Swordsmanship

Zahlreiche persische Manuskripte, Gedichte und Geschichten, wie das Shahnameh (Buch der Könige), Majma al-Ansab, Adab al-Harb va al-Shoja-e (Bräuche des Krieges und Mutes) und Dastan Hosseyn Kord-e Shabestari (Geschichte von Hosseyn Kord-e Shabestari) beschreiben detailliert die verschiedenen Techniken der persischen Fechtkunst.

From the late eighteenth century the British military produced official ‘fight books’ outlining the methods with which the cavalry were to use their swords. As these ‘fight books’ were military manuals for instructors, designed to turn trainees into effective soldiers they are, for the most part, clear and precise compared to the sometimes esoteric nature of earlier ‘fight books’. In addition, as they coincided with the introduction of standard patterns of cavalry swords the exact types of swords employed can be established. Hence, unusually in fight book studies, a full picture of why these works were produced, who they were aimed at, how widely they were disseminated and what exact forms of weapons these precise techniques were to be employed with can be known. The existence of contemporary accounts and other supplementary evidence can also help us understand how such ‘fight books’ were received and how effectively the theory contained within was borne out in practice on the battl...

In 1894, an iron dagger was discovered in the vicinity of Vršac in Serbia and later given to the City Museum. Afterwards, this dagger had been repeatedly entered in various archaeological publications illustrating the different cultural phenomena and processes of Early Iron Age at Middle Danube. The first Scythian akinakai reach the Great Hungarian plain in the Early Scythian period, but not later than at the turn of 7th—6th centuries BC (e.g. strayfinds of bronze and bimetal daggers). Nevertheless, the bulk of the Scythian swords and daggers are part of the Middle Scythian period. Probably, the first funeral complexes are associated with the period of transition from the Early Scythian stage to the Middle one during the early 6th century BC, and several strayfinds (of the Šumejko and Vettersfelde types) with the beginning of Middle Scythian period at 1st half of 6th century. The single-edged sword (from the grave at Bátmonostor) and the bulk of the strayfinds of the Nógrád type could be also connected with the first part of Middle Scythian period during the 6th century BC. By the end of Middle Scythian period, in the 1st half of the 5th century BC, appear swords and daggers decorated with the elements of Animal style and “segment”-like hilts, among which the akinakes from Vršac could be also placed.

V září 2014 byl v katastru Nimyčnyj poblíž obce Bohdan Rakhivského regionu Zakarpatské oblasti Ukrajiny náhodně objeven místním pastýřem J. Retyaznykom meč z konce 13.–14. století. Tento typ zbraně je velmi vzácný jak pro region Horního Potisí, tak i pro středovýchodní Evropu jako celek. K určení nálezu byly použity typologická schémata E. Oakeshotta, M. Aleksića, A. Geibiga, Z.-K. Pintera a M. Šercerové. Výsledky analýzy konstrukce meče poskytly doplňující informace pro posouzení vývoje sečných zbraní ve středověku.

A sword dated to the second half of the 13th century – the beginning of the 14th century was accidentally found by local shepherd Yuriy Retyaznyk in September 2014 in the Nimychnyy cadastral zone, close to the village of Bohdan in the Rakhiv district of Zakarpats'ka oblast, Ukraine. This type of weapon is quite rare both in the Upper Tisza region and Central-Eastern Europe. Typological schemes of E. Oakeshott, M. Aleksić, A. Geibig, Z.-K. Pinter and M. Šercerova were used for its identification. Results of the analysis of the sword construction provided information for the assessment of the development of bladed weapons in the Middle Ages.
Keywords:
Bohdan; sečná zbraň; meč; čepel; rukojeť; typologie
Bohdan; bladed weapon; sword; blade; hilt; typology

