For Want of a Nail
That's from a poem about horseshoes. Believe me, there aren't many.
Ah, Horseshoes—the Sport of Kings! Come play a few rounds in the shade behind the Music Stage.
In medieval France, certain knights were known to ride into battle with spare horseshoes strapped to the side of their saddles. These could be quickly pulled off, and hurled at opposing knights, striking from quite a distance.
In peacetime, opposing knights were replaced with peasants, usually stationary, used for target practice and occasionally for friendly competitions.
A horseshoe flung in such a way that it encircled the peasant’s neck was known as a “ringer,” or in Old French, “une ringeur.” Since this often resulted in the untimely death of the peasant in question, this feat scored the most points.
Interestingly enough, it also proves to be the origin of the phrase “a dead ringer,” since, whenever points were scored this way, the attending marshal would cry out, “A dead ringer for Sir Everard des Barres!” or “A dead ringer for Sir Guillaume!”
How the phrase “a dead ringer” came to mean “someone who closely resembles someone else” in English is still debated. It probably has to do with the Norman Invasion.*
Let’s Go Toss Some Bags, Brah
That's lingo the pros use. Pretty cool, huh?
Ah, Cornhole—the Sport of Kings! Bring some friends and chuck some beanbags at boards with holes in them!
It is said that the great Khan Genghis (1162–1227 AD) would play a game with the chieftains and generals of his horde in which players would attempt to toss the livers and kidneys of recently slain captives through a hole cut in a slanted board. Score was kept, evidently, by pressing dried kernels of corn into holes drilled in a special “scoring board”—and thus the name “corn-hole.”
Of course, in modern times, playing the game is not nearly so barbaric. Fresh human organs have been replaced by cloth bags, often just filled with the desiccated crumbled organ meats of cows and sheep, instead; though it is rumored that sometimes they’re just filled with dried beans.*
Find the Cornhole Field near the Horseshoe pits, just north of the Music Stage.
*Hey. Don’t pester your history teachers; this is wildly inaccurate (at best) and total nonsense (mostly). But what else are you going to say about two games where you toss things at other things?