books | swords | teaching
Here is a write-up on the history of HEMA that I did back around 2005, to give a bit of perspective on where we are and where we came from. Please note that this is a copy & paste of the article that I wrote at that time, which was long before …
Matt Galas on the history of HEMA – reposting a summary from c.2005Read More
It is quite well-known that you can pair wine with food if you want to “do things properly” at the dinner table, but what about whisky? You can certainly do a whisky tasting experience, or just open a bottle of two and enjoy it by yourself or with …
Who was the intended audience for Liechtenauer’s art? What was the intended purpose of the Zedel as written? These are questions that are quite often posed and answered in one way or another – during training, at the pub, at events, and online …
The intended audience and purpose of Liechtenauer’s artRead More
Schoolchildren have always grumbled when made to learn long lists of names, dates, and British kings and queens in their history classes. What is the use of such lists? Why would anyone need to know this sort of thing when you can find out by posing …
How did people practise their fencing and sparring before fencing masks were invented? This was a question asked a couple of weeks ago in a thread on Reddit, and I think it’s an excellent question well worth considering. If we didn’t have modern …
How did people practise sparring before the invention of fencing masks?Read More
Back in April 2019, there was a post in one of the HEMA-related Facebook discussion groups, asking if anyone knew any biographical details about J.D. Aylward, author of such works as The House of Angelo and The English Master of Arms.[1] As he was …
Who wrote The Art of Combat and The Art of Sword Combat? Were these books written by Joachim Meyer? Or were they written by someone else? I feel compelled to pose this question and provide an answer, because it is a mistake that I read and hear …
Who wrote the HEMA book called “The Art of Combat”?Read More
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 12th August 2011. It has been edited and improved for posting here. I used to be involved with a historical re-enactment group before I began to practise HEMA. More recently, I have taught …
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 22nd July 2016. It has been edited and improved for posting here. While searching for something else, I came across an interesting small article about broadsword author Thomas Page, …
D.A. Kinsley is a researcher and author who has been of tremendous service to the HEMA community. His area of interest is that of first-hand accounts of British military engagements and civilian encounters during the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th …
A chronology of the books by D.A. Kinsley (version 3)Read More
Many people are interested in the practice of Viking sword and shield, and expect that other HEMA clubs will share their interest in this system. It can result in surprise and confusion when other people and clubs then have very little interest in …
A common question in the study of broadsword sources is how Scottish is the method of Roworth and Angelo? How much of it is merely labelled as Scottish, but in fact comes from elsewhere? It is quite fascinating to trace the development of this method …
How Scottish is the broadsword method of Roworth and Angelo?Read More
If you have been intrigued by the idea of starting to fence with the sabre, then a common question is what sabre system to study? There are so many different systems that have been written about, so what sabre system is good for a beginner? …
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 6th February 2015. It has been edited and improved for posting here. A question that appears regularly is “what is a claymore?” There is a persistent misunderstanding about what the term …
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 18th December 2015. It has been edited and improved for posting here. There are now many publications dealing with the nuts and bolts of different medieval HEMA systems, which is a wonderful …
I am interested in working with antique swords, since studying the original items can tell us much about the construction and use of swords in history. I have a small (but growing!) collection of antique swords, and some of them bear a signature on …
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 10th June 2016. It has been edited and improved for posting here. We all have different motivations behind our practice of HEMA, and we also tend to have slightly different understandings …
This is going to be a short article, presenting an ethical consideration. Previous articles in this series discussed the problem of people sparring with antique swords, or using antique swords for cutting; in this article, the focus will be on …
Ethical considerations with antique swords, part 3: storageRead More
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 12th February 2016. It has been edited and improved for posting here. This is going to be a short article, presenting an ethical consideration. The previous article in this series discussed …
Ethical considerations with antique swords, part 2: cuttingRead More
This article was originally posted on Encased in Steel on 29th January 2016. It has been edited and improved for posting here. This is going to be a short article, presenting an ethical consideration. Some HEMA groups who study sabre have …
Ethical considerations with antique swords, part 1: sparringRead More
