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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-195-pirates-with-dr-jamie-goodall
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Dr. Jamie L.H. Goodall is a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. She is the author of Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars, National Geographic’s Pirates: Shipwrecks, Conquests, and their Lasting Legacy, Pirates and Privateers from Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay, and The Daring Exploits of Black Sam Bellamy: From Cape Cod to the Caribbean. She has a BA in Archeology, an MA in Public History and Museum Studies, both from Appalachian State University, and a PhD in history from Ohio State.
In our conversation we discuss why pirates are seen as so glamorous – the clothes, the swashbuckling, the adventure, the accent. But you won’t be surprised to hear that the life of a pirate was somewhat different to this.
Jamie explains about pirate culture, and the democracies on board ship, the arrangements around compensation, and the famous “Pirate Code.” We hear about the successful pirate, Black Sam Bellamy, AKA the Prince of Pirates, who had a reputation for being a kinder pirate, and how that worked for him.
As you’ll expect from The Sword Guy Podcast, we have a chat about weapons and fighting. What weapons did pirates use? Were they as bloodthirsty as we’ve been led to believe?
We also find out Jamie’s hopes for a biopic of Black Sam Bellamy, and her upcoming book about the taverns, inns and public houses of Virginia.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-194-drawing-a-dream-of-swords-with-chris-schweizer
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Chris Schweizer is a three-time Eisner Award nominated cartoonist, a writer, concept artist and illustrator who lives in rural Kentucky with his wife, daughter, two cats and a long legged dog. He also supplied me with a gigantic list of his previous jobs, but now he makes comics.
In our conversation we hear about how Chris got into being a comic artist, why he doesn’t get to do much HEMA, how he used to fight in bars for money, and a Monty Python connection.
Over the past year, Chris has been going around museums drawing pictures of swords. He has put these together into a book, A Dream of Swords, which has an introduction by friend of the podcast, Sebastian de Castell. You can support Chris’s kickstarter, which runs until 10th October 2024: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/schweizer/a-dream-of-swords.
The book is a collection of 100 monotone watercoloured drawings of swords from museums in Paris, London, and New York. There will also be original artworks, prints, and digital versions available. Check it out!
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-193-kinesiology-and-concussions-with-jane-strange
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Jane Strange represented Team North America at the 2019 European games in Minsk, and she is a competition medallist at longsword in both open and women's competitions. She is currently teaching and training at Edmonton Historical Martial Arts but is mainly focused on pursuing her degree in kinesiology.
We talk about what kinesiology is and her approach to coaching psychology. Find out what way of training works best for improving someone’s ability with a sword, and how Jane’s approach differs from Guy’s.
We also talk about Jane’s experience at the Minsk European Games. The experience was a bit of a mixed bag, including food poisoning, gear issues, and even a concussion. Jane has taught a seminar on Concussion Awareness and Prevention, having suffered a serious concussion from a car crash. Click here for her slides.
In the episode we discuss preventing and treating concussion – whether there’s any mask that can prevent it, and how we need to change the culture within HEMA to make concussion less likely.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-192-solo-training-and-an-interview-with-guy
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Hello Sword People, and welcome to episode 192 of the podcast!
Training alone is an essential skill. You can train anywhere, any time, and practice things that would be unethical with a partner. Enjoy some sample chapters from my book, The Principles and Practices of Solo Training, followed by a reprise of episode 100, where I’m interviewed by Ariel Anderssen about a whole load of stuff, including how I got into swords in the first place, the vision up a Scottish mountain that told me to open my school in Helsinki, injuries from duelling, my best ever sword fight, feminism, getting through the pandemic, and learning to fly.
Find The Principles and Practices of Solo Training at guywindsor.net/solo.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-191-clubs-wands-and-gladiators-historical-physical-culture-with-ben-miller
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Ben Miller is the man behind Physical Culture Historians, preserving and reviving historical exercise methods for mind, body and spirit using wands, Indian Clubs, calisthenics, and more. He has a successful and fascinating YouTube channel, and has produced several modern editions of 18th and 19th century fencing and self defence sources, as well as being the author of The Gladiatory Art: The Lives, Writings, & Techniques of the Eighteenth Century Stage Gladiators.