"Friederich E. Grünzweig, Runeninschriften auf
Waffen. Inschriften vom 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. bis
ins Hochmittelalter. Wiener Studien zur Skan di -
na vistik 11. Edition Praesens Wien 2004. 203
pp. ISBN 3-7069-0227-3.
This work is centered on a question addressed by Klaus Düwel already in 1981. Are runes frequently engraved on weapons? The answer to this question was negative some 25 years ago, and still remains so. Why a new book on the topic, then? This work appears to have been conceived as a catalogue or compilation of runic inscriptions on weapons, summarizing previous conclusions along the way, rather than as a work of independent research and creative analysis. As such, the work certainly does have its merits as a helpful source of reference. But Grünzweig's approach towards archaeology varies considerably when discussing diffefrent types of weapons. Much effort has been placed on criticizing individual works on the Roman Iron Age lance- and spearheads. Considerably less space has been devoted to the Migration Period swords. This makes the catalogue somewhat lopsided. One also wonders at the incredulity against certain theories while others are accepted only to be abandoned a page later. For instance, the hypothetical connection between the English Migration Period runic swords (three from Kent, the Isle of Wight, Chessel Down, Gilton Ash, Sarre) and the Jutish migration mentioned by the venerable Bede remains highly dubious. Moreover, if one follows Grünzweig’s own logic, one ought to look at the closest counterparts of the swords. But these are not the finds from Nydam, as he suggests. Rather, the scabbard from Bergakker in the Netherlands and the recently unearthed ring sword from Saint Dizier in Champagne-Ardenne are considerably closer in time and space to the English finds than are the Nydam finds. Indeed, the Gilton Ash pommel has its closest typological parallel in Saint Dizier. Moreover, the Saint Dizier inscription reads (a)lu. It does indeed match the inscriptions on the axe-handle from Nydam and the arrows from Illerup A. Less complicated are the chapters dealing with the handful of weapons from southwestern Germany and the Viking and Medieval Periods in Scandinavia. When summarizing his results, Grünzweig returns to his pet question, that of the apparent dominance of runic inscriptions in military contexts as opposed to female graves during the Roman Iron Age. He opts for the invention of the runic script in Scandinavia, yet still appears to have difficulties resolving the problem of the runic lances and spears from Eastern Europe.These do not fit an easy model of diffusion, especially since Grünzweig considers the Mos lance head an imported object.The fact that Grünzweig did not know of the Saint Dizier find at the time calls for future caution. One must not speculate about grand ethnic movements in relation to historical sources and material objects merely because one would like the sources to be true and the relations to be causative. It is considerably more challenging to have to explain why parallels in terms of inscriptions and material objects instead have the annoying tendency to appear in the wrong places. Runes on Migration Period swords connect Kent, France and the Netherlands across the Channel during a volatile period one knows very little about. Formulaic words like alu appear from Nydam via Spong Hill and Saint Dizier to Hüfingen in southwestern Germany. Rather than an ethnic question, this would seem to represent a problem complex concerning literate ideology, military hierarchy and social organization in the post-Roman world.
Svante Fischer
Musée d’Archéologie Nationale
Château Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Place Général de Gaulle 78105 Cedex
France
swantowraetruna@hotmail.com"

The author hopes to open a window into late Victorian colonial warfare through the most classical of weapon systems, the sword, in its still prominent role in select theatres of war while at the same time deciphering the cultural and social tapestry, aesthetic and martial design choices in the British Infantry Officer’s Sword evolvement from the 1860’s to the outbreak of The Great War. A further wish is to provide testament to the military and political careers of prominent antiquarian archaeologist; William Gregory Wood-Martin, and his sons, James Isadore Wood-Martin and Francis Winchester Wood-Martin. The latter both losing their lives in actions at Neuve Chapelle and Ypres in the years of 1915 and ’16 respectively during The First World War.

