Danish Australian Football League and Ascent of Mont Ventoux: Difference between pages

Revision as of 10:07, 17 June 2007

Revision as of 19:44, 28 June 2007

Line 1:

<!-- Please do not remove or change this AfD message until the issue is settled -->

[[image:dafllogo.gif|right]]The '''Danish Australian Football League''' is the [[Sport governing body|controlling body]] and main [[sports league|league]] for the [[sport]] of [[Australian rules football]] in [[Denmark]]. Founded in 1989, regular competition commenced in 1991. Despite being predominantly Danish, the league includes clubs in [[Scania]] (Swedish: ''Skåne'', southern Sweden).

{{AfDM|page=Birthday of alpinism|date=2007 June 21|substed=yes}}

<!-- End of AfD message, feel free to edit beyond this point -->

[[Image:Ventoux Nordseite Schnee unterhalb des Gipfels.jpg|Thumb|right|200px|Mount Ventoux]]

==Participation==

With over 300 seniors and 100 juniors participating annually, DAFL is often considered the largest Australian Rules football competition outside the [[Anglosphere|English speaking world]].

'''Birth of Alpinism''' is the start of the concept of modern day mountain climbing for the sport.<ref>[http://www.koreaontherocks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=445 History of First Ascents]</ref><ref>[http://www.localescapes.com/marketing/pages/Mountaineering-History-4511.html Mountaineering History]</ref><ref>[http://www.lottery-news.net/dust6984-mountaineer_accessories.html Mountaineer Definitions and Statistics]</ref><ref>Petrarch's letter dated April 26, 1336, had been declared as the [http://www.sbg.ac.at/ges/people/rohr/nsk2002.htm beginning of alpinism].Man and nature in the Middle Ages - Lecture at Novosibirsk State University 2002

==History==

Christian ROHR, University of Salzburg, Austria; page 3.</ref> [[Francesco Petrarch]] is regarded as the "Father of Alpinism"<ref>[http://s24.realgolfonline.org/rockclimbingalabama/mountain-climbing.html Mountain Climbing News]</ref><ref>[http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:DKGUnhmFpY4J:www.sjr.mb.ca/ms/banner/2006/6jh/mc/history.htm+Mountain+Climbing+History+%22Father+of+Alpinism%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us Mountain Climbing History]</ref><ref>Location of a village where there is a [http://www.theluberon.com/fontaine.htm Petrarch Museum and Monument] identifying that April 26, 1336, is known as the ''" birth of alpinism and Petrarch its father. "''</ref>because of his ascent of Mont Ventoux.<ref>"Petrarch at the Peak of Fame" by Lyell Asher describes [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8129%28199310%29108%3A5%3C1050%3APATPOF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage "the first recorded Alpinist."] and April 26, 1336 as a "most notorious date on the calender of his impieties."</ref><ref>[http://www.mounteverest.net/story/HappybirthdayPetrarchTheGrandfatherofAlpinismJul202004.shtml Petrarch: The Grandfather of Alpinism]</ref> This is a 6,200-foot peak near Petrarch's home in [[Carpentras]], France. A century later, a chapel dedicated to the [[Christian cross|Holy Cross]] was built on the top of the mountain. Today there is a steep road to the top of [[Mount Ventoux]] that is sometimes painfully incorporated into the [[Tour de France]]. Petrarch then was about 30 years of age.<ref>[http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/timeline.html Timeline of Petrarch's life.]</ref> In a letter dated April 26 of that year by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch to Francesco Dionigi of Borgo San Sepolcro,<ref>[http://www.bookrags.com/Mountaineering The famous letter that Petrarch composed on the evening of that day.]</ref> a close friend of Petrarch's who was an [[Augustinian]] [[monk]], he gives his account of the ascent.<ref>[http://www.couloirmag.com/articles/dynamic_articlepg.php?articleID=129 account of ascent of Mont Ventoux]</ref> This letter reads in part:<blockquote>"Today, I ascended the highest mountain in this region, which, not without cause, they call the Windy Peak. Nothing but the desire to see its conspicuous height was the reason for this undertaking."<ref>The Ascent of Mount Ventoux, a letter to Dionisio da Borgo San Sepolcro [http://history.hanover.edu/texts/petrarch/pet17.html - Familiar Letters]</ref>

</blockquote>

In''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'' [[Jacob Burkhardt]] describes Petrarch's ascent as the first time mountain climbing had been undertaken just for the sport of it.<ref>Burkhardt, Jacob. ''[http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy]'', translated by Middlemore.</ref>

In 1989 Mick Sitch placed an advertisement in a Danish [[newspaper]] asking if there were any interested parties who would like to meet him for an [[kick-to-kick]] in [[Fælledparken]], a public park in [[Copenhagen]]. Three people attended the informal session, forming the basis for the future league. In 1990 regular training sessions were held, with numbers swelling to the point where the players split themselves into three groups with the intention of starting a competition the following year.