In our conversation we talk about how Ben got interested in the physical culture of the 19th century, and how his experience doing historical fencing made him realise that the people who designed exercises and physical training in the past had some insights that we are lacking in modern sports culture. Modern fitness is too specialised, whereas in the 19th century there was a much greater focus on holistic health, which would be beneficial to us today.
Ben talks about his favourite piece of equipment, the Indian club, and the difference between historical Indian clubs and the modern varieties; they are designed with different ways of swinging in mind. He also explains the origins of the push up, and how you should do the original Swedish version.
Another of Ben’s research interests is Colonel Monstery, and this is a link to the book Ben wrote to verify Monstery’s wild claims about how many duels he won and the combats he fought:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Defense-Gentlemen-Ladies-Nineteenth-Century-Quarterstaff/dp/1583948686
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Defense-Gentlemen-Ladies-Nineteenth-Century-Quarterstaff/dp/1583948686
We go on to discuss the largely forgotten stage gladiators of the 18th century, who were men and women who fought with sharp swords (amongst other weapons) on stage, for real. Often resulting in hideous injuries, disembowelling, and even death.
More links:
One of Ben’s mentors is Harry Allick, and here you can see his YouTube videos of club swinging: https://www.youtube.com/@lakelandviewerSee Ben’s fascinating videos on his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PhysicalCultureHistoriansEarly in the interview we mention the Jared Kirby episode. Here’s the link: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-165-sword-geekery-and-stunts-with-jared-kirbyBen mentions an essay by a Turner who is ranting against the trend toward specialization and production of champions in fitness and sport. We can’t find the essay, but we have included a link to the following video Ben did, in which he shows and reads from the article extensively (begins around time code 7:47): https://youtu.be/oK__aaBLM78?si=0Q7kWhmXEvISTnS9And finally! Ben’s book on Babe Ruth was just released and here are the links to it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999056794/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0999056794/
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-190-crystal-and-silver-in-a-shakespearean-accent-with-ben-crystal
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
In today’s episode we have another audiobook/interview mashup!
The Paradoxes of Defence Audiobook Project involved me hiring two narrators to record George Silver’s 1599 book, Paradoxes of Defence. Ben Crystal is a Shakespearean actor, specialising in original pronunciation, and Jonathan Hartman is a modern dramatic actor who narrates in modern English. Renowned historical harpist Andrew Lawrence-King provides the musical punctuation.
George Silver, an English gentleman, was appalled at the influx of Italian rapier fencing into England, and set out his arguments in favour of the traditional English weapons. He rails against the fashionable new style on the grounds that it is both dangerous to the practitioners, and of no use in warfare.
Whether he was right or wrong, history was against him and the fashionable Italian rapier took over. But his work offers a vital window into the theory and practice of martial arts in England in Tudor times, and ironically provides much of what we know about several Italian rapier masters: Rocco Bonetti, Vincentio Saviolo, and Jeronimo Saviolo.
This podcast episode contains a couple of sample chapters of the audiobook read in original pronunciation by Ben Crystal, which is then followed by my interview with Ben, from episode 58. Here’s a bit more information about the interview:
Ben Crystal is an actor, author, producer, and explorer of original practices in Shakespeare rehearsal and production. In this episode we talk about Ben’s work in exploring how actors would have rehearsed, staged, and performed Shakespeare’s plays in the 16th century, and how the original rhymes and pronunciation would have sounded. It makes for a completely different experience to what we think of as “Shakespearean” in modern times. Even if you aren’t into Shakespeare this is a fascinating conversation about theatre, memory, language, and of course, swords.
Which leads us on to George Silver. Find out what Ben thinks of Silver and whether he would have wanted to go to the pub with him. For those of you unaware of our project, in 1599 George Silver published his Paradoxes of Defence, offering a window into the Tudor and medieval martial arts as practiced in England.