Resumen:
Encuadrado en el marco cronológico de la primera mitad del siglo XVI, antes de que el manejo de la espada se redujera a Ciencia en el tratado Philosophia de las Armas y de su Destreza… publicado por el noble sevillano Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza en 1582, la realidad de la esgrima era distinta. Ésta se trataba como un juego con armas negras, practicado por la clase media y los artesanos de la ciudad. Este oficio  estaba regulado por un cuerpo de maestros examinados, que lo enseñaban tanto en tiendas como en plazas públicas de la ciudad. Sobre este panorama destaca la figura del carmonense Francisco Román, intitulado “maestro de esgrima de los pajes del Emperador y examinador mayor de dicho oficio en todos sus reinos y señoríos”. En 1532 publicó en Sevilla su Tratado de esgrima con figuras, del cual desgraciadamente no se conserva ningún ejemplar. A través de las noticias que tenemos en distintos repertorios bibliográficos, los datos aportados en las cartas de examen y la información referente a su práctica, vertida en tratados posteriores, compilaremos y reconstruiremos, en este artículo, parte del Arte de su esgrima.
Palabras clave: Esgrima; Siglo de Oro; Destreza vulgar; Destreza Verdadera; Román.
Francisco Román, Emperor’s Master at arms and his lost Fencing Art

Abstract:
Dated from the first half of the 16thC, before the use of the sword was reduced to Science in the treatise “Philosophia de las Armas y de su Destreza…” published by the Sevillian aristocrat Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza in 1582, the fencing reality was different. It was approached as a game with blunt swords, played by middle class and artisans of the cities. This trade was regulated by a body of certified masters, which taught their art in shops and in the public squares all around the city. Among these, we have the preeminent figure of Francisco Román, who held the title of “maestro de esgrima de los pajes del Emperador y examinador mayor de dicho oficio en todos sus reinos y señoríos”. In 1532 he published in Seville his “Tratado de esgrima con figuras”, of which, unfortunately, not a single copy have survived. In this paper we will examine the information we can obtain about his treatise in the different bibliographic repertoires, the data included in the exam certifications and the information regarding his practice that we can find in later treatises, and we will try to compile and reconstruct part of his fencing Art.
Keywords: Fencing; Spanish Golden Age; Destreza vulgar; DestrezaVerdadera; Román.

Sometime between 1482 and 1487, the Pisan master of arms Filippo Vadi dedicated his manuscript on the art of combat, Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, to the Duke of Urbino, Guido di Montefeltro. Generally considered to be a simple plagiarism of an earlier work by the master Fiore dei Liberi (d.1420s), it is my argument that Vadi’s treatment of his source reflects a dramatic shift in epistemological world-view. Where Fiore implies the principles of his art through metaphor and exemplar, Vadi discusses them at length in chapters marked ragion – “rationales”. Having discussed these principles in isolation, Vadi then provides illustrated examples of their use later in the book.

This paper will take up the conference’s theme of worldmaking within the context of Foucault’s episteme. Episteme are unconscious knowledge- worlds that ground knowledge and its discourses, and thus represent their conditions of possibility. I will argue in this paper that Vadi’s movement from exemplar to example – from the encapsulation to the explication of principles – represents one of the first attempts to define the martial arts as a science rather than an art, a shift of episteme that has shaped the development of Western martial arts to the present day.

This paper will discuss how we can source emotions from the fencing treatises of fourteenth and fifteenth century Europe. Typically overshadowed by the fencing treatises of the sixteenth century and their discussions of anger and honour, I will argue that these earlier treatises provide a valuable insight into the relationship between emotions and combat in the late medieval period. This paper will focus on fear and courage in the anonymous longsword gloss of “Codex Döbringer”, MS 3227a, c.1389. This text can be considered representative of the medieval tradition of swordsmanship where the purpose of technique was to manipulate emotion in both oneself and one’s opponent in order to attain victory. This paper will be divided between a discussion of how we can source emotions from medieval and renaissance fencing manuals in general, and how we can source the emotions of fear and courage within the master technique of the Schielhau (“Squinting Strike”) as described in Codex Döbringer. I will argue that these manuscripts are opaque to a simple reading of the written text, and that a three-fold interpretation of image, performance, and text is required in order to fully elucidate their meaning.

