Talk:Shooting an apple off one's child's head

A fact from Shooting an apple off one's child's head appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 August 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that shooting an apple off one's child's head is not a feat unique to William Tell, but was reportedly ascribed to Danish hero Palnatoki in the 12th century?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/August.

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fwiiw, the translation "apple-shot" (of German Apfelschuss) appears to have some currency in English. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] --dab (𒁳) 14:03, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I had already made a redirect for Apple-shot for that reason (although Dundes mentions how for some reason it isn't indexed under that in Aarne-Thompson) and just added the unhyphenated version - for some reason I had the impression the software ignored hyphens. Trouble is, out of context that's meaningless. A size of ammunition, on the analogy of grapeshot? Something about doing shots (drinking?) So I expect this to get added to that page on weird titles, but . . . best I was able to come up with. Yngvadottir (talk) 15:37, 11 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

perhaps we should use "apple shot from man's head" (and then mention that it's the head of a child in each case in the article prose). --dab (𒁳) 13:02, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it's an essential part of the motif. It just happens that Stith Thompson were dozing, or lazily ascribed it mainly to Tell. The only case where it's not the son is Hemings Þáttr, and the point invariably is that the son is young and victimised by the task; in Hemings Þáttr it's a younger brother, and in the other closely related tale, it's again a young son the king practises his marksmanship on. The other sources are quite clear that the tale unfolds much as in the Tell version in each case, with a young son threatened by the task. Yngvadottir (talk) 14:31, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I understand, but WP:OR. I think even the apple constrains this too much, as the "related stories" section makes clear. I suggest that what this should be is a "mythology" section at the Marksman article, perhaps to be branched into a "legendary marksman" article that would include a wider treatment of Odysseus, Agilaz Haik, Rama etc., and "Apple-shot" would be one section in the "legendary marksman" article. --dab (𒁳) 14:44, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not really OR when there are multiple sources specifically on this motif. More than on Freischütz, fromn what I could see, which was why I wrote it up. (That and Palnatoki needed the context.) Yngvadottir (talk) 16:01, 12 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]