Medieval Living

Having studies rapier fighting, I’m always in search of new resources for learning Medieval styles of swordsmanship. One of my favorite web sources is The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts.

On there website, I found a collection of images from the Codex Wallerstein – circa 1470. With nearly 200 images, the codex shows various armed and unarmed techniques. Anyone interested in Medieval martial arts will appreciate this collection of illustations.

Also included is an introduction to the Codex Wallerstein which provides explanations for the images.

All right – enough dreaming about building a Medieval castle! Let’s do somethine more practical – Medieval Martial Arts!!! As a member of the Society for Creative Anacrhonism (SCA), I have had the opportunity to participate in both rapier fighting and archery. I’ve enjoyed it and look forward to more. However, there’s a great deal more to the military fighting styles of the Medieval era.

The Associate for Renaissance Martial Arts is a non-profit organization which specializes in all of the martial arts of the Middle Ages. Although I didn’t see where they came out and openly criticized the SCA, I get the general feeling that they consider themselves more serious about their studies of Medieval fighting. Here is a quote from their website . . . “The ARMA is not concerned with exclusively knightly tournaments sports or later gentlemanly “duels of honor”, but with the whole panoply of personal fighting skills of the period from roughly 950-1700.” Yeah, I think that’s a slam against the SCA. But that’s ok – I’ve often been frustrated by the rules of engagement in rapier fighting – unrealistic limitations on techniques and strategies that were obviously in use during Medieval times. For instance, in William Wilson’s “Art of Defence: An Introduction to the Use of the Rapier,” he shows a variety of techniques – simple things like striking your opponent with the pommel of the sword, disarming your opponent, and a variety of grappling techniques. None of those will ever happen in the SCA – just not safe enough.

Regardless of all that, the ARMA website lists a genuine plethora of articles, references, study materials, training tips, and research. Want to play with real swords? Then check out this site!