You can find the audiobook at guywindsor.net/silver
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-189-federations-forests-and-body-awareness-with-marine-beaumel
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Marine Beaumel is a historical martial arts instructor best known for her work with Royal Armouries Manuscript 1.33 Sword and Buckler. She started her historical martial arts career in Toulouse before moving to Finland, like all sensible people, where she co-founded the Tampere HEMA club. She is a member of the board of the French Federation of Historical European Martial Arts. And she has served on the executive board of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts.
We talk a bit about what these federations are and how they help, and move on to talk about Marine’s master’s in plant science and the fascinating ways that plants can be used to help restore the environment and farm more sustainably.
Here is a picture of Marine’s favourite plant, the Judas Tree (Cercis Siliquastrum):
Once Marine has finished her Master’s thesis, she plans to work on a project for the French Federation to improve HEMA practitioners’ body awareness and understanding of how to prevent injury. The project will produce a series of leaflets to give people a basic overview, rather than going into massive depth and detail on these topics. Guy is working on a similar project, called Jumppa, to cover prehab and conditioning for historical martial artists. So, look out for both of those in a few months’ time.
Marine is a fan of fencing with sharps and towards the interview we talk about the benefits of training with sharps, but also the challenges of working with people who don’t seem to have any awareness of the danger of having a very pointy sword in the vicinity of their face.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/vadi-and-the-four-virtues-of-sword-making-with-eleonora-rebecchi/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Today’s episode is a bit different to the usual format, as we have both a delightful sample from an audiobook and a related interview.
I have created an audiobook of Philippo Vadi’s De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. It comes in three parts: 1. My friend, Eleonora Rebecchi (more on her later) has read Vadi’s words in mellifluous Italian. 2. I have read my translation in a rather more clunky English. 3. There’s a combined version, with the Italian chapter followed by its translation in English. Find the audiobook and more details here:
https://swordschool.shop/products/de-arte-gladiatoria-dimicandi-audiobook
This podcast episode contains a couple of sample chapters of the audiobook in both Italian and English, and it’s followed by a repeat of my interview with Eleanora Rebecchi (episode 129, October 2022). Here are the show notes for the interview:
Eleonora Rebecchi is the creative director at Malleus Martialis, producer of excellent training swords, as well as a practising historical fencer and a graphic artist who has done some lovely covers for Guy. She is also a classically trained singer, which you’ll get to hear in this episode.
We talk about how Eleanora and her partner Rodolfo got into designing swords for a living, what goes into the design process, and what qualities a business selling swords needs.
Eleonora explains how the aesthetics, ergonomics and dynamics of a sword fit together, which is demonstrated by Guy’s longsword.
Here is the unboxing video so you can see what he means: https://vimeo.com/722218823
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/could-hema-ever-be-big-in-china-with-zeng-yang/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Today’s episode is with Zeng Yang, who is a doctoral student at the Shanghai Sport University, where he is pursuing a PhD in the history of European swordsmanship from the 14th to the 17th centuries. He is a lifelong martial artist having begun training in Wushu at the age of eight. His master’s degree is a comparison of Duan Bing and HEMA.
In our conversation, we talk about the spread of Chinese martial arts to the Western world, through things like kung fu movies and immigration, but the question is, why the same hasn’t happened in the other direction? How could HEMA become more popular in China? We hear about a new term, Bing Ji, which combines all steel weapons in an exciting new form of cross-cultural communication.
