The Sword Guy Podcast

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 69

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/love-poems-to-welsh-bucklers-episode69/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Paul Wagner has been involved in historical swordsmanship since the 1990s, and was present at the first night of the Stoccata School of Defence in 1998, a HEMA school which now has several branches in Australia. Paul is a Provost at Stoccata, teaching courses in Single Sword according to George Silver, Highland Broadsword according to Thomas Page, Sword and Buckler according to I.33, Rapier according to Joseph Swetnam, English quarterstaff and English longsword. He has written many books and articles on the subject too.

This week’s episode is a must-listen for all sorts of talk about about bum daggers, Swetnam the woman hater, fighting while half drunk, or how you could go about leaving your body to HEMA.

But first, here’s a link to the love poem to the Welsh Buckler: https://guywindsor.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Welsh-Bucklers.pdf

Welsh buckler https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-2645.html Shield - Buckler (1540) From Wrexham, Wales. Located at the Leeds, Self Defence Gallery, UK. Royal Armouries.

We cover quite a lot in this conversation, and there are a few accompanying links:

Paul’s new armoured jacket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHcgIAD583A

The McHowarth "Fencing" text - i.e. the missing Art of Defence on Foot - is going to be on https://stephen-hand.selz.com/. It’s not up yet but hopefully soon. There'll be some kind of nominal fee to cover the cost of the platform.

Alehouse Dagger article: https://stoccata.org/2017/05/14/english-knife-fighting-the-alehouse-dagger/ 

Alehouse Dagger Video: https://youtu.be/bTNbpoqgYkE 

English Buckler videos: 

• https://youtu.be/uaMVpzP2aSU

Comparison of Dagger and Buckler: 

• https://youtu.be/pM4ZmRgJV0M

English Longsword videos: 

• https://youtu.be/VB3kt3y7EPU

Articles on English Longsword: 

• “Common Themes in the Fighting Tradition of the British Isles” in Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books, Brill (2016) 

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 67

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/classical-fencing-digital-pedagogy-episode67/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s episode is with Dr Dori Coblenz, lecturer in Communications at Georgia Tech, specialising in early modern English drama, digital pedagogy and the history of fencing. She's the author of many papers and the book Fundamentals of Italian Rapier: a modern manual for teachers and students of historical fencing, with David Coblentz.

In our conversation we talk about the differences between classical Italian fencing and historical fencing. Dori’s passion is for teaching teachers, geeking out about sources and how we apply that to teaching contexts.  

When it comes to swords, is there is anything at all that is better taught online than in person? Dori makes some great points about the benefits of online teaching, and has some great ideas for how to make using digital media more effective: a must-listen for anyone who teaches or has an interest in pedagogy.  

Dori’s website: http://www.doricoblentz.com/

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 66

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/swashbuckling-episode66/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Sebastien de Castell lives a life of music, adventure and swordplay. He is the author of the Greatcoats series, which is full of sword action, and the Spellslinger series, which features magic finger guns!

For all Sebastien’s books, see here: https://decastell.com/all-books/

In this episode we talk about how to write a great sword fight for stage, screen and literature, including these two classic scenes:

• Inigo and Westley in The Princess Bride

Sebastien’s ulterior motive for coming on the podcast was to ask Guy’s opinion on how a rapier might be modified to contain a pistol. Have a listen and see if you agree or have a better idea of how it could be done.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 65

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-armoured-knight-episode65/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr. Amanda Taylor is a Research Fellow at the Oakeshott Institute and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Early Modern History, University of Minnesota. She is the author of several academic papers such as The Body of Law: Bodies, Combat and Rhetoric in Sir Thomas Mallory's Quest for Justice and the forthcoming Domesticating War: Women, Medicine and Military Activity in Premodern Europe. She has presented at conferences on topics such as martial women and political power in Shakespeare's history plays and battlefield wounds and treatment in English and Italian sixteenth century epic romances and surgical practise. As well as all that, she works for a medical equipment company.

In our conversation we cover lady knights, battlefield wounds, PTSD in returning soldiers, academic publishing, and more. It’s quite a wide ranging one!

These are the books recommended in this episode:

• Tamora Pierce: Song of the Lioness Quartet

More information on Amanda’s Ph.D., Fabricating the Martial Body: Anatomy Affect and Armour in Early Modern England and Italy, can be found here: https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/206363

Amanda has a love for armour, and her favourite is the Lion Armour, which can be found at the Royal Armouries: https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-34482.html

Here’s Guy’s favourite Avant Armour: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/collections/collection-highlights/avant-armour

Amanda mentions Craig Johnson a few times, and if you would like to listen again to his episode, it’s episode 33.

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 64

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

My interview today is with Malcolm Fare, who is a collector of historical fencing books, a fencer himself and proprietor of the National Fencing Museum in the UK. The museum houses a library of over 300 books, 250 paintings and prints, 200 weapons, numerous masks, kit, trophies, posters, programmes, medals, stamps, postcards and other ephemera. You can click through on the museum’s website to see photos of the items.

