Offhand Comments On Fjording
June 12, 2005
“This is a pic of me and my warrior sons…
We took some shots on the mountain where we just moved to and blew them up and framed them for this last Mother’s Day.
We do something called “Fjording”…
which comes from my high school days…
which is when we tired of the b. s. at school me and my buddies would head for the surrounding hills…
find good fighting sticks and run around and stick fight and attack the dead branches of trees…
It turned into a ‘thing’ over the years…
with many practitioners…
good outdoor exercise…
and I’ve passed on the martial sport to my boys…
So, this is a pic of us with our choice ‘swords’ or fjording sticks…
When taking this pic I told them to imagine that a pit of demons lay below and we we flying over the hill to attack and destroy them…
kinda goofy, I know…
but the blow up of this pic turned out great and wifey loved it…
That’s me in the middle, my oldest Alexander(20)on my right, Jackson(13) next to him…
Skylar 18 on my left …
and Isaac(15) on far left… “
March 15, 2007
“‘Fjording’ is a martial art I created in high school, similar to Kendo, but with a touch more tongue-in-cheek accompaniment. It’s basically stick fighting in the mountains, where much excellent bonding and comradery takes place amidst God’s wonderous creation.”
November 25, 2007
“We trotted off at “warrior’s pace”, which is a slow, steady jog utilized by the Founding Fjorders” to cover long distances with little strain. It is an ambling mode of foot transport used by soldiers, scouts and messengers for countless ages, and ever-effective.
Every fourth step, under the breath, me and my teenage comrades–the Founding Fjorders, back in the day–uttered “ho” as we marched, pre-driving age, through the same foothills; or between far-flung friends’ homes, parties, through neighborhood streets, usually late at night puffing steam in the cold, when most everyone else was sleeping.”
December 20, 2008
“There is real play, real joy and mirth and lightness, and His yoke is very gentle and easy, which reigns one in, yet allows for much that can yet be enjoyed, appreciated, experienced in this world, in proper context … .
“Fjording”, for me, is an example of good and healthy play. Play at being a “warrior”, and it is genuinely healthy fun, taken lightly, but at the same time providing skills which can be helpful in a self-defense scenario.
Fjording, in this play, is new martial arts style I developed in high school, taught to my friends, and have passed on to my children and some of their friends. At its most basic level, it is akin to “kendo” or, “stick fighting”.
It has nothing, lol, to do with “fjords”, and I think the term came loosely from the Monty Python skit where the dead parrot was said to be “pining for the fjords” … . .
There are several “types” of fjording sticks … which mainly follow general sword terminology … such as “the double handed long sword”, “the broad sword”, “the battle-axe”, “scimitar”, “long sword” … and then there are “staffs” which are not meant for battle (though should be able to in a pinch) … but meant for “ceremonial” effect, trekking, “questing”, and just looking really cool in the corner of the living room … . .”
“The “Sea Fjorder’s Staff” is a new innovation —(innovations in fjording sticks and “fjording adventures” are always encouraged, according to participants own creative impulses and experiences … . such as the time my oldest son and a friend went “river fjording” …. which entailed “bounding” across boulders, back and forth across a river in the red plateau mountains of Southern Utah … of coruse, with their fjording sticks in hand … . trying to keep a continuous flow of movement going.. all the way down… “Bounding” is a fjorder term which generally refers to the fun activity of leaping down hillsides … stick in hand…. maybe striking some dead branches along the way, while leaping… …. while some of the best and funnest bounding was done in the dead of winter, moonlit night shining brightly… silver-blue on the snow… the deep snow… and you start at the top of the hill and then just start leaping down… in big, superhero type leaps… sometimes getting 6 to 10 feet of air… landing in the four foot snow… keeping moving…. dodging the scrub oak… down, down the hill, fast, laughing, shouting….. healthy, strengthening fun and training … heh…. ).”
“As, so far, the fjording art has only been practiced along the Wasatch Front mountain range and in the deserts of Southern Utah… the idea of an ocean fjord was yet to be…. But when I was on a job…. working for some people near Los Angelos … in my down time I would go alone to the beach… and there were some cliffs nearby… you could climb down… to a hidden cove… ringed by big boulders… and amongst those rocks, i found this wonderful stick, staff…. with a very unique shape and character…. (I’m always on the lookout for good sticks, as any fjorder is and should be … ) And I immediately decided I would save this stick, staff to get to Zeph … partly because he is from that area roughly… those beaches.. and it just struck me the thing to do….
I didn’t bring it back on the plane with me … so it stayed in Palos Verdes for about two more years… at the peoples’ house i had worked on…. But I told the owner that if he ever came to Salt Lake, could he bring it? … Well, about 2 years later…. he DID bring it on the plane… and passed it off to a mutual friend, whose condo in Park City i was painting at the time….. the mutual friend got it from the other fellow and actually brought it to me and handed it to me with the airline sticker on it from having passed through luggage… A hand off … two years later… of the Sea Fjorder Staff intended for Zeph …
It’s taken me about another year to get time and the right space to “dress” it … . as i have done with other special sticks…. and especially the staff type … . By dressing it, I adorn it… but not to prissily… . it must be done with the sense of “being in the field” … battle nearby… not a lot of time… but important to give it some special attributes … . In this case, it meant embedded with some gems, stones, metals (copper, steel, gold leaf) and my special sewing, beading, thread designs… which I’ve done when I can since high school. I use to make my own moccasins and have always been a bit of sewer … sewing holes, making necklaces, trinkets…. Just something I’ve always done when time has permitted…. I’m a bit of jewelry maker … but of a rustic, mountain man, Indian type… relics… with meaning and infused with my prayers, frequencies, spirit, love and art… … . .”
