Games
“Your games have military applications, it seems, or perhaps a military background,” I note through the conversation paper when, blatantly attempting to distract me from my rumination, Atlanta shows me a series of large, colourful, well-illustrated books sharing the title “Games and Sports: An Encyclopedia.”
Instead of answering through signage, in writing or verbally, she points a finger at a section of text detailing the latest game that I am about to read: hopscotch.
And the text does elucidate the point: This particular game was firstly used as a way to train a foot soldier’s agility.
It is not the only game or sport which began thus, at that, or clearly applicable for soldiers in training. The sporting game “baseball” and its like, for example, can be used to train wartime scouts and messangers who needs to dodge enemy hunters… who can also be trained using the selfsame activity.
`Hmm. I might like the training sessions more, if General Týr employed this trick. I wonder if I can copy this book to share with him, or have Atlanta purchase one for me, to be reimbursed by the Crown. For a rather pacifistic society, Midgardians are quite fond of warrior-like things….`