<br />

<br />

''Famous First Facts: International Edition'' credits the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch for writing of the first account of mountain climbing of importance,<blockquote>

"In April 1336 'to see what so great an elevation had to ofer,' he climbed the peak of Mount Ventoux in Provence, France, which is 6,203 feet high (1,909 meters). In a letter to the Augustinian monk Dionisio da Borgo San Sep, he later wrote: 'I stood like one dazed, I beheld the clouds under our feet, and what I had read of Athos and Olympus seemed less incredible as I witnessed the same things from a mountain less famous.'<ref>Famous First Facts International, H.W. Wilson, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8242-0958-3, page 414, item 5726.</ref></blockquote>

[[Morris Bishop]]'s book, ''Petrarch and His World'', has a long chapter titled "The Ascent of Mont Ventoux" on the ascent Petrarch made to the top of Mont Ventoux. He says in this chapter, <Blockquote>

The foundation clubs of the league were the [[Amager Tigers]], [[Copenhagen Crocodiles]] and [[North Copenhagen Barracudas]]. Official league play began on June 8th 1991 with North Copenhagen taking on Copenhagen. In 1993, the next team to join the league were the [[Aalborg Kangaroos]], based in northern [[Jutland]] and around six hours' travel from Copenhagen, followed in 1994 by the [[Helsingborg Saints]] in southern Sweden.

"There is no clear record that anyone ever climbed a mountain for pleasure or mere curiosity from the time of King Philip of Macedonia to that of Petrarch. True, there is the case of King Peter of Aragon in the thirteenth century, who is said to have climbed Mount Canigou in the Pyrenees only to see what was on the summit. There he found a lake with monstrous hovering dragon, darkening the face of heaven with his breath. I think we may rule this out. We may rule out also the Alpine hermits, who sought their high retreats only to escape the world; and even Empedocles, who climbed Mount Etna in order to throw himself in the crater. Of course there were hunters, pursuing game to the upper fast-nesses, and shepherds seeking stray sheep or goats. However, Petrarch remains the first recorded Alpinist, the first to climb a mountain because it is there....Probably by design, for Petrarch had a great sense of anniversaries, he planned the ascent for April 26, 1336, exactly ten years from the day he and Gherardo had left Bologna." '' <ref> ''Petrarch and His World.'' by Morris Bishop; Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University Press 1963, page 104. </ref> </blockquote>

The sport of mountaineering began in the Alps and is the reason for the term ''alpinist'' - meaning mountain climber.<ref> New Standard Encyclopedia, Standard Educational Corporation 1992 (Chicago), Volume 9 page M-592a.</ref>

1995 saw two new expansion sides, the [[Farum Lions]] forming in the Copenhagen suburbs and a group leaving the [[Helsingborg Saints]] to found Sweden's second team, the [[Lund Bulldogs]]. [[Lund Bulldogs|Lund]] folded during the 1995 season, the number of clubs remaining at six until the [[Århus Bombers]] join the league in 1997 as the second side in Jutland.

[[Garrett Mattingly]], a professor of European history at Columbia University, writes of Petrarch's ascent on Mount Ventoux in his book ''Renaissance Profiles'' (co-author [[John H. Plumb]]) and refers to him as being the Father of Alpinism.<ref>''Renaisssance Profiles'' by Garrett Mattingly, pages 1-17, New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-131162-6.</ref>

With no new teams since 1997 and player numbers decreasing for the first time, the DAFL restructured its competition in 2003. The concept was based on more games between more (and smaller) teams - with three conferences making up the league. These were to be the Jutland Conference and the Zealand Conference in Denmark and the Scania Conference in Sweden. Clubs would be split into smaller squads and representative sides from the three conferences would play a regional series. The champion sides of each conference would then play a Denmark/Scania wide finals series to determine DAFL premiers.

