Consulting Swordsman
Guy Windsor A good swordsman must be able to handle a range of different opponents, and so must train to face lots of different styles of attack and defence. This is quite difficult to accomplish within a relatively small group of training partners, which is one of the reasons that it’s a good idea to travel a … Read more
This has been quite a month. Since May 1st, here are the projects I have been working on, and some of the stuff I have done, in no particular order. Finishing and publishing the first three instalments of my Swordsman’s Quick Guide series. Working on a complete rewrite of Veni Vadi Vici. Installing a new … Read more
There are always at least two sides to every story, and usually many more. As historians, we do our best to take all the evidence into account, and tend to rely more on first-person eye-witness accounts than on secondary sources. But I have recently been personally involved in historical eye-witness accounts, and I’m here to … Read more
Happy Mothers’ day, from sunny Finland! And what could be more motherly than a spot of medieval combat? It is very hard to defend yourself against a fully-committed attack with a dagger. To be honest, it’s not something we focus on all that much; we tend to prefer sword fights. But a couple of weeks … Read more
The first three instalments of my new series, The Swordsman’s Quick Guide, are now live! Just take a look at these covers, by Eleonora Rebecchi (the photo on part 2 is by Nathan Robinson): I am experimenting with using Smashwords to distribute my ebooks; their formatting requirements are arcane in the extreme (they require vintage … Read more
The School of European Swordsmanship was born on a Scottish hilltop, not far from Fort William. I was at a crossroads in my life, and went up into the hills to clear my mind, and meditate on what I should do. I thought my options were to stay in Edinburgh, or move to America. It … Read more
It is an exciting time here at the Audatia headquarters. We are busy working away on the Liechtenauer Expansion deck, and the Patron’s own character deck, which is also based on Liechtenauer’s system. I thought you might like to know how we are handling the specifics of the Liechtenauer system, and making these decks compatible … Read more
As you may imagine, I think about violence a lot. It’s been my experience that most people in our society either embrace violence, or shy away from it, and it’s certainly the case that we are, as a culture, massively less tolerant of violence than we used to be. Physical violence, that is. The psychological … Read more
While I was at the Armizare 2015 event, I had a discussion about Fiore’s first play of the first master of zogho largo with Francesco Baselice. Let me summarise our interpretations, with reference to the text. Qui cominza zogho di spada a doy man zogho largo. Questo magistro che qui incrosado cum questo zugadore in … Read more
But it is to the keen swordsman who looks upon foil fencing as the key to all hand to hand fighting, that the historical development of the art offers naturally the greatest interest. It shows him how many generations of practical men were required to elucidate the principles of fencing, and adapt them in the … Read more