From the late eighteenth century the British military produced official ‘fight  books’  outlining  the  methods  with  which  the  cavalry  were  to  use  their  swords. As these ‘fight books’ were military manuals for instructors, designed to turn trainees into effective soldiers they are, for the most part, clear and precise compared to the sometimes esoteric nature of earlier ‘fight books’. In addition, as they  coincided  with  the  introduction  of  standard  patterns  of  cavalry  swords  the  exact  types  of  swords  employed  can  be  established.  Hence,  unusually  in  fight  book  studies,  a  full  picture  of  why  these  works  were  produced,  who  they  were  aimed at, how widely they were disseminated and what exact forms of weapons these precise techniques were to be employed with can be known. The existence of  contemporary  accounts  and  other  supplementary  evidence  can  also  help  us  understand how such ‘fight books’ were received and how effectively the theory contained within was borne out in practice on the battlefield. Over the first sixty years  of  British  cavalry  sword  exercises,  the  role  of  cavalry  and  the  threats  they  faced from other arms and weapon technologies did not drastically alter; but the way  they  fought  with  swords,  and  the  swords  themselves,  did  undergo  considerable change.

The prevalence of certain specific foot positions with related body postures appear in both historical combat images and fight-book illustrations of armored foot combat in a constant and deliberate manner. These 45º to 45º, 45º to 135º, and 135º to 135º positions exist throughout historical close combat artwork around the world and are not arbitrary aberrations or coincidences of artistic expression. Rather than alternative or optional elements explainable by other theories of movement, they are integral to natural motion consisting of particular ways of orienting the feet and legs for agility and balance in violent fighting actions. In addition to the depiction single figures, the repeated representation of pairs of engaged combatants wherein each figure has their feet in one of the identified positions results in several recognizable permutations is documented. The critical importance of the geometry of these foot positions in relation to motion and balance, as well as fighting stances, stepping, and striking, revel an essential intrinsic constant within the kinesiology of armored combatives. That these apply simple center of gravity biomechanics in actions of striking or leveraging is then presented. By comparing examples found in early Medieval combat imagery to both Greco-Roman sources and those in later Renaissance-era fighting manuals, this artwork takes on an added dimension of credible realism not previously considered by historians of the period.

(open access with free download: https://rdcu.be/b3DrU)
The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project. The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric copper-alloy weapons. We present a four-step experimental methodology including both controlled and actualistic experiments. The experimental results informed the wear analysis of 110 Middle and Late Bronze Age swords from Britain and Italy. The research has generated new understandings of prehistoric combat, including diagnostic and undiagnostic combat marks and how to interpret them; how to hold and use a Bronze Age sword; the degree of skill and training required for proficient combat; the realities of Bronze Age swordplay including the frequency of blade-on-blade contact; the body parts and areas targeted by prehistoric sword fencers; and the evolution of fighting styles in Britain and Italy from the late 2nd to the early 1st millennia BC.

This paper explores the meaning behind the two methods of sword carry depicted in the iconography of Ashurnasirpal II. While the sword is regarded as a prestigious weapon tied to the owner’s identity, the implications of how such an understanding of the sword in the Neo-Assyrian Empire might further delineate the underlying messages of the palace reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II remain unaddressed in secondary literature. As a result, through a combination of a cognitive analysis in regards to the significance of the sword’s appearance in Neo-Assyrian texts and iconography as well as an analysis of visual formulas in the palace reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II as identified by Mehmet-Ali Ataç, this paper argues that the visual representation of the sword is intended to communicate not only the wielder’s power and wealth but also the wielder’s exercise or restraint of divine authority based on the carry method displayed.

Purchasing a sword, especially your first can come with some pit falls if you’re not careful and there are considerations you need to take into account to make sure your money is well spent and you get what you really want. A sword can be an investment and even art form. A sword can be an amazing and interesting item to highlight in a room that creates intrigue and conversation. Keep this in mind-

This article was inspired directly from my participation in a 5-day PaR (Performances as Research) Workshop in Stratford:
This essay explores possible dance and swordplay choreography in Felix Lope de Vega’s La pobreza estimada (1597–1603) and Ana Caro’s Valor, agravio, y mujer (1630s–1640s) in hopes of shedding light on the manner in which women as active agents or bodies in transaction contributed to the sociopolitical discourse of the space in theater. The excerpts and images examined from treatises on acting, dance, and swordsmanship, such as Alonso López Pinciano’s Philosophía antigua poética (1596), Juan de Esquivel Navarro’s Discursos sobre el arte del danzado (1642), and Luis Pacheco de Narváez’s Libro de las grandezas de la espada (1600), help the reader envision women wielding swords in early modern Spanish theater.