Here’s a bit of detail on some of the terms that come up in this episode:
Wushu: The official name of Chinese martial artsGuoshu: The name of Wushu in the early 20th century that literally means "the art of the nation", thus elevating the status of martial arts to the level of the country. But currently people no longer use this term.Tau lu (routine or form): It is a pre-designed practice method and an important form of expression in Chinese martial arts. It had already emerged in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) and has been widely used since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). It is very similar to Assalto in Marozzo. It usually has a fixed start and end action. Each routine roughly contains dozens of actions.Bing Ji: The literal meaning is "fighting with cold weapons", which broadly refers to all fighting sports related to steel weapons, and narrowly refers to the fighting sports of historical martial arts. It is a term that emerged around 2016 to replace the concept of HEMA. Because China's HEMA not only involves European weapons, but also includes Chinese weapons, many people believe that continuing to use HEMA is inappropriate. Therefore, this new term has been created to describe historical martial arts sports. At present, Bing Ji has been widely used in China, and it is used in almost all historical martial arts competitions. -
For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/hema-and-heresy-with-xian-niles/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Xian Niles is a fencing instructor, martial artist and the founder of Spada, a recreational Bolognese fencing study group in maritime Canada. He's also the founder of The Niles Fencing Academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In our conversation we talk about his move from representing Barbados in sport fencing to getting into HEMA in Canada.
We also hear about how Xian switched from an engineering degree to theatre, and a very challenging job he had working in mental health security, which required serious martial arts skills to safely restrain people in severe distress.
Xian has a different take on HEMA to some other practitioners, which comes from his childhood in Barbados. The culture is such that people settle disputes publicly using sword-like weapons, and Xian witnessed these fights as a child. These experiences have led Xian to question the historical sources: would it work in real life, and did the person who wrote it ever fight for real? This leads our discussion into what Xian refers to as his heretical views about Messers, Vadi, and Liechtenauer.
We chat about a whole load of other stuff in this episode, including a universal language of HEMA, the difference between ice hockey and HEMA, setting up a competition for kids, tournament rule sets to avoid concussions, and why Guy would rather pour bleach in his eyes than watch HEMA at the Olympics.
Click here for photos of Guy’s longsword: https://swordschool.com/podcast/hema-and-heresy-with-xian-niles/
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/historical-dancing-historical-fencing-and-a-bear-with-sarina-wagner/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Sarina Wagner is a musical actress and dancer who trained at the University of Music and Arts of the City of Vienna, which is probably the best place in the world to do that. She is a historical fencer focusing on Capoferro and Fabris, as well as Spanish destreza. She is currently a member of the Academia da Espada.
We talk about why Sarina moved to Vienna, and her work running workshops about musicians and dance. One of her favourite composers is Jean-Baptiste Lully, and she likes to do her fencing training to his operas. Have a listen here to see if you’d like to do the same:
(3. Symph., I. Movement // 6. Symph., I. Movement)https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ITjm7yPne7OTsUspx5p48?si=aa2708b74265446b
The above playlist also contains another of Sarina’s favourite composers, her fellow Bavarian, Christoph Willibald Gluck, plus a couple of tracks from Anton Bruckner.
We talk about how a grounding in dance can really help with fencing, and Sarina recommends all fencers go and take a few dance lessons – the waltz is an easy one to start with. And have a couple of beers first.
As promised, these are the books on historical dance Sarina is working from:
ORCHESORGRAPHY by Thoinot Arbeau (1589) (Sarina’s version is from Dover Publications, 1967)COURTLY DANCE OF THE RENAISSANCE - A new Translation and Edition of the “Nobilta di Dame” by Fabritio Caroso (1600) (Sarina’s version is from Dover Publications, 1995)
In our conversation we talk about how we can learn from other disciplines, and Sarina sent an extra note to say, “[T]hanks to Chris Lee-Becker and Ton Puey and Academia da Espada for being so supportive and pushing this work forward, because it's also in the spirit of Academia, where everything from the era is supposed to flow together to develop a sense and understanding of the time. In my words, and this fits so well, because this is also how I see myself as an artist: interdisciplinarity.”
