‘Will you please pick that up Hagar! I swear, someday you’re going to forget where you put it down and somebody is going to trip over it and hurt themselves!’
As interesting as swords found in archaeological excavations are, we’re near always left wondering … “Just how did that sword come to be left there”?
Kiwi-at-Arms
TARANAKI DAILY NEWS (New Zealand) 14 May 14 Kiwi battler's tales of derring do (Helen Harvey)
Women. Armour. Poleaxe. Attitude.
Yup, this is the place.
Sophie Moore-Stockbridge of the Steel Roses re-enactment group was one of the 200 fighters attending the International Medieval Combat Federation World Champs in Spain earlier this month. (In New Zealand there are about 20 medieval ‘heavy combat’ fighters … and Ms Moore-Stockbridge is one of the two women that make up that select group).
"It's full power. People are hitting as hard as they can," she said.
"You hear the hits, but don't really feel them."
(For more about women fighting as ‘heavies’ in HEMA/WMA, I recommend you to this ...)
Please Hit What You Aim For!
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) 25 May 14 Knights in armour ready for battle, but they're joust playing in Blacktown (Stephanie Wood)
Safety, safety, safety!
Rod Walker of Bathurst's Full Tilt Jousting is a longtime participant in the arts, and has the bumps, bruises … and abdominal scar to prove it.
In today’s report, he escaped bleeding-out with ''a couple of hits to the shoulder - they missed the breastplate and I'll bruise up.''
The event was, by all accounts “a brilliant display of brutality”.
Digging Up Historical Interest.
NORDLYS (Tromsø, Norway) 25 May 14 Odin (10) fant sverd fra vikingtiden (Martin Braathen Røise)
10 year old Odin Søtorp Hetty of Løding went looking for more, after his grandfather had handed him an unearthed spearhead the year before. After some determined shovel work in the same area, Odin uncovered an early Iron Age (800-1000 AD) axe head and sword.
The Tromsø Museum has been called in to finish Odin’s’ work.
Son of Digging Up Historical Interest.
TA (Skien, Norway) 06 May 14 Fant sverd og øks fra vikingtiden (Henrik Solum)
And in another back-to-back find, Nils Angard (not a 10 year old) found a Viking Age (300 and 1050) sword on his farm.
“It's just luck that I did not destroy these objects with the plow.”
Grandson of Digging Up Historical Interest.
AFTENPOSTEN (Oslo, Norway) 16 May 14 Unikt gravfunn i Norheimsund (Marianne Nilsen)
A story very similar to those above, a Merovingian Age (550-800 AD) sword and spear found by uncovered by Bård Gauden, but are being professionally uncovered by the archeologists of the University of Bergen, … or at least they will be until the University funding runs out.
“There has been a sharp increase in the use of metal detectors in Norway in recent years …. which has increased the number of such finds coming in to university museums each year.”
Snippets
- The $123,500 Sword, made in Finland
Swordplay Women of New Zealand, please note the demanding dress code … “Women have to carry the sword in a manner suitable for their outfit because the material of the evening gowns cannot support the scabbard. So, it required a lot of energy and brainstorming to figure out how to attach the heavy sword to three different outfits (two evening gowns and the coat during the conferment ceremony”
- My Sword ‘Fang’, My Shield ‘Anvil’, My left Sabaton ‘Hoofhammer’, My Gauntlet …