We´l deal with the weapons, mainly swords, from the Middle Ages and the people who forged and used them: smiths and warriors. How did the made the blades and swords ? Who were those smiths and warriors? How did they use it? Were there any fencing and combat styles? We will approach the subject from both a theoretical and practical point of view.

Analisi recenti hanno dimostrato come, nell’Inghilterra dei Tudor, si fosse soliti minare la mascolinità dei propri avversari accusandoli di aver frequentato lo Studium patavino e di aver imparato in terra veneta la tecnica del fioretto, pratiche disdicevoli a un vero uomo. Il contributo mira a discutere i risultati di tali ricerche alla luce di un ampio studio promosso dall’Università di Padova in occasione de suo ottavo centenario.

A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword.
The sword is the most iconic of all weapons. Throughout history, it has connected various, sometimes conflicting, dimensions of human culture: physical combat and representation of political power, definition of gender roles and refinement of body techniques, evolution of craftsmanship and mythological symbolism.
The articles collected here explore these dimensions, from a variety of disciplines, among them archaeology, medieval history, museum conservation, and linguistics. They cover topics from the production and combat use of Bronze Age swords via medieval fencing culture to the employment of the sword in modern military. They question traditional sword typologies and wide-spread theories about sword making, discuss medieval sword terminology and the use of swords as royal insignia, and describe the scientific methods for approaching original finds. Arising from an international conference held at Deutsches Klingenmuseum Solingen (the German Blade Museum), the volume provides fresh insights into the forms the sword can take, and the thoughts it inspires.

LISA DEUTSCHER and MIRJAM E. KAISER work in prehistoric archaeology, specialising in La Tène and Bronze Age swords, respectively. SIXT WETZLER is the deputy director of the German Blade Museum; his research focuses on the history of edged weapons, and their use.

Contributors: Matthias Johannes Bauer, Holger Becker, Jan-Heinrich Bunnefeld, Rachel J. Crellin, Vincenzo D'Ercole, Andrea Dolfini, Raphael Hermann, Daniel Jaquet, Robert W. Jones, Ulrich Lehmann, Claus Lipka, Stefan Maeder, Michael Mattner, Florian Messner, Nicole Mölk, Ingo Petri, Stefan Roth, Fabrizio Savi, Ulrike Töchterle, Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis, Marion Uckelmann, Henry Yallop

Fight Books in Comparative Perspective
1. International St. Martin Conference

St. Martin Conference is the title of a new series of academic conferences held at Deutsches Klingenmuseum (German Blade Museum) in Solingen/Germany. It will be dedicated to topics from the field of edged weapons: their production and cultural history, the schools and traditions of their use, and their reception in modern culture, among others.

The first St. Martin Conference on 9./10. NOV 2017 will be discussing “Fight Books in Comparative Perspective”, the martial arts/fencing treatises known from various parts of the world, of which the Klingenmuseum owns some precious examples.

For more infromation, visit www.klingenmuseum.de

Paper given at the Dankeschrift for John Francis Guilmartin, Ohio State University , Sept. 24, 2016

During the Hundred Years’ War, the techniques of personal combat underwent a shift alongside available technology and with the changing social structure of Western Europe. The development of full “cap à pied” plate armour impacted the techniques needed to defeat a knight or man-at-arms. At the same time, the demand for fighting instruction grew beyond the aristocracy and resulted in the production of fechtbücher - fighting treatises, making the practice of combat arts available to the urban-dwelling bourgeois.

Based on surviving examples of arms and armour, works of art, literature, the fighting treatises, and the author’s long experience in-harness, this paper examines the interaction of harness and the practice of personal combat loosely during the period of the Hundred Years’ War. It argues that while we find an initial and efficient l'arte, a principle-based approach to the military use of shock weapons recorded in the early treatises, over time we also see a change dividing the combat art into the needs of war (emphasizing power and leverage) and the practice of personal violence off the battlefield, as in the duel and in street defense, where timing and distance were paramount characteristics.