I have no problem giving the guy major props, though; he’s demonstrating pretty clearly that a lot of our stodgy ideas of medieval archery are flat out wrong. Which actually isn’t that surprising, given the lack of familiarity many people (understandably) have with actual historical research and the level of romanticism that afflicts medieval and early modern military history.
People don’t understand most sword fighting for the same reason. They look at fencing and think that’s how it goes. They look at sport archery and think that’s how things were done. It doesn’t help that not many sources really survived and almost no actual tradition did, unlike say Eastern martial arts where there were still living masters training students and the like.
Eh, being able to draw and fire on another arrow while it’s in the air is pretty hard core.
I’m loosely involved with a german/Italian tradition (mostly bukcler&sword and two handed sword) sword martial group, as in the people running it are friends of mine, and i’ve not really gone to as many meets as i should have. Anyway i’ve also been looking at the rare (and only i think) example of a british tradition for sword*(as in not a fencing/rapier tradition) use, the trouble is it is just one document with no pictures as a guide and the ‘english’ is some what close to what a Chaucer play is like (i.e harder to grasp than Shakespere). I’ve understood enough to know that without extra material it is basically impossible to re-create whatever this style of sword combat was, the descriptions are just too open to pure interpretation as they are not that detailed. Which is a shame as i’d love to have something other than the german (technical) and Italian (dirty) fighting traditions to think on. It is indeed a shame we lost all our ‘masters’ many hundreds of years ago.
Edit: *added clarity on what i meant.
Aha, and here is that text that feels only part of whatever system it used to belong to:
http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Harleian.htm
The Arma site is one of my favourite for this kind of stuff, very awesome site indeed.
Some buddies were over to play cards and one of them filmed me showing of the sword in action, so I figured “why not?” and put it on my YouTube channel. Here it is, enjoy! https://youtu.be/4MiSwV9Zvoo
I’ve had this amazing thing for half a year or more now, and I honestly still get a kick out of it and it gets a fair amount of use (the Milk Carton army is a tough one to put down). At this point, it’s not a matter of “should I get another sword” but rather, “what will my next sword be?”
After seeing that video, I’m sure the milk jug made a threatening move on you. You were perfectly justified in using force!
I’m going to show that video to the milk containers in my 'fridge. And then just look at them gravely.
Some guys in the revival club have full (ish) plate, layers of leather/cloth and chainmail underneath (the coif for the head for example), all very nicely made (i think they get it from a german armour maker), and use the full techniques for two-handed swords (which to be honest i find weird, like holding the blade and using the cross piece like an ‘axe’ or to ‘grab’ the other persons limbs/weapon etc). All blades are trainer type, similar weight and size to real, just flat edged blades with the points covered by a ball thing. They all have proper swords too, to wear and feel cool about etc.
I do plan to take part properly one day, currently i’m just helping them with fitness and warm ups, and in the back of my mind trying to justify the near five grand it would take for a full(ish) suit and weapon set! I don’t think it would be easy to get past the missus, and am i that interested? Not sure, i love the traditions and owning a sword etc, but it’s quite a commitment to get into it fully it seems (in time and money).
That stuff is endlessly fascinating to me from a distance, but I’m content to enjoy its existence without putting any money into it. I do wish I’d had the opportunity (and the inclination) to take up fencing when I was a younger man - I think that would have been a fun sport to get into.
I have my eyes and heart set on a new sword - the Ringneck by Albion. I love this thing - it’s just gorgeous, elegant, and it’s an Albion which I’ve heard is just about as high-quality as you can get. It’s a little pricy, but I think if I start putting a little away here and there I could get it by Christmas time, give or take.
http://albion-swords.com/swords/albion/nextgen/sword-medieval-ringeck-xva.htm
Love that “Wasted” grip, very nice.
Between this and the Two-Handed Norman (above), the Zombies won’t stand a chance*
*Until I get tired of swinging, which if milk jugs are any indication, is about 10 swings.
I’m in a similar boat. My buddy (in the linked movies a few pages back) is always trying to get me to join, and I think that with my… let’s call it “lanky” frame, I’d be pretty good at longsword. I’d really love to do it.
The problem isn’t really the money or my advancing age, it’s the damned travel time. The place he goes to is an hour away in good traffic, and there is NEVER good traffic in the DC area, so I’m looking at close to three hours of round-trip travel time to attend a workout. If I assume that a session would be a couple hours, then that’s pretty much half a day. I can’t imagine being able to free up that amount of time on a regular basis.
And sadly, that’s the closest “historical” sword-fighting studio around here. There are plenty of Olympic-style fencing places nearby, but I’m just not feeling that.
There are several laser-tag and paint ball places around here. It would be awesome if I could take my son, sign a waver, and wear padded or chain armor and use wooden practice swords to just play - maybe with points and some sort of rules structure, get some friends together and wage a pitched battle. I doubt it would really take off - it’s probably way more dangerous than laser tag. :)
Do you have access to wood and a chopping block and axe? Not exactly the same movement, but it builds up your endurance for hand-and-a-half/two-handed sword wielding. A few months of creating wood piles and you can face an army of milk cartons no problems :)
There’s a new History Channel show which is a blacksmith competition show. I wrote a quick post about it here. It’s kind of cool so far.
Oh, what a cool idea for a show - I can’t believe it exists! I’ll have to check it out, thanks for the links!
I am weeping tears of “I want one of those”. /sigh
That price isn’t that bad at all, really. More than I have to spare, but still, seems reasonable for what you get, if the quality is all it should be.
That’s mighty good trick-shooting, but here’s a skeptical response video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDbqz_07dW4.
And here is Lars’ response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iLTA43MBuA
On balance, I think Lars was certainly right about the archery text, but I’m a bit ambivalent about his whole “reverse-engineering” archery.
I think you’d have to be ambivalent about any such attempts, the lineages are long broken and we just don’t know, so it’s really going to be a bit haphazard and piecemeal deciphering things from scraps of old texts and old drawings (by variously talented artists - interestingly the best “fight book” drawings around from the artistic point of view - though they never made it into any official book - are some sketches by Albrecht Durer, who was himself a trained enthusiast of fighting skills).
Still, it’s fun to do, and should be tried, so long as nobody gets too het up about their particular reconstruction and criticism flows, it’s all good.
Man, I wanted to watch this but my cable provider isn’t one of the hundreds listed for some dumb reason. Maybe it will be repeated on History this weekend.