Finally, here’s a picture of the armoured bear, Don Herkules, who accompanies Sarina to events: https://swordschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image1-1024x683.jpeg
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/swords-for-all-humanity-with-janna-datahan/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Janna Datahan was born and raised in the Philippines and is currently living in the United States. She's a mother, a published poet, a fibre artist and an aesthetician. Janna discovered Historical European Martial Arts in late 2019 and found her way into the supportive arms of the sword community during the pandemic. She is an active tournament competitor and event organiser. She also hosts a podcast called Swords Against Humanity, a platform she uses to advocate for underrepresented voices in Historical European Martial Arts.
In this episode, Janna explains how she got into HEMA and the support she has received from the community. As a 4’10” woman of colour, Janna didn’t see many people who looked like her when she first started, and so being ‘adopted’ by Fran Lacuata opened up a platform for Janna to start her podcast and also become the social media liaison for the HEMA Alliance.
We talk quite a bit about tournaments – the good, the bad and the ugly, and Janna has ideas on the sorts of event that she would like to attend and how resources within HEMA could be better spent to improve the art.
Of course, as a person of non-average size, the topic of kit comes up, especially gauntlets. There’s also a bit of chat about touring Europe to visit castles and trebuchets, viral crochet patterns, and rage cleaning.
You can find Janna’s podcast, Swords Against Humanity, on your podcast player, and here is her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/swordsagainsthumanity and her Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheTangledTentacleCo
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/want-to-write-a-training-manual-how-to-write-training-manuals-for-historical-martial-artists-with-guy-windsor/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
This episode is an unusual one because there’s no interview. Instead, it’s an extended sample from my new audiobook, From Your Head to Their Hands: How to write, publish, and market training manuals for Historical Martial Artists. The book is designed to be short, clear and to the point, with zero fluff! Listen to this episode to get a good idea of what’s in the book.
The chapters from the audiobook that this episode includes are:
Introduction: what is a training manual?ClarityThings that get in the way: procrastination, imposter syndrome, fear, and other thingsThe publishing processPublishing platformsWhat is marketing?Content marketingTo buy the book, head to swordschool.shop, or your can find it on your usual audiobook retailer.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Robert (Bob) Brooks is one of the original generation of historical fencers, who began training with me in the Dawn Duellists’ Society in the early 90s. He founded the Hotspur School of Defence in 2003. So it's turning 20 this year. He has been teaching primarily German historical martial arts and he has taught in over 30 countries on five continents.
Bob is the author of the new book At Your Mercy: The Foundational Guide to the Messer. We talk about why it was needed and what the book covers. You can find it for yourself here: At Your Mercy on Lulu.
We also talk about a fascinating academic study into Bronze age weapons, which Bob and his school were involved in. Here’s a link to the study: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10816-020-09451-0.pdf
And here’s a link to the James Dilley episode where we also talked about the battle of Tollense and forging bronze swords.
See here for a picture of Guy's bronze sword: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/
Other links we promised to share:
The Book of Judith – the one and only Italian Storta treatise. https://guywindsor.net/2015/04/previously-unknown-falchion-treatise-discovered/
Hans Sebald Beham woodcuts of the 12 months images, showing Messers in daily use: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/writing-historical-novels-the-facts-and-the-fiction-with-elizabeth-chadwick/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Elizabeth Chadwick is an award winning best-selling writer of historical fiction. She has been writing since she was a teenager, but it took many years and many books before she was finally published. She has had great success since, so it’s a good example for aspiring writers out there to keep going!
In our conversation we talk about some of the historical figures which feature in Elizabeth’s novels, including William Marshal, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Joan of Kent. Have a listen to find out what fascinating lives these people led, and also how Elizabeth separates the myths from the facts in the delicate balancing act that is writing a good historical novel about people who actually existed.
