He studied medieval history and taught people how to use swords, and he invited me to play too! How could that not be a blast? I admit it freely, I’d never even heard of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA, for short) before Jake. Of course people used swords back in the day- I’ve seen Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Braveheart and the Princess Bride, but I never thought about European sword fighting as a martial art. Cripes, I studied medieval history, even got a concentration in it for my undergrad degree, but never considered knights and fencers of any kind to be martial artists. To be fair, my history professors never mentioned it in those terms either. Martial artists were guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, the Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo. Samurais and ninjas, katanas and wakasashis, right? The sort of things my kids at school look up when they need Halloween costumes. But it sounds like fun, so I’m game. And so it begins...
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Diary of a Longsword Nooblet - the Project
In a bid to try and make sense of my new-found interest in swords and swordplay, I thought it might help to jot down my thoughts on the subject as I'm learning- especially since my instructor won't let me take notes during class. How'd I even get into this?
He studied medieval history and taught people how to use swords, and he invited me to play too! How could that not be a blast? I admit it freely, I’d never even heard of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA, for short) before Jake. Of course people used swords back in the day- I’ve seen Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Braveheart and the Princess Bride, but I never thought about European sword fighting as a martial art. Cripes, I studied medieval history, even got a concentration in it for my undergrad degree, but never considered knights and fencers of any kind to be martial artists. To be fair, my history professors never mentioned it in those terms either. Martial artists were guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, the Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo. Samurais and ninjas, katanas and wakasashis, right? The sort of things my kids at school look up when they need Halloween costumes. But it sounds like fun, so I’m game. And so it begins...
He studied medieval history and taught people how to use swords, and he invited me to play too! How could that not be a blast? I admit it freely, I’d never even heard of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA, for short) before Jake. Of course people used swords back in the day- I’ve seen Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Braveheart and the Princess Bride, but I never thought about European sword fighting as a martial art. Cripes, I studied medieval history, even got a concentration in it for my undergrad degree, but never considered knights and fencers of any kind to be martial artists. To be fair, my history professors never mentioned it in those terms either. Martial artists were guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, the Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo. Samurais and ninjas, katanas and wakasashis, right? The sort of things my kids at school look up when they need Halloween costumes. But it sounds like fun, so I’m game. And so it begins...
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