. They all shared the same experiences and didn’t have much new or different to talk about.
He’d been rather glad when he was purchased and shipped to the garage, thinking that this would be the start of some exciting new activities, possibly even being used to build something. That is every plank’s destiny and dream. They hope to become something beautiful, or useful, or both. However, once in the garage he was put in a corner, behind the garage door opener upper receiver, and that was that.

Life got pretty dull again. Other than a few spiders and a very uppity smaller striped maple board, there was no one to talk to. There were walnut boards and some basswood planks in the corner, but they’d been there awhile and were rather cliquish. There were also a few exotic boards, but they spoke only foreign languages. He didn’t have much to talk about with the spiders and to be honest, he found the maple board so vain about it’s good looks that he stopped trying to talk to it at all.

One day, a couple of pieces of bamboo flooring were put on the shelf next to the garage door. Now, bamboo flooring and a yew plank don’t really have a lot in common, but after some “get acquainted” talk, the yew plank felt sorry for them. They were very sad and worried. They were used to living with a pallet full of their friends and had looked forward to their destiny being part of a beautiful floor. Now, as only two pieces, they knew that that would never happen and wondered what would become of them. Over time, in their corner of the garage, the bamboo boards and the yew plank became friends.

The yew plank and the bamboo boards spent many a day talking about what their ultimate fate might be, or what they might be able to do to get themselves put to some interesting use. Life in a corner of the garage was pretty boring.

One day, they hatched a plot. Periodically the garage owner would shift the stack of lumber in the corner around. The plank figured that if he could get to the front of the stack and edge his bottom end out just a tiny bit, and if the bamboo boards could slide just a hair too far to the end of their shelf (they were already crowded and rather precariously perched), one of the boards could slide down the plank and knock the door opener upper’s receiver off of it’s mount. This might bring them more directly to the attention of the garage owner. He was a pretty smart plank…

It took a lot of time for the heavy yew plank to slowly work its way to the front of the wood stack, and the bamboo boards worked equally hard to get closer and closer to the edge of their shelf. Finally, one day, the garage owner left the yew plank standing with its bottom end rather close to the garage door opener upper receiver. At last, they were in position and when the garage owner was looking for something on the crowded shelf (he wasn’t very neat), the boards took the opportunity to fall off the end of the shelf, slide down the yew plank and knock the door opener upper’s receiver off of its mounting.

The garage owner, who wasn’t terribly swift, didn’t notice the damage right away, not until he tried to close up the garage. When the door wouldn’t close, he had to investigate and discovered the damage to the receiver. It was easily fixed, but only after he had gotten the bamboo boards and the yew plank out of the way. As the boards and plank had hoped, this brought them to his attention.

They sat on a table in the garage for a few days, wondering what might happen next. Then suddenly, life, or at least life as planks and boards know it, got very interesting! The garage owner began studying and marking them, then they were sawed into widths and then resawed into thin slats and then fed through various sanding machines. Now, you might think that this violent activity would be a cause for worry, but not to boards and planks! They know that this is part of the journey to meet their destiny, to become something beautiful, something permanent, something useful.

The bamboo boards and the yew plank were overjoyed to know that they were being put to use after all of the long time it had taken them to reach this point. However, they were very confused. Bamboo and yew are extremely different, and yet they were being handled and treated the same. They simply couldn’t imagine what use would involve both of them. To make things even more confusing, they were joined by a small piece of one of the walnut boards, who also had no idea what was in store for them.

When all the machine processing was finished, and the sawdust cleaned up, the slats of bamboo and the slats of yew and the piece of walnut were smeared with glue and pressed together very tightly in a hot oven. Though very different, the yew and the bamboo had been good friends for quite awhile. The piece of walnut, who had actually been rather stand offish back in the garage corner, was very confused and felt lost without his own kind, but the bamboo and yew welcomed him and convinced him that together, they were all about to become something permanent, the best destiny for all good wood. They just didn’t know what that something was yet.

After the experience of the oven, the pieces of wood really began to feel more like they were one thing. They began to sense that they were developing a feeling of “self”, rather than being three different things. Now they were all truly united, although they still didn’t know for what purpose. It was confusing, but very interesting.

They were subjected to more processing by the garage owner, who drew lines on them, bandsawed them, then did more machine sanding, then hand sanding. At each step of processing, the feeling of unity among the three pieces of wood became greater, and they began thinking less as bamboo, yew and walnut and more and more and as one thing, wondering “What am I? What will I become? What will I do?”

Suddenly, there was a great pulling feeling! They had been fastened to a huge panel, with string tied to their ends and they were being pulled and flexed and tested to their limit! It felt good! It felt wonderful! Yes, it felt right! Yew, bamboo and walnut were now one… they were a bow! The highest and truest form of bow, a traditional longbow! This was what was meant to be. This was their destiny! They were a thing of beauty, a useful tool that would serve well and bring pleasure to its users.

Unaware of the feelings within the wood of his new creation, the garage owner was nonetheless pleased. The bow looked good and shot well. He applied many coats of shiny, protective finish and gave it a fine alligator leather hand wrap and a carefully constructed new string. This was a special bow. He was an old man and couldn’t hunt or travel as much as he would have liked. This bow would do that for him. It was being made for the members of an archery group, the Howard Hill Longbowmen, who honored and preserved the memory of the famous archer Howard Hill and the tradition of the simple, basic longbow he used.

This new bow would be named “Arrowl Flynn”, in memory of the actor Errol Flynn, who played Robin Hood in a famous movie, and who was a good friend of Howard Hill. Arrowl would live a life of adventure. He would be circulated among the members of the Howard Hill Longbowmen, attending archery events in the summer and hunting in the fall and winter. The stories of his adventures would be read and looked forward to by the group. His first adventure was to be taken up on a mountain, into the deep woods, where he shot at old stumps. He did very well, and now he is looking forward to many more adventures.

Thus was “Arrowl Flynn”, and the “Legend of Arrowl Flynn”, born. Arrowl shall live long, and travel far. His adventures will inspire other bows and will stand as a lesson on what a simple yew plank, some bamboo boards and a piece of walnut can achieve… if they’re very determined.

The end of the beginning…

The piece of bamboo flooring about to slide down the yew plank and hit the garage door opener upper receiver...	Lines on the plank so it can be sawed...
Being sawed into slats...	Slats of yew and bamboo...
In the sander, being made into bow pieces...	The walnut piece...
All the pieces clamped together...	And put into an oven...
All of the pieces united into one...	Which becomes a bow!!!
Arrowl Flynn, in the forest, shooting stumps. He aimed at dark spots on the stumps...	His first shots were pretty good...
And then he got better and better...	Arrowl is going to be a great bow!

Note to Reader: To see and show all of the pictures of Arrowl Flynn finished, go to:

Meet Arrowl Flynn