It can be a little challenging, as you might imagine, to keep up a regular blog going with fresh, well-researched, clearly thought out, and intelligent entries. Life doesn't stop being demanding just because I have a blog entry I want to finish, family duties don't stop, nor does work allow me time to write in this blog just because I want to keep reaching out to the HEMA community. Not only that, but some things I think are interesting don't really warrant a fully developed blog entry.
The concept of paradigm is extremely important to history in general, but I think it has special significance within the confines of HEMA.
First of all, paradigm means, among other things, "a set of assumptions, concepts, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality." In other words, a world-view. We all have a paradigm of one kind or another, but this is a very important concept in history because it informs the way in which the historian interprets given events.
For instance, a Marxist historian would view the events leading up to World War I differently than would a feminist historian, and again as would a psychoanalytical historian. Each of these historians understands the world from a certain point of view, so they interpret historical events from their own point of view.
But keep in mind, paradigm is something that surrounds us so pervasively that it informs our worldview without our even thinking about it, or thinking about why this is our worldview. From the perspective of HEMA, then, this is vitally important to remember when we read our sources. We are looking back in time from our paradigm into something that was created from a whole different paradigm.
This can cause great confusion and even perhaps lead us to feel the source is wrong in some way. Perhaps, but remember that your paradigm colors your world-view in an all-encompassing way, so maybe this is more a matter of trying to look at the source from a Medieval (or Renaissance, or 17th-century, or whatever) paradigm.
That's not always easy, but it certainly can be enlightening.
You know who the real unsung heroes of HEMA are? The blacksmiths!
While we study the Masters' work and we stand in awe of the fighting skill of knights and men-at-arms, we have to remember they'd have neither weapons nor armor if not for the blacksmiths (OK, I know technically they were weapon smiths and armor smiths, but the concepts remain the same).
Seriously, think about this the next time you see a long-ago corroded sword in a museum collection somewhere or even the picture of one in a book. That was once the work, the pride, perhaps even the satisfying pleasure of an unknown blacksmith somewhere now lost in the mists of time. We need to be aware of and honor their hard work, without which we would not have these marvelous weapons to study.
Common questions in regards to the earliest arts of the HEMA skill set are things like "How did they train?" and "What was their armor like?" or even "Why were they fighting?"
At first, these seem like perfectly reasonable questions, but they beg the question, "Who are they?" The problem with a blanket question like this in regards to the Middle Ages is that the time period is vast -- we're talking 1,000 years vast! -- and it covers the entire continent of Europe. That is an incredibly long period of time and a lot of geography to cover with a question as vague as these.
Think about this for a moment: The time period was 1,000 years long. If we were to go back in time 1,000 years, we'd only be just halfway through the Middle Ages! We're now only a bit over 500 years, roughly, from the end of the Middle Ages. One thousand years is a very long time, and it makes overly vague questions utterly meaningless.
How did they train? What was their armor like? Why were they fighting? Are we talking about the Frankish armies of Charlemagne sometime in the early 800s? Or do we mean a young Saxon boy in an English village just prior to the Norman invasion of 1066? Or perhaps we mean a recent recruit into one of the Italian condottieri in the late 1400s?
Each of these options represents some time in the Middle Ages, yet each is also radically different in terms of place, time, technology, and culture. So we very literally cannot talk about how "they" did anything at all. When we ask questions like this we really must be more specific.
Now, perhaps someone reads this and thinks, "Well, obviously those questions are too vague, but we can ask how did they train with the Longsword?" to which I'd again have to say, "Who are they?"
Are we talking about someone learning one of the German systems, or one of the Italian systems, or no particular system at all? Are they in Spain or Poland? Are they in the countryside or an urban center? Are they a French man-at-arms, a German knight, or an English archer who picked up a Longsword left on a battlefield? And what of the warriors in the Byzantine Empire?
While all of this can come off as a bit pedantic and nit-picky, it gets to the width and breadth of what we mean when we refer to "Medieval Europe," as well as really getting to the point of what we're trying to learn. And that, in the end, is the point of HEMA, isn't it?
Ever feel like working out like a knight? Who hasn't, right?!
There isn't a great abundance of written material regarding how knights trained, let alone exercised, but there is at least one great example from the 1409 biography of Jean Le Maingre, better known as "Boucicaut."
He was a French knight renowned for his incredible fighting skill. In 1390, he challenged knights from all across Christendom to try and defeat him and two other knights in a tournament, which would also have included single combat. Over the course of 30 days, Boucicaut fought against some of Europe’s best fighters, and by the time the dust settled the trio of French knights had emerged victorious.
In addition to obsessive weapons training, Boucicaut credited a strict fitness regimen for his martial skills. It combined cardio with strength training, and like a modern kettlebell routine is designed to work the muscles in the dynamic movement similar to the way they'd be used in earnest. It’s a difficult routine, made more so because he did it fully armored.
