Is the archer a "foreigner"?

[-JKP-]

Wilhelm Tell was a crossbowman

I rather like this idea. It fits many of the circumstances (time period, location, folk-hero status, crossbow), etc., so I looked around, but found some things that complicate the picture (as usual, it never is as straightforward as one would hope). This article in particular caught my attention:

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Now... it doesn't have to be a real person to be a popular folk-hero, or the subject of plays and stories, but I couldn't find any old images of him (at least not yet).


Okay, so here is a loooooong string of "what ifs" (assumptions)... what if the VMS originated in Switzerland... what if the Wilhelm Tell story was widely accepted by the early 15th century... what if the VMS Sagittarius zodiac were copied from a manuscript with a longbow or a shortbow... if the author were Swiss, the odds that they would substitute a crossbow would be rather high even if the exemplar had another kind of bow (the crossbow is the symbol of Swiss exports to this day). If they were French or German, the kind of bow probably wouldn't matter as much because it's not their symbol of national pride. The exemplar MIGHT be a crossbow, but under these circumstances, it wouldn't have to be in order to inspire the use of a crossbow.