“I have a cache of authentic “battle-tested” fjording sticks which I’ve been saving, found on “quests” and “fjords” over the years…. which i intend to offer to any interested… and they too will have a little bit of the dressing… although I only have a couple of staff types (which are mostly for walking and ceremonial… and do not “dress” too much, the fighting types, which, are also good for walking sticks… but with the added benefit of being very tough and sturdy and a self-defense weapon … if in a pinch … . . like the wooden swords of shao lin … or kendo … .”
“At different times in my life, I have studied and practiced certain martial arts … always interested in “warrior” type things… heh… since a child… and, for fun and for actual benefit, developed my own self-defense art… this “fjording” … which does not have any of the occult or sketchy spiritual elements of some of the other martial arts… but is more in line with use and love of staffs, sticks, walking sticks… found in scripture … . And combines an element of simple “play”, childlike fun, creativity … . harmless… but potentially spiritually conducive… in subtle, simple, wholesome ways … .”
March 21, 2009
Righteous fun … and think Okinawa … and helping me someday being able to help those who God sends my way, God willing … fulfilling dreams, visions, hopes, innocent spirit-filled child-like imaginings … .
I have a collection of sticks, fjording sticks which came from genuine “quests”, “fjords” over the past 8 years or more. In fjording terms, a “quest” is when you go on a hike, a journey into the hills or some wilderness area … and search for the perfect stick. In fjording protocol it is never to be a live branch, but only those that have fallen, though the greener the better of these, as they are the strongest. Then, once having found a suitable “sword” or “staff” type stick … it is taken into “battle”. There is “dry battle” and “wet battle”. “Dry battle” is how you test your stick by attacking the dead branches of surrounding trees. Again, one never hurts or strikes living branches, but having gained the keen eye of a fjorder, you learn to spot a grove or thicket with lots of low hanging dead branches and you melee … . “Wet battle” is sword/stick fighting between two or more fjorders, fighting each other… never trying to hurt so much, as make good strikes on the arms, body and such and clashing sticks, testing their strength—many break in this testing and are tossed or kept as short swords or daggers … .
If your stick is good.. it will survive all these battles and many more like it, for years sometimes and become a battle-hardened or “tested” fjording stick…. good for use as a walking stick, but also fortuitous in self-defense. Some sticks are not of the fighting variety, and are meant more just for walking or kept at home, maybe in a corner or on the wall … and are known as “ceremonial” sticks … . .
There are several sizes of stick one uses … . most often the size of a long-sword, as these can be used both as a walking stick and as a fighting stick. Sometimes though, one wants a smaller stick, ie., those who like to fight two-handed … with a short-sword size in one hand, and a longer rapier style in the other. This is how the greatest swordsman, samurai of all time Myamoto Musashi fought and was never defeated.
I prefer a single, double-handed longsword style. Sometimes, a larger style is used, which is more like a large staff. Also, there are what we call “battle-axes” and these can be used in hand to hand, but are most fun when used throwing. Fjorders get adept with their “battle-awes” spotting dead branches many feet high up in a tree, aiming and then throwing, perfectly striking the branch … . I contend the trees enjoy being sheared this way, just as we do when getting a good hair-cut … . .
Anyway, I have a small collection of actually used and tested battle sticks/fjording sticks, of various sizes and styles … about 15 or so, which me and my sons, and some of their friends who learned the fjording art, as I took them into the mountains several times … . sticks we’ve kept, of sentimental authentic fjording value … . .
I am going to make them available and will “dress” them a bit ( this means to add a little bit of decorative styling in the way of threads and sometimes gems … .) and they are going to be a limited edition collection. They are a KTL limited edition set of sticks, this batch, and some will come with a similarly fjorder used and tested bandanna, which is the official clothing item also pertinent the fjording art. I have a collection of bandanna’s which I have used on fjords (like Zeph got with his sea-fjorders staff) … and some of the sticks will come with a bandanna (clean of course:)
The sticks will be signed by me and bear the official fjorder insignia plus a limited edition “KTL” designation.
Shortly, I will make available on my website how to acquire one of these fine, spirited treasures, whose limited edition status makes the owner an instant honorary member of the Fjorder Clan of the Kraals’ of Thunder and Lightning. Also shortly, a new installment of the KTL story will be on my site, within days, for any who are following the tale … . Nearly to the point of recounting the shocking revelations wrought re the “day the city stood still” … . . :)
All of this goes towards my mostly impossible (though not with God’s help) dream of some day establishing or joining a network of safe havens … perhaps … and/or my mission to reach the many lost souls of the world through art, writing, song, in the world, but not of it … to retrieve those who are confused, seeking, wondering about it all—many of the youth who have been so mislef … many who just haven’t been properly reached yet. It is ambitious, and I cannot do it alone, but hope that some of you will join me, help me in this, as able … . just in service to the Holy One … . having fun, staying of good cheer, exemplifying the good news … reaching out as we are called to do … . . I know many of you are just so already engaged and I laud you for this!
Founding Fjorder, Brother Thomas