Recoverable Sword Press: News for May 2016

by Wes von Papineäu

How much is your sword, armour, or related kit worth to you?

...financially?

...emotionally?

...professionally?

Was it a gift? A prize you earned? Looted?

Swords are by nature "desirable" -- and not just by the HEMA community. As we can and have read in the "Snippets" section of past editions of Sword Press, swords are not infrequently stolen from car boots and back seats, as well as from homes, shops and institutions. To a lesser extent, we misplace our kit ourselves… leaving something behind during the mad rush to pack up and meet our erstwhile fencing foes at the nearby pub for the inevitable (but oh so welcome) recounting of recent deeds of arms.

The HEMA community is excellent in getting mislaid arms back to their owners... if they know who owns that particular piece of kit. So make it easy on your hosts: label as best you can all the soft stuff, and sharpie or etch something identifiable onto the harder stuff!

In case of stolen kit, the police will have an easier time of it if they know what to look for. Your description of your missing item might get a knowing nod from a HEMA peer, but is near useless to most everyone else. A few cell phone photographs of your sword and related kit at different angles and distances before you pack it to fly, drive or ride to the salle would go far in allowing you to recover stolen kit or challenge for its return in a case of "mistaken identity".

I’ve not been to a salle nor to a competition where the hosts didn't attempt to mitigate the chance of visitors losing anything, but bad things and "d'oh!" moments do happen. Make it easier for the community and authorities to recover your stuff: mark it.

Creating Close Quarters

CBC (Calgary, Alberta). 26 April 16. Calgary sword and armour company suits up Comic Expo cosplayers.

HEMA salle and "armory" Dark Ages Creations were offering wares and war at last month’s Calgary Comic Expo. Aside from selling kit to both swordplayers and cosplayers, owner Jamie Ripley was shopping a diverse recruiting pool for new historical martial artists.
Of note: his concern for the security of customers that are up close and personal with "Sword Island".

“Last thing you want is somebody getting bumped in the back of the head with one of these in a crowded aisleway.”

Alas, that Battle of the Nations participants should feel the same!

“And to hang the old sword in its place (my father’s sword and mine).” [1]

CBC (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island). 13 May 16. To arms! Charlottetown men launch sword school.

Sporting a white Kraken rather than a red-headed Anne or anything resembling a "green gable", the P.E.I. Sword School is now open to conduct HEMA longsword instruction and other related disciplines as taught in 12th-16th century Europe.

Song of Swords?

HELSINGBORGS DAGBLAD (Sweden). 27 April 16. De slåss i brynja, hjälm och stålskodda handskar.

Not all Swedish HEMA initiatives are centred on large Nordics trying to smack each other upside the head with axes while bellowing Viking challenges… but in the case of training with the 17 students of Helsinborg’s Dark Ages HEMA group, that’s exactly what it is. What drew me to this item was the group's unique approach to training during their warm up – timed drills set to music and alternating between calisthenics, sparring, and movement drills!

The article also offers us some leads to the works of some historical Swedish swordmasters that we in North America don’t hear enough about.

The chronicles of cutting in Córdoba

CÓRDOBA HOY (Spain). 05 May 16. Cuando los maestros de esgrima se examinaban en La Corredera.

The academic exhibition, Acero Toledano, Acero Genovés in Córdoba explored the history of 16th and 17th century swords, sword manufacturing, and sword masters as seen from a uniquely Spanish perspective. Historical swordplay subjects covered included the martial and social history of the sword in helping to create the Spanish nation, how Spanish steel (Toledo specifically) came to be seen as the quality blade to aspire to own, and the development of a flourishing guild system within Cordoban sword makes and masters of fencing.

We so envy our Spanish peers with this event, for not only are they working with developing a more detailed understanding of national historical swordplay, but concurrently, they're learning about their municipality's unique contribution to the art.

Allied Interests?

CUV3 (Villanueva, Spain). 08 April 16. La resurrección de las artes de combate medievales en Europa.

What could the Irish sword school Cork Blade Masters have in common with Madrid’s Asociación Española de Esgrima Antigua? They’re both part of a European-wide HEMA initiative to rediscover the functional truth behind medieval and renaissance swordplay. (Or maybe, just maybe, our English HEMAs peers are, unknowingly, in for a truly epic, historical replay of some sword-heavy events!)

The article accurately describes the difficulty interpreting various fight books, period art, literature and objects presents, as well as how these sources of information may be amalgamated into a true understanding of just what it was like to fight with a sword in any select period.

Furthermore, as with those of us in North America, European HEMA practicioners are attributing some of the increased public interest in our art to the effects of modern cinema.

High-Tech History

POPULAR SCIENCE (USA). 27 April 16. New Full-Contact Sport Wraps Martial Arts In Electronic Armor.

We have seen mention of the Lorica armor mentioned here in the past, and from the sound of things, they’re getting on with bringing their kit into a usable (albeit probably very expensive) form.

The Lorica may have some practical uses for HEMA practitioners… for instance, we will finally be able to determine if any passage of arms did result in a "killing blow". Specifically, if a hit were struck late or became an example of the despised "double hit", we can know whether it would still be effective. I’m not convinced we should all use it, but I am intrigued to see if evidence shows that when we’re fully armoured while fighting "historically" (say, with rapier) we are more inclined to, for lack of a better way of saying it, be stupid. (Aren’t we fully armoured for safety, already? But I’ll leave that to my competition-playing betters.)

I think that sensitive, new-age armour has a real place in our understanding of just what power words could have when coming out of binds -- and if that pommel strike to my jaw was a game-ender or not. We just have to agree -- before using the Lorica -- on what we wish to accomplish or record when we use (and abuse) the system.

What I will mourn, however, is the potential loss of that bit of honour and camaraderie within our community that happens when good people fairly "call their hits".

Snippets

Battle of the Nations, Nation by Nation:

  • Australia ("I'm going to be holding someone and then my brother will come up and hit him hard with the pole axe… .It's a good amount of fun.")
  • India
  • Italy
  • Moldova
  • Quebec

Works Cited

Montgomery, L.M. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1997. p.470