In 2017 I spent three days at the National Fencing Museum with a decent camera and a book-photography rig, taking hi-res images of the cream of their amazing collection of treatises, with the kind assistance of James Hester, and Malcolm himself. Here is a link to the Senese: https://guywindsor.net/2018/06/the-last-of-the-bolognese-seneses-the-true-handling-of-the-sword-yours-free/ and De La Touche: https://guywindsor.net/2017/07/the-true-principles-of-the-sword/

In the interview I mention the photos I took of McBane’s The Expert Sword Man’s Companion. They are sadly still in a disorderly state on my hard drive, and not yet fit to share. If anyone would like to organise them, please get in touch!

Listen to this episode to hear how Malcolm got his hands on some of his favourite books. It’s a wonderful tale involving auctions, barons, and chance encounters.

You can get in touch with Malcolm and arrange a visit to the National Fencing Museum at http://www.fencingmuseum.com/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at www.guywindsor.net/solo 

The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 62

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/drawing-swords-episode62/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Yael Nathan is a comic artist who draws swords as part of her Warriors series. She has also worked with IDW on several Star Wars comics. Find her work at https://elcomics.gumroad.com/# and https://yaeln.com.

Yael is also the author of the Serpent webcomic. https://tapas.io/series/Serpent/info and https://www.facebook.com/SerpentWebcomic Serpent is the story of a girl born into a guild that does not accept her, in a land where women are no more than property. Through determination and deceit, she leaves her home and infiltrates the assassin’s guild, rises up through the ranks to become the king’s personal assassin; only to be betrayed and extradited to the enemy land of Dane, where she’ll fall in love and help bring about a revolution in her homeland.

We talk about her grandfather’s Kris sword. Here are some photos of it:

In our conversation we mention Gunpowder Milkshake, the new film written by Yael’s friend and collaborator, Ehud Lavski: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8368408/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/your-challenge-for-august-get-stronger/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Your challenge for August is to get stronger, following the principles of conditioning as described in Guy Windsor's new book, The Windsor Method. In this episode Guy reads the chapter aloud for you (with minor changes).

The Sword Guy Podcast Episode 61

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/steven-pressfield-episode-61/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Steven Pressfield is the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Gates of Fire, The War of Art, and many other novels and non-fiction titles about writing. His latest book is A Man at Arms, and he has a YouTube channel in which he investigates the warrior archetype.

In our conversation we discuss what it takes to become an overnight success. We also talk about writing about Spartans, what a sword actually is, the rules of war and what happens when those rules are broken.

Steven has written film scripts for both Steven Seagal and Dolph Lundgren (amongst others). Listen to this episode to find out who he thinks would win in a fight between the two men.

A Man At Arms is Steven’s new book. We talk about this, of course, and the MacGuffin in the story. From Steven’s website: “A Man at Arms starts with Telamon, the seemingly amoral mercenary of the ancient world, accepting an assignment from Rome to intercept and destroy a certain letter bound from Ephesus in Asia Minor to Corinth in Greece.”

Steven has a very different answer to the usual question of “what is the best idea you have never acted upon?” which is well worth a listen.   

www.stevenpressfield.com

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at www.guywindsor.net/solo  

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/pirates-and-batons-episode60/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This week’s guest is Julie Olson, senior instructor at the Athena School of Arms in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a director of the Iron Gate Exhibition, the largest New England historical martial arts event. She's also well-known on the longsword tournament circuit. Julie was placed 7th in the Longsword Triathlon at Longpoint 2019, the highest ranking woman in that event. In our chat we get into the nitty gritty of running a club and competing in tournaments.

We also talk about Julie’s really fun idea of creating a pirate ship LARP and her current favourite niche weapon, the Italian baton from Giuseppe Cerri’s 1854 treatise. Here's the playlist Julie mentions in the show from Zsolt Sander: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFo_vW1NCyGRA1xWzn5fqn6PI_lV2mKQE You can clearly see how each movement is performed.

If stick fighting is your thing, also check out episode 38 of the podcast, with Jessica Gomez, where we talk about Portuguese stick fighting, Jogo do Pau: https://guywindsor.net/2021/03/portuguese-party-weapons-episode38/

For the Athena School of Arms: http://athenaschoolofarms.org/

The Iron Gate Exhibition: http://www.irongateexhibition.com/

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo

The Sword Guy Podcast episode 59

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to https://swordschool.com/podcast/who-whacked-talhoffer-epsiode59/ 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

This episode is with Dierk Hagedorn, who is something of a legend in our community. He is a translator and author of very many books. Last summer he had seven new books on the go at once. Dierk has translated and produced scholarly editions of Gladiatoria and Lecküchner’s Messer fencing treatise, Peter von Danzig’s manuscript, Albrecht Dürer, and many more.

Last year, when Dierk was working on a translation and transcription with Christian Tobler, he discovered a passage which somebody had taken great pains to try and erase. With a lot of detective work and perseverance, he discovered that the deleted passage referred to Hans Talhoffer being sliced in the hand and whacked on the head. We discuss why it might have been deleted, and why it was there in the first place.

And of course, I have to quote Dierk when he said “Liechtenauer possibly wasn’t that good.” You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out the context of that!

Useful Links

• Dierk Hagedorn on Wiktenauer

Guy’s new book, as mentioned in the intro, can be found at guywindsor.net/solo