In a University of Illinois paper of 1995 presented at the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference reference is made of [[Petrarch]] undertaking his climb of [[Mount Ventoux]] in April of 1336 after his reading of Livy's account of how Philip of Macedon climbed Mount Hermus and refers to Morris Bishop calling Petrarch as being "the first modern mountain-climber."<ref>[http://members.tripod.com/~kimmel/Petrarch.html Petrarch: Books and the Life of the Mind]</ref>

This format was then reinvented a second time in 2005. Instead of adding a new level above the regular league play, as had been the case in 2003, the new league replaced the regional series with the club-based DAFL Premier League. The Premier League teams are the [[North Copenhagen Barracudas]], [[Farum Cats]], [[Copenhagen Hawks]], [[Jutland Power]] and the [[South Sweden Saints]]. Sides in the Premier League draw their players from four local leagues, based on North Zealand, Copenhagen, Jutland and Scania.

In an online article called "What is Mountaineering" they mention Petrarch as being known as the Father of Alpinism.<ref>[http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-mountaineering.htm What is Mountaineering?]</ref> In another article of December 2006 Quadrant Magazine says,<blockquote>

The current (2006) president is Mark White.

"One small episode in late medieval history is often singled out for special mention by historians, especially those with an interest in environmental history. This concerns the ascent of Mt Ventoux in France by Petrarch in 1336. [[Kenneth Clark]], the noted art historian, supposes that Petrarch "was, as everybody knows, the first to climb a mountain for its own sake, and to enjoy the view from the top" (Landscape into Art, 1949). Many other historians quote this same event as providing the earliest example of the new humanistic, Renaissance spirit where nature was enjoyed for its own sake. I have come across this assertion in several history books and commentaries on the man-in-nature question." <ref>Quadrant article [http://quadrant.org.au/php/issue_view.php?issue_id=82 "Petrarch and the Mountain"]by B.J. Coman, December 2006 - Volume L Number 12.</ref></blockquote>

Bruce MacLennan identifies in his article '"Some Remarks of Hillman on Renaissance Neoplatonism and Archetypal Psychology" the rediscovery of soul and its paradoxical nature in Petrarch's descent from Mont Ventoux:<ref>[http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US310/On-Hillman.html Renaissance Neoplatonism and Archetypal Psychology]</ref>

==Clubs==

<blockquote>[[James Hillman]], one of the founders of modern [[archetypal psychology]], which is a further development of Jung's ideas, has written about the roots of archetypal psychology in Renaissance Neoplatonism. He makes the argument that what enabled the Renaissance was not (as is commonly supposed) the rediscovery of humanity or nature, but the rediscovery of soul and its paradoxical nature, for while it is in us, we are also in it. That is, the imaginative world of the soul has an objective existence independent of our individual egos. He identifies Petrarch's descent from Mont Ventoux as the turning point because, as you will recall, it was there that he consulted Augustine's Confessions at random and, from what he read, realized that the world inside is just as large and real (just as given) as the world outside. In that passage Augustine described his imagination as "a large and boundless chamber," both a power of his and a part of his nature, yet beyond his comprehension. "Therefore is the mind too strait to contain itself." </blockquote>

===[[Jutland]]===

A historian might put the ascent of Mount Ventoux by Petrarch and his comrades as a symbolic act marking the beginning of the new humanistic "Renaissance" spirit.<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/petrarch-ventoux.html Medieval Sourcebook: Petrarch: The Ascent of Mount Ventoux]</ref> The ascent of Mount Ventoux in the spring of 1336 by Petrarch correlates directly with [[humanism]], personal growth and [[self-knowledge]]. The event of the birth of alpinism is associated with [[Discovery (observation)|discovery]] and [[Enlightenment (concept)|enlightenment]].<ref>[http://www.angelfire.com/super2/petrarch/humanism.html Humanisn] as it relates to Petrarch's climb of Mount Ventoux.</ref> [[Pope Innocent III]] in his classic non-humanistic work ''Misery of the Human Condition'' asked the same question of why people climb mountains. He came up with the same answer as Petrarch: "the need to see the vista." This event of Petrarch's ascent to the top of Mount Ventoux just to see the view of the landscape is in the cultural history of Europe

Since 2005, the Jutland Shinboners have the representative team from this region in the DAFL premier league. Feeding into the Shinboners is a local league based around clubs in [[Aalborg]] and [[Århus]]. The Aalborg Kangaroos were formed in 1993, the first DAFL club outside [[Copenhagen]] and lasted until 2003, when with the DAFL league restructure, the Aalborg club created two squads, the Kangaroos and the Power for the newly-formed Jutland Conference.