We talk about the Akashic Record, which is a way that Elizabeth’s friend Alison can psychically tap into the past. Alison is able to see, hear, feel, touch, and even taste what has gone before. Whatever your beliefs, this is a fascinating way of researching historical characters and events, and check out this article Elizabeth wrote for The History Girls, on the Akashics: https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2015/01/alternative-research-psychic-strand-by.html
Here's Alison's description of William Marshal:
"He has incredible courage. He's like a bouncy castle: very buoyant. He's riding with a lot of highborn people. He's awed by them but not overawed. He feels as if he's in the right place. He has a good sense of his own worth. He's very flexible and alert, responds not just in a chitchat way but deeply and appropriately. He knows how to say the right thing at the right time and it comes easily to him. He's alert and all his senses are awakened. He has dark hair, long cheeks, strong nose. His clothes are intricate. His eyes look dark but inside they feel light. I'm seeing the youth and the older man mingled. It is difficult for others to gauge what he's thinking. He has very dark eyes: might be brown might be blue.
There is a woman laughing and William is making her laugh by telling her jokes about the English being loutish and stupid. It's probably Poitiers they are going to. The woman is Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alison had several stabs at saying Poitiers, and prompted by me. She was unsure how to pronounce it).
Elizabeth’s website is https://elizabethchadwick.com/
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/what-is-a-volta-a-very-detailed-examination-of-fiore-with-dario-magnani/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
My guest today is Dario Alberto Magnani, better known as Mr. Thokk, who was a longtime scholar of the Italian single combat tradition from the late medieval/early Renaissance period, and a world renowned historical martial arts instructor and gear designer. As a swordsman, he specialises in northern Italian fencing from the early 15th to the 16th centuries, i.e., Fiore, Vadi and into the Bolognese. And he's a successful competitor and sought after instructor.
In the late 2010s Dario became a historical martial arts professional, between his teaching activities and the founding of Thokk Personal Armor, a business through which he designs and sells innovative historical martial arts gear, such as the Thokk gloves.
The reason I'm chatting to Dario is because I met him in Spain at the Panoplia, and we ended up spending probably five or six hours of the weekend discussing details of Fiore stuff and other things. In the conversation recorded for the podcast, we pick up where we left off in Spain, with an in-depth discussion about the Three Voltas of the Sword in Il Fior di Battaglia. If you own a copy of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, you need to listen to this episode with your book and a red pen in hand!
Here's the link to the video giving an example of tornare: guywindsor.net/dvsthrust
And the article, One Play, One Drill, Many Questions.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/horse-armour-at-the-royal-armouries-with-eleanor-wilkinson-keys/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Today’s episode is with Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys, who is Assistant Curator of Arms and Armour at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. She has an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds, and works with the European armour and edge weapons collections, which makes us all extremely jealous, and the Asian and African collection which also makes us extremely jealous. She works there with Natasha Bennett, who you may recall from Episode 82.
In our conversation, we talk about how Eleanor got into her career and why a jousting helmet sparked her interest in working at the Royal Armouries. Ellie’s particular interest is in later jousting, when the kit got really weird and wonderful. We chat about some of the fantastic decoration on both the horses’ and knights’ armour, such as dragons, snails with wings, and even squirrels.
We also talk about the best way to visit a big museum where there is just too much to see. Ellie tells us which pieces at the Royal Armouries she would make a beeline for.
Finally, Guy sets Ellie a challenge, and if you are looking at this after 28th November 2024, you’ll be able to see the results of that challenge!
Photos:
https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-20471
https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-1292
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/bronze-age-britons-were-weird-with-dr-james-dilley/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Dr James Dilley is an archaeologist and craftsman specializing in prehistoric technologies such as flintknapping, and casting bronze weaponry. He is the founder of Ancient Craft, a company that provides expertise and experiences to individuals and educational institutions.
James has three archaeology degrees, which seems like an awful lot. He has a BSc exploring polished stone axes, an MA focusing on bone flintknapping hammers, and a PhD from the University of Southampton on Upper Paleolithic hunting technology. So if you get lost in the woods with just a stone, James is clearly your man.
