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Broomriding isn't as old as mankind. But it is nearly as old as our western culture. Learn more about its making and follow the recommended background reading. You'll find the books and periodicals among many more in the library of Rinaku Broomstick's Broomriding School.
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Mesopotamia: The Proto-Elamic Cylinder SealsWe don't know a lot about the beginnings of broomriding, only that everyone thought it began in the early Middle Ages. Recent excavations in Iraq prooved this theory to be wrong. A white magnite cylinder seal from the late Djemet-Nasr- or early Proto-Elamic time is assumingly the earliest witness of this extraordinary economic means of transport. A cattle of cows is shown on the upper row and below a hut and a cowshed alternately. On top of each second hut, there is an object, undoubtedly a broom and its spellcasting rider ready to fly. The motive was followed on many a cylinder seal with similar representations during the centuries of the Proto-Elamic time. It spread unorthodoxically from north to south, where step by step the broomrider was replaced by carriage. Then, all of a sudden, the motive disappeard and no single depiction of a broomrider appeared the christian manuscripts of the 6th and 7th century B.C. If broomriding was common knowledge in the first half of the third millenary before our time in Mesopotamia - can it possibly have disappeared for dozens of centuries and then be re-established? Or has it become common knowledge and nobody felt the need to dipict it? Or have there been early invisibility spells around 2500 B.C.? Questions after questions. The iBa Knowledge Department announced scolarships in different countries for anthropological and historical investigation on the subject. Martha Brendling, Professor of Mesopotamian Studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin assumes that mesopotamian farmers discovered sowing from flying broomstics, which guaranteed a wider dissemination of the grains and therefore a richer harvest. This theory was presented at the 2002 International Broomrider's Congress in Cheb (Eger), where it rose a heated discussion. It is on the way to be published soon. |
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The Graeco-Roman EthnographersThe first greek ethnographers visiting the countries of the early high cultures, Martha Brending argues, indicated this agricultural technique incorrectly as a fertility ritual and brought the idea of harvest improving religion to Europe. Since their influence on European scholars was immense, their idea of a ritualized every day life appears in nearly every book about the Fertile Halfmoon until the most recent studies of our days. A fragment attributed to Diodorus Siculus, was found only last year in the spectaculous excavation of a private library near Athens by the DAI (Dutch Archeological Institute). A sketch shows fertility rites of flying pitchforks, poles and broomsticks being ridden like horses above grain fields. People on brooms are leaping high into the air and obviously dancing. As a pleasant coincidence encouraging scolars for further research, this fragment was presented on the same 2002 International Broomrider's Congress in Cheb (Eger) by the leading DAI excavator Theodor Badger. The discussion between the two experts is certainly the first step to a serious investigation of the subject in ancient times. |
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The Glorious Middle Ages576, Codex Monacensis 125a recto: illustration of three witches dancing with their brooms around and two dancing on their brooms above a bonfire. The text around the illustration is about foreign religious customs in southern Italy. No single word is about witchcraft or broomriding. 12th century: first skilled broom making craftsmen on the market. Florentinian School. around 1500: Leonardo da Vinci made countless drafts about the bird's flight and finally constructed an ornithopter. C.Weldman (Studies about Leonardo da Vinci, Munich 1986) reconstructs the following occurence: A broomrider, having suffered a partial damage at his invisibility cloak or spell, was seen by the universial genie. Leonardo, maybe having glimpsed parts of the broom handle but not the faggot, tried to reconstruct the scene. Haunted by the idea to be the genious inventor of a flying machine, he never stopped drafting until he had outlined his immense ornithopter with a weight of around 600 lbs! Of course, this instrument was unable to fly. Leonardo made the fatal mistake that his flying maching should fly with human muscle-power alone, without magic or mental energy. |
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Reconstructing Ancient BroomsLate 1770ies: Eugène Chaumas, a self-called mago-engineer from
Arnouville near Paris, heard about former flying pitchforks and set
himself the goal to reconstruct one. His tireless experiments over half
a decade were fruitful and in spring 1783, he applied a patent for his
magi-construction. But allas, the patent officer rejected with the argument
that the flying object was "bare of any elements fit to fly, such
as wings or a gas container". Enraged, Chaumas left the office
and continued working on invisibility charms. 1785: Lord Windshut, an amateur of gothic scriptures reconstructs an broom from the late Middle Age with the help of a copy of Codex Monacensis 125a verso found in in the local church's storage room. 1805: Sir Georg Cayley, the inventor of the basic airplane form, constructed
a glider able to bear his gardener a dozen feet and later on his coachman
over a small valley. The coachman gave his notice immediately after
landing and run to the magical community of the town closeby, where
his plea for supporting wings and a shock absorbing landing construction
was heard with great intrest. 1880: the french metalworker Le Bésnier is said to have flown
with a self-built wing frame from wood and taffeta a couple of feet
over the ground. Actually, this was an early case of hovering. Le Bésnier
had a partial, but not certificated magical education and he tried to
combine fragments of magical flying techniques he had heard from with
egg-shaped, bug-like wings of about 5 ft diameter.
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Step-By-Step Inventions in the 20th Century1905: the flying broom was reconstructed and fit to fly in every weather. The mago-engineers of the time concentrated on comfortizing spells and a warm equipment. The research for the ideal wood came to an end: ash and spruce convinced with their bendiness, low weight, stability and durability. 1919: the Association International du Dévelopment du Balay Volant (AIDBV) was founded in Bordeaux, France by deputees of France, Algeria, Belgium, Canada, Marocco and Portugal. René Janglère, the french minister of magical culture and sports invited mago-ingeneers of the six countries to present their most recent developments. Further to this, in the later afternoons, the deputees discussed about forming a regular platform to exchange broomriding matters. The association meets annually since then, and nearly twenty nations have joined in. 1920 beginning of development of racing brooms. Norwegian mago-ingeneers discovered, that spels stuck best on rowan wood. Therefore many a modern racing brooms is of mixed wood containing at least a thin layer of rowan around the handle. 1928: Hoover riding was invented. 1958: Deputies of the broomriding organisations of Austria, Denmark Great, Britain and Sweden met in Epsom, Great Britain to establish a Basic Law for international broomriding. This was the beginning of the international broomriding association (iBa), in which 26 member nations from USA to Indonesia, from Norway to South Africa compete today in international broom game competitions. |
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Explosion of Inventions after 19851995: Andreas Musterknab wrote A Broomstick for every Purpose - a small, but hillarious representation of all the spells necessary to turn an ordinary wiping broom into a racing broom for the highest competitional demands. Read it and learn by the way much about the time of exploding broom enchantment! Robert de l'Ombre 's focus is on magical garments since 1985. He experiments on transferring the spellset from broom to garments. Since 1990, Calatin and Babed MacFenian attempt to combine hovering techniques with flying minuscule objects and approach on this way free flying. However, if the vast public will one day be able to fly freely, is again and again the subject of discussion in both broomriding associations. Angelus Aegean invented step by step tirelessly the perfect shelter against wind, water and visibility, culminating in the "aerodynamic shell" (AAAS), which includes every single spell from the footstool to invisibility and can professionally and permanently be casted to nearly every broom model on the marked. The AAAS replaced the former tent casted by the broomrider himself, which covered only invisibility, a basic parabreeze and a bit warming up. BroomTronics: the small craftshop from denmark managed first to combine witchcraft with electrotechnics by simply adding magical holes to the spellset. Broom Tronics offers since 1995 year after year an astonishing number of electrotechnical or mind-engined "Smart Components" to a broom transforming it to a multifunctional means of transport and communication instrument at the same time. |
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Highly recommended background readingBooks
Periodicals
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