<ref>[http://www.landscape-europe.net/ELCAI_projectreport_book_amended.pdf European Landscape Character Areas], Final Project Report Project: FP5 EU Accompanying Measure Contract: ELCAI-EVK2-CT-2002-80021, page 12.</ref> regarded iconographically as "the beginning of a conscious perception of landscape."<ref>''The Mental Component of the Earth System'' by W. Luchr and R. K. Pachauri, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14412 Potsdam, Germany,

The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi 110003, India; Chapter toward end of book (page 359) in the APPENDIX: four stories as food for thought, the second story called "Petrarca and von Humboldt: Poet and Scientist."</ref>

Petrarch is known for being the father of Italian Renaissance humanism. In the Renaissance, Greek ideals were taken up when in 1336 Petrarch wrote of philosophical concepts found in the birth of alpinism which he expressed in his letter of April 26 ''The Ascent of Mount Ventoux'' : <blockquote> "Yes, the life which we call blessed is to be sought for on a high eminence, and strait is the way that leads to it. Many, also, are the hills that lie between, and we must ascend, by a glorious stairway, from strength to strength. At the top is at once the end of our struggles and the goal for which we are bound. All wish to reach this goal, but, as Ovid says, ‘To wish is little; we must long with the utmost eagerness to gain our end.’” Niccolò Machiavelli perceived plainly that the struggle against necessity required that an individual have excellence and freedom as primary life purposes."</blockquote>

==Notes and References==

**[[Århus Bombers]]

{{reflist}}

*[[Zealand]]

**[[Farum Cats]]

**[[North Copenhagen Barracudas]]

**[[Copenhagen Crocodiles]]

**[[Amager Tigers]]

*[[Scania]]

**[[Helsingborg West Raptors]]

**[[Lund Magpies]]

**[[Port Malmö Maulers]]

==NationalExternal teamLinks==

* ''Fleeting Moments: Nature and Culture in American History'' By Gunther Paul Barth, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Z0EKPTCUO1QC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&dq=april+26+1336+petrarch+fleeting+moments&source=web&ots=yQq1x834nR&sig=US7ZOjeMRP5A3s-VuCvwbiDUNds a book] describing Petrarch's ascent of Mont Ventoux related to man-in-nature and religion.

Denmark's national representative team are known as [[Denmark (Australian rules football National Team)|the Vikings]]. They have played a number of international fixtures dating back to the 1990s.

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9F03E2DC153EF935A35755C0A96F958260 New York Times] 2006 article by Richard B. Woodward describing Petrarch in various histories as the first mountaineer and as a pioneer of sightseeing.

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9F03E2DC153EF935A35755C0A96F958260 New York Times] 1999 article by Michael Kimmelman in "environmental writing" talks about the significance of Petrarch's ascent in 1336.

* Article talking about Petrarch's ascent of Mount Ventoux as the potential intellectual precursor of [http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Petrarch.html Columbus crossing the Atlantic].

* Petrarch's ascent has done much to shape and form historic and contemporary interest in the [http://clarionjournal.typepad.com/clarion_journal_of_spirit/2006/06/the_ascent_of_m.html role of mountaineering and quests].

* Article of Petrarch's ascent of Mont Ventoux [http://www.warmwell.com/04sep11jenkins.html influencing mountaineering] to this day and its metaphorical significance.

* Article explaining Petrarch was the first person on April 26, 1336, to climb a mountain [http://www.onlib.org/website/reading/fearless_reader/Petrarch.htm just because it was there.]

*Petrarch was the first self-consciously literate educated person to climb a mountain just for [http://blogs.salon.com/0002296/2006/05/21.html the vista.]

* Article explaining that Petrarch with his brother went past a shepard [http://utopianturtletop.blogspot.com/2004/02/sightseeing-weather-and-lyric.html on the ascent.]

*Article analyzing the letter dated April 26, 1336, and [http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=289 philosophical significance.]

==Bibliography==

They competed in the [[Australian Football International Cup]] in Melbourne, finishing a respectable fourth behind [[Ireland (Australian rules football National Team)|Ireland]], [[Papua New Guinea (Australian rules football National Team)|Papua New Guinea]] and [[New Zealand (Australian rules football National Team)|New Zealand]]. The Vikings withdrew from the 2005 International Cup due to lack of funds, although it is expected that there will be a Danish team at the 2008 International Cup.

