The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion (18 page)

The bow can also come with different profiles, among them:

Simple bows are made from one type of material, most commonly wood. Backed bows are made from one type of material plus a backing of resilient material for strength. Quite often, the resilient material is made from another type of wood or from sinew. Laminated bows are made from three or more types of material, though typically all are different woods. Composite bows are made from three layers of different materials, such as wood, sinew, and horn. Modern recurved bows might have wood cores coated by carbon and fiberglass laminates.

Bow strings are made from all sorts of materials: sinew, flax, hemp, cotton, ramie, silk, etc.

At the training center for the Games, Katniss encounters a wide variety of bows made from all sorts of materials, some so exotic she doesn’t know what they are. The arrows are perfect. But the practice range is nothing for her, offering only human silhouettes and bull’s-eyes.

The bows are different from the ones to which she’s accustomed, and at first, her practice is way off target because of the tension in the bow. However after a lot of practice, her aim is dead-on again (
The Hunger Games
, 101). This makes a lot of sense because in reality, the elasticity of the bow directly affects the projection of the arrows. When you pull back the strings of the bow, potential energy is stored within the bow itself. When you release the bow, the string is released, as well, and the potential energy is transformed into projectile motion.

In the actual Games, a tribute would have to use any bows she finds, and it would be impossible to train with them or get accustomed to them before using them in a life-threatening situation. If someone is short, then a bow might weigh too much or be too big to hold. If someone is tall, then a bow might be too small for a good grip and release. If someone doesn’t have sufficient muscles in her arms, shoulders, and back, she may not be able to use a larger or heavier bow. So Katniss is actually quite lucky during both the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell to find bows that fit her size and physical abilities.

For tributes without Katniss’s experience with the bow and arrows, the Games can prove deadly. Remember Glimmer? She tries to kill Katniss with arrows, but she doesn’t have much skill (
The Hunger Games
, 182).

By 16000
BC
, ancient people were binding flint points to split shafts using sinew. They were also binding feathers to the shafts. So people have used arrows for hunting and protection since very early times. As for bows, we’ve found fragments dating back to approximately 8000
BC
, but these were lost during World War II. Fragments dating to 6000
BC
still exist, however, from Denmark.

Cave paintings show people using bows between 10000 and 5000
BC
. The earliest bows we know about were made of wood and came in varying shapes and sizes. For example, the flat bow found in Holmegaard, Denmark dating back to approximately 6000
BC
is straight with pointed ends. From the late Stone Age, circa 2000–1500
BC
, an oak bow found in peat in Viborg, Denmark is slightly curved with pointed ends. An early Egyptian bow, made from acacia wood, dates to 1400
BC
and has a double convex shape.

Like bows, arrows come in many sizes and shapes. In general, the parts of the arrow are: