I’ve finished transcribing and annotating Sir William Hope’s final book, the Vindication of the True Art of Defence. The original plates are available online, but the pdf below is fully searchable (though I’ve stuck to Hope’s inconsistent spelling). The annotations include 12 lessons that should reflect the content. The file also includes plates from The … Read More
I don’t have a lot of experience of two-weapon fighting, in fact I have just enough experience that fighting with a weapon in your off-hand is actually a distraction rather than useful. What Silver Said George Silver wrote in Paradoxes of Defence about a hierarchy of weapons. George Silver was also biased, and in almost … Read More
This post is so familiar and alien at the same time. Familiar because it describes the make-do of roleplaying in the 80s, but not the scene I remember since as a Brit I hardly played D&D. And thanks to that I can wax lyrical about old-school Stormbringer or WFRP or Fighting Fantasy and there’s just … Read More
Yesterday I was talking about the HEMA scene to a layperson and they referred to what we did as “your sport”. This is wrong for these reasons: There’s no sport. Yes, there are competitions when groups meet up, and certainly some people view these as competitive events where the goal is dominance; but most gatherings … Read More
Watch this bout between Valmont and Danceny from 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons: “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988): Duel Scene and de Tourvel’s Death from August Martin on Vimeo. (fun fact, Malkovich’s baseball slide at 1:40 was apparently his suggestion to fight coordinator William Hobbs) The Vicomte at least turns up to the fight sober, unlike this scene from … Read More