*''The Renaissance philosophy of man'', translation selections by [[Ernst Cassirer]]; [[Paul Oskar Kristeller]]; [[John Herman Randall]], University of Chicago Press, 1956 (OCLC: 71231567), 1971

*Petrarch ''Letter to Francesco Dionigi de'Roberti, 26 April 1336'' (The Ascent of Mount Ventoux). Translated by Hans Nachod in ''The Renaissance Philosophy of Man'', ed. Ernst Cassirer et al., pages 36-46. Chicago: [[University of Chicago]], 1948. ISBN 0-226-09604-1

*''Encyclopedia of World Biography'', 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998; ""Francesco Petrarca" - extensive article on his life with parts pertaining to his ascent of Mont Ventoux.

*Petrarca, Francesco, and John DePol. [Ad Dyonisium de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri ... de curis propriis. English] The ascent of Mount Ventoux: a letter from Petrarch. New York: Petrarch Press, 1989. 11 p., [1] leaf of plates. PQ4519.V44P413 1989

*Petrarca, Francesco. (Ad Dyonisium de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri ... de curis propriis. Italian & Latin) ''Francisci Petrarchae Ascensus Montis Ventosi.'' &, ''Une ascension au mont Ventoux.'' Editiones Officinae Bodoni. Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1965; 83 p. PQ4519.V44P416 1965

==Premiers==

*1991 North Copenhagen

*1992 Amager

*1993 Amager

*1994 Copenhagen

*1995 Amager

*1996 Farum

*1997 Amager

*1998 Copenhagen

*1999 Copenhagen

*2000 North Copenhagen

*2001 North Copenhagen

*2002 Amager

*2003 Amager

*2004 North Copenhagen Cudas

*2005 Farum

*2006 Farum

*Petrarca, Francesco. (Ad Dyonisium de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri ... de curis propriis. Italian & Latin) ''La lettera del Ventoso: Familiarium rerum libri'' IV, 1: testo a fronte. Di monte in monte, 1. Verbania: Tarara, 1996. 75 p. PQ4519.V44P416 1996

==Sitch Medallists (Best & Fairests)==

*1991 Kim Madsen (Amager)

*1992 Aaron Ravenarki (Copenhagen)

*1993 Ian Moore (North Copenhagen)

*1994 Rick Ellis (Amager)

*1995 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)

*1996 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)

*1997 Shaun Hawking (Amager)

*1998 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen)

*1999 Duncan Milward (Aalborg)

*2000 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)

*2001 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)

*2002 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)

*2003 Pàll Finnsson (Aalborg Kangaroos)

*2004 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen Cudas)

*2005 Frederik Schulin (Jutland)

*2006 Christian Rose (Farum)

*Petrarca, Francesco, and Rodney John Lokaj. (''Familiarum rerum libri.'' IV, 1. English & Latin] ''Petrarch's Ascent of Mount Ventoux: the Familiaris'' IV, I: new commented edition. Scriptores latini, 23. Roma: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 2006. 213 p.PQ4490.E2313 2005

==See also==

*[[List of Australian rules football leagues outside Australia]]

*Petrarca. ''Wege der Forschung,'' Bd. 353. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, [Abt. Verlag], 1976. 463 p.PQ4504.P4

==External links==

* [http://www.dafl.dk Official DAFL website]

*[http://www.aafc.info Aalborg Kangaroos and Power]

*Petrarch. ''Modern critical views.'' New York: Chelsea House, 1989. 175 p. PQ4505.P4 1989

{{Aussie Rules Playing Nations links}}

*Cassirer, Ernst, ed, Paul Oskar Kristeller, joint ed., and John Herman Randall, joint ed.. ''The Renaissance philosophy of man.'' University of Chicago Press (1948), 404 p. B775.C32

[[Category:Australian rules football competitions in Europe]]

[[Category:Australian rules football outside Australia]]

*Cassirer, Ernst, ed, Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed., and John Herman Randall, joint edition. ''The Renaissance philosophy of man.'' Selections in translation. Phoenix, AZ., books, P1. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, (1967, c1948) 405 p.B780.M3C37 1967

[[Category:Sport in Denmark]]

[[Category:Sports organisations]]

[[Category:Mountaineering]]

[[Category:Climbing]]

[[Category:Letters]]