In our conversation, we talk about how James got into his career and started Ancient Craft. We talk about casting swords out of bronze, how to do it and what the swords are like. Listen right to the end for a bonus question about hilt design. I can confirm, casting your broadsword is really good fun. I did that with James a while ago. Here’s a video of me casting the sword:
https://vimeo.com/886422500
Heres a link to the Grotsetter sword: https://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-102-426-C&scache=1yxxwujgq5&searchdb=scran
We also talk about some of the weird finds (or things we haven’t found) from the Bronze Age period. For example, the Tollense battlefield site in Germany, where after the huge battle all the bodies were just left there. Another weirdness is the complete lack of Bronze Age armour found in Britain, when there was loads just over the Channel in France. Why didn’t the Brits wear armour? Were they just too brave? Also, why didn’t they eat any fish in Bronze Age Britain? And what did they do with their dead? Why can’t we find human bones? Surely the theory that people were cannibals can’t be true? Listen to the episode for speculative answers to these questions and more!
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/community-and-the-club-with-samantha-west/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Sam West is an instructor at the Dueling Weapons Academy of Renaissance Fencing aka DWARF, a historical martial arts club in Barrie, Ontario, where she teaches Italian longsword, 1.33 sword and buckler, and rapier.
We chat about running a non-profit club and creating an open and inclusive space for everyone to take part in HEMA. Sam is passionate about relating the club to the community, and she tells us about the different projects they get involved in to help the local community and also create awareness of HEMA.
Amongst other things, she's also involved with running The Gathering of the Blades, which is not a tournament. It’s a historical martial arts buffet of a weekend seminar.
We also talk about smallsword, aka murder spikes, access to equipment, bringing together women in HEMA, translating sources, and starting your own club to have people to play with.
You can find Sam’s school at Barrieswords.ca.
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For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-politics-of-eastern-and-western-martial-arts-with-jonathan-bluestein/
To support the show, come join the Patrons at https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy
Jonathan Bluestein is a martial artist and author who contacted Guy with some interesting questions related to his research. Jonathan is looking into the similarities and differences between the traditional Chinese martial arts and traditional European Martial Arts, both in Medieval and Renaissance times as well as in our everyday lives today.
Jonathan’s background is in traditional oriental martial arts in general and he practices and teaches traditional Chinese martial arts from his school in Israel. He is the author of a number of books on the martial arts as well as other topics. He’s also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine.
Jonathan is currently in the midst of working on a book called Martial Arts Politics Explained. In this episode we discuss how we might classify different types of martial arts school, and how the structures and hierarchies of different types of schools inform the politics within the school. Jonanthan explains how Chinese martial arts schools work and the culture of family and disciples within them. We discuss how the cultures within Western historical martial arts schools compare.
This is a wide ranging conversation which also covers philosophy, the war in Israel, straight swords versus curved swords, and Chinese medicine.
You may find this list of terminology useful, which was helpfully provided by Jonathan:
Names of Jonathan’s teachers:
Master Nitzan Oren
Grand-Master Zhou Jingxuan
Master Sapir Tal
Master Stephen Jackowicz
Master Brian Hall
Martial arts Jonathan has studied and have taught:
Xing Yi Quan
Pigua Zhang
Jook Lum Southern Mantis
Bagua Zhang
Li Jia Shaolin Quan (Li Family Shaolin)
Weapons mentioned:
Dao (Chinese curved sword)
Miao Dao (Chinese equivalent of the Nodachi/Odachi)
Historical figures and periods:
General Qi Jiguang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Jiguang
Japanese Pirates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wokou
Meiji Restoration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration
Chinese Cultural terms:
Wuguan - 'Martial Hall' - Chinese equivalent term to 'Dojo'.
Kwan - the Cantonese pronunciation of 'Guan', and short for 'Wuguan'.
Gongfu - A high level of skill, acquired through longstanding effort and practice
Gongfu Family (Gongfu Jia) - the martial arts family within a given lineage, of teachers and disciples
Shifu - a teacher in a traditional relationship of a Master and an apprentice
Tudi - a disciple of a Shifu - the Apprentice
Bai Shi - the ceremony with which a Tudi is accepted into the Gongfu Family.
- Visa fler