So what'd he do? Here is the list of exercises, given in no particular order and with no note of length, repetition, or duration:
Wall climb. Put yourself between two closely spaced walls and climb up using only the pressure exerted by your hands and feet.
Side horse vault. Place one hand on your horse's (well, we assume Boucicaut was using his own horse!) back and the other on its neck, and vault onto its back.
Two-man horse vault. Know how in all the good Westerns there's always a scene where one hero rides up to another, reaches down, and then pulls up the second hero so they land on the horses back, all without the horse losing stride? Seem unlikely in real life? Not to Boucicaut, who'd do that as part of his exercise routine.
Somersault. Just what it sounds like. A somersault, in a suit of plate armor.
Hammer swing. Again, what it sounds like. Find a very heavy hammer. Swing it. Repeat until your arms ache.
Stone throw. You guessed it. Find a large, heavy stone. Throw it as far as you can. Repeat.
Punching. Find a suitably stiff surface and punch it repeatedly to toughen your hands.
Ladder climb. This is the really fun one on this list. Boucicaut would lean a ladder against something and then climb it dangling from the underside (again, remember, while in armor). Talk about an arm workout!
Dancing. Yes, dancing. It's great cardio, plus loads of fun and a social activity to boot!
Running. What, you thought people didn't start running for exercise until the 1980s?!
Hmmm...my allegedly short blog post seems to be getting rather lengthy, and I still have another nine topics I wanted to hit. So I'll just add one more shot and save the additional topics for later Short Shots.
Therefore, today I offer you the first in what I'm sure will be many "Short Shots," just a few little points that I want to comment on, or take note of, or questions I want to get out there. So, rather than a whole detailed conversation that goes into great depth on one subject, imagine two friends chatting about a number of topics over a cup of coffee.
Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? Enjoy!
Paradigm
The concept of paradigm is extremely important to history in general, but I think it has special significance within the confines of HEMA.
First of all, paradigm means, among other things, "a set of assumptions, concepts, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality." In other words, a world-view. We all have a paradigm of one kind or another, but this is a very important concept in history because it informs the way in which the historian interprets given events.
For instance, a Marxist historian would view the events leading up to World War I differently than would a feminist historian, and again as would a psychoanalytical historian. Each of these historians understands the world from a certain point of view, so they interpret historical events from their own point of view.
But keep in mind, paradigm is something that surrounds us so pervasively that it informs our worldview without our even thinking about it, or thinking about why this is our worldview. From the perspective of HEMA, then, this is vitally important to remember when we read our sources. We are looking back in time from our paradigm into something that was created from a whole different paradigm.
This can cause great confusion and even perhaps lead us to feel the source is wrong in some way. Perhaps, but remember that your paradigm colors your world-view in an all-encompassing way, so maybe this is more a matter of trying to look at the source from a Medieval (or Renaissance, or 17th-century, or whatever) paradigm.
That's not always easy, but it certainly can be enlightening.
Blacksmiths
You know who the real unsung heroes of HEMA are? The blacksmiths!
While we study the Masters' work and we stand in awe of the fighting skill of knights and men-at-arms, we have to remember they'd have neither weapons nor armor if not for the blacksmiths (OK, I know technically they were weapon smiths and armor smiths, but the concepts remain the same).
Seriously, think about this the next time you see a long-ago corroded sword in a museum collection somewhere or even the picture of one in a book. That was once the work, the pride, perhaps even the satisfying pleasure of an unknown blacksmith somewhere now lost in the mists of time. We need to be aware of and honor their hard work, without which we would not have these marvelous weapons to study.
Who are they?
Common questions in regards to the earliest arts of the HEMA skill set are things like "How did they train?" and "What was their armor like?" or even "Why were they fighting?"
At first, these seem like perfectly reasonable questions, but they beg the question, "Who are they?" The problem with a blanket question like this in regards to the Middle Ages is that the time period is vast -- we're talking 1,000 years vast! -- and it covers the entire continent of Europe. That is an incredibly long period of time and a lot of geography to cover with a question as vague as these.
Think about this for a moment: The time period was 1,000 years long. If we were to go back in time 1,000 years, we'd only be just halfway through the Middle Ages! We're now only a bit over 500 years, roughly, from the end of the Middle Ages. One thousand years is a very long time, and it makes overly vague questions utterly meaningless.
How did they train? What was their armor like? Why were they fighting? Are we talking about the Frankish armies of Charlemagne sometime in the early 800s? Or do we mean a young Saxon boy in an English village just prior to the Norman invasion of 1066? Or perhaps we mean a recent recruit into one of the Italian condottieri in the late 1400s?
Each of these options represents some time in the Middle Ages, yet each is also radically different in terms of place, time, technology, and culture. So we very literally cannot talk about how "they" did anything at all. When we ask questions like this we really must be more specific.
Now, perhaps someone reads this and thinks, "Well, obviously those questions are too vague, but we can ask how did they train with the Longsword?" to which I'd again have to say, "Who are they?"
