So in case you ever wondered why every guard in skyrim gets shot in the knee like its a way of signing up, they actually didn't. The term "arrow in the knee" is actually an old Nordic saying for getting married (like how we kneel to propose) so guards were never shot they were married (cupids love arrow maybe)


EDIT: this may be wrong. It may be a bum knee excuse for not doing stuff. I couldn't find a very accurate source.

Nordic as in real-world Nordic? Not so much: http://sfwflot.tumblr.com/post/49846339760/arrow-to-the-knee-as-old-norse-slang-a-tribute-to It's a nice idea, though.

Wow. We're starting with this again?

Wow this has taken a whole other level. I don't even get it why people hung onto that line so much, there are lines that guards say so much more often, and most of them are actually stupid.

I doubt it.. I highly, highly doubt it.

Who wants to bet me 20 knuts that this thread reaches the post limit?

Also, every time this thread starts, there is never a link to it.

"Arrow in the knee" is a reference to the lack of greaves in Skyrim, since it was there in previous games".

As if we hadn't already seen this thread 1000 times already.

I always look at the arrow in the knee thing as a stab at the fact the Bethesda removed greaves form Skyrim. Much the same as the (town guards) saying of "that dull old blade can barely cut butter"...my response to that is usually on of, "well take that dull blade over to the grindstone and sharpen it, you [censored]."

Last ESO beta I saw someone in zone chat selling people this "slang for marriage" line. What's funny is that it annoyed me much more than various lore misinformation tidbits; lore is subjective and complex, but this? We're on the internet, if there was proof it would be cross-linked on hundreds of websites - but do even minimal research and it turns up absolutely nothing. I don't know why people believed it in the first place.

Yeah, not true.