Are you wondering where we came up with the term Swashbucklers Tidings? We like playful ways to approach trips, holidays, and adventures. At one point, our family pretended we were on a Paw Patrol mission to pick out the best Christmas tree. It was a desperate time that day. For that reason, it felt important to bring that energy to our expat adventure in the UK. We needed a theme our family could rally around. You see this a lot in life. After all, people choose mantras all the time; for example, phrases can include YOLO (you only live once), carpe diem, when in Rome, Que sera sera, etc.
We like putting our spin on things with a bit of humor. Swashbucklers felt like a good fit. However, you must understand this term evolved over the centuries. So, we refer to ourselves as swashbucklers in the most recent romanticized iteration.
Origin of the Term Swashbuckler
The term first originated circa the 1550s. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it meant “blustering, swaggering fighting man” or, one who makes menacing noises by striking his or an opponent’s shield.” The original intention in using the word wasn’t to bestow a compliment. Although, if anyone has uprooted their lives with children, you might agree that you definitely will experience some of that old-school swashbuckling from your younger travel companions in the transition.
You’ll be shocked to learn we are not swordsmen either. At this point, you’re probably thinking to yourself, wow, this is the most loosely based connection I can imagine. Stick with us. Like all good midwestern stories, we’ll eventually get to our point!
Romanticized Swasbucklers
As the term evolved, it grew into a genre reflecting a protagonist in European adventure literature. We slide in here. Protagonists in our own lives, check. Setting off on a European adventure, check! Popular characters in the genre of swashbuckling include Robin Hood, Zorro, and the Three Musketeers. It sounds pretty fun to embody that character.
Swashbucklers are skilled in swordplay and have other attributes such as daring, heroic, loyal, and idealistic. These themes, we feel, have influenced our decision to go on this adventure, how we want to approach this experience, and how we, as a family, want to support and encourage each other throughout this journey.
This passage by Jefffrey Richards enhances the appeal of swashbucklers,
The ringing speech, the romantic gesture, the balletic grace, the virtues which the swashbuckling hero incarnated (courage, loyalty, patriotism) are alien to today’s style, which is tough, cynical, laconic, individualistic — in a word, ‘cool’…To see them [swashbuckling films] today their power undimmed by the years, is to recapture not just the golden, carefree days of childhood but also lost ideals and vanished virtues, swamped by the cynical rat-race reality of the modern, white-hot, technological world — chivalry, gallantry, patriotism, duty and honour.
Richards, Jeffrey. Swordsmen of the Screen: From Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York.
For us, we view this expat adventure as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We want it to feel full of daringness, romance, adventure, and altruism. So, embodying a mentality that keeps us on our toes and challenges how we approach life during our time here feels a little bit like swashbuckling to us.