Are we talking about someone learning one of the German systems, or one of the Italian systems, or no particular system at all? Are they in Spain or Poland? Are they in the countryside or an urban center? Are they a French man-at-arms, a German knight, or an English archer who picked up a Longsword left on a battlefield? And what of the warriors in the Byzantine Empire?
While all of this can come off as a bit pedantic and nit-picky, it gets to the width and breadth of what we mean when we refer to "Medieval Europe," as well as really getting to the point of what we're trying to learn. And that, in the end, is the point of HEMA, isn't it?
Workout like a knight
Ever feel like working out like a knight? Who hasn't, right?!
There isn't a great abundance of written material regarding how knights trained, let alone exercised, but there is at least one great example from the 1409 biography of Jean Le Maingre, better known as "Boucicaut."
He was a French knight renowned for his incredible fighting skill. In 1390, he challenged knights from all across Christendom to try and defeat him and two other knights in a tournament, which would also have included single combat. Over the course of 30 days, Boucicaut fought against some of Europe’s best fighters, and by the time the dust settled the trio of French knights had emerged victorious.
In addition to obsessive weapons training, Boucicaut credited a strict fitness regimen for his martial skills. It combined cardio with strength training, and like a modern kettlebell routine is designed to work the muscles in the dynamic movement similar to the way they'd be used in earnest. It’s a difficult routine, made more so because he did it fully armored.
So what'd he do? Here is the list of exercises, given in no particular order and with no note of length, repetition, or duration:
Wall climb. Put yourself between two closely spaced walls and climb up using only the pressure exerted by your hands and feet.
Side horse vault. Place one hand on your horse's (well, we assume Boucicaut was using his own horse!) back and the other on its neck, and vault onto its back.
Two-man horse vault. Know how in all the good Westerns there's always a scene where one hero rides up to another, reaches down, and then pulls up the second hero so they land on the horses back, all without the horse losing stride? Seem unlikely in real life? Not to Boucicaut, who'd do that as part of his exercise routine.
Somersault. Just what it sounds like. A somersault, in a suit of plate armor.
Hammer swing. Again, what it sounds like. Find a very heavy hammer. Swing it. Repeat until your arms ache.
Stone throw. You guessed it. Find a large, heavy stone. Throw it as far as you can. Repeat.
Punching. Find a suitably stiff surface and punch it repeatedly to toughen your hands.
Ladder climb. This is the really fun one on this list. Boucicaut would lean a ladder against something and then climb it dangling from the underside (again, remember, while in armor). Talk about an arm workout!
Dancing. Yes, dancing. It's great cardio, plus loads of fun and a social activity to boot!
Running. What, you thought people didn't start running for exercise until the 1980s?!
Hmmm...my allegedly short blog post seems to be getting rather lengthy, and I still have another nine topics I wanted to hit. So I'll just add one more shot and save the additional topics for later Short Shots.
Shameless plug
Yes, this is going to be a shameless plug to help the club's online presence grow. Now, when I share this blog post on Facebook, that'll be like shamelessly plugging a shameless plug, which is something like a meta plug. How very Inception of me!
Anyway...
I'm sure you're all aware we're on Facebook, which you can find here. But, did you also know we're on Tumblr and Instagram and even Twitter? Pretty cool, right?!
And we have a blog...but that's entirely too obvious.
But, best of all, we're on YouTube:
We've been adding videos on a regular basis thanks to a cool little app I found, and I plan to keep adding as much as I can. Please watch our videos and subscribe to the channel. It helps us get our name out there, which is ultimately the most important thing in making the club grow.
One thing you will note I did not include on this list is a website. That's because we will soon be getting a new one, I just haven't had the chance to make that yet. Since the one we have now is rather less than ideal, we're going to skip over that for now and get back to you when we have a better one.
OK, folks, hope you enjoyed our first Short Shot. Did you like this style of doing a blog? I'll still do the in-depth analyses and discussions, but I like this format for topics that don't really work as a full blog.
Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
Anyway...
I'm sure you're all aware we're on Facebook, which you can find here. But, did you also know we're on Tumblr and Instagram and even Twitter? Pretty cool, right?!
And we have a blog...but that's entirely too obvious.
But, best of all, we're on YouTube:
We've been adding videos on a regular basis thanks to a cool little app I found, and I plan to keep adding as much as I can. Please watch our videos and subscribe to the channel. It helps us get our name out there, which is ultimately the most important thing in making the club grow.
One thing you will note I did not include on this list is a website. That's because we will soon be getting a new one, I just haven't had the chance to make that yet. Since the one we have now is rather less than ideal, we're going to skip over that for now and get back to you when we have a better one.
⚔
OK, folks, hope you enjoyed our first Short Shot. Did you like this style of doing a blog? I'll still do the in-depth analyses and discussions, but I like this format for topics that don't really work as a full blog.
Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
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