We got video of a couple of the fights at the latest AAF display. One of them I'm particularly happy with.

Because neither Steve nor Victor were able to be at the display, Mike and I did the Norman Knight Fight. This is a fight based around an argument about whether a particular person is a "Real Norman" or not.

This particular fight is good in a couple of ways. I think my shield-fighting technique is good at the beginning - particularly since it's a display fight and it's supposed to be big and dramatic, but once we threw away our shields and went sword-on-sword, it was still good.

From abou 00:04, there's a sequence of sword/shield clashes that I think is particularly effective - but I'm viewing it from the perspective of a trained fighter. Once the shields are discarded, Mike attacks into my True Guardant at 00:26 and I riposte, then an abortive Bastard Guardant cross from which Mike strikes at my head at 00:29. I actually remember having to duck my head slightly to deflect that hit. Usually I don't remember specific techniques when I do a display fight, but this one stuck out somehow.

Of course, I lost the fight because I was fighting Mike, who is more or less unbeatable - especially in a display. But that's cool. It was a good fight, and a good show.

http://www.aaf.org.au/gallery/videos/displays/bergmann-anglican-school/MOV05211.MPG
(21.1Mb)

Berzerker^tm Viking Fighting Arts

Nothing more to say, really. Except this.

THE STORY OF SIGNORE ROCCO AND AUSTIN BAGGER
Reproduced from George Silver Paradoxes of Defence, 1599.

There were three Italian teachers of offense in my time. The first was Signior Rocco, the second was Jeronimo, that was Senior Rocco his boy, that taught gentlemen in the Black Friars, as usher for his master in stead of a man. The third was Vincentio. This Senior Rocco came into England about some thirty years past. He taught the noblemen & gentlemen of the court. He caused some of them to wear leaden soles in their shoes, the better to bring to nimbleness of the feet in their fight. He disbursed a great sum of money for the lease of a fair house in Warwick lane, which he called his college, for he thought it great disgrace for him to keep a fence school, he being then thought to be the only famous master of the art of arms in the whole world.

He caused to be fairly drawn and set round about his school all the noblemen's and gentlemen's arms that were his scholars, and hanging right under their arms their rapiers, daggers, gloves of mail and gauntlets. Also, he has benches and stools, the room being very large, for gentlemen to sit round about his school to behold his teaching. He taught none commonly under twenty, forty, fifty, or a hundred pounds. And because all things should be very necessary for the noblemen & gentlemen, he had in his school a large square table, with a green carpet, done round with a very broad rich fringe of gold, always standing upon it a very fair Standish covered with crimson velvet, with ink, pens, pen-dust, and sealing wax, and quivers of very excellent fine paper gilded, ready for the noblemen & gentlemen (upon occasion) to write their letters, being then desirous to follow their fight, to send their men to dispatch their business. And to know how the time passed, he had in one corner of his school a clock, with very fair large dial. He had within his school, a room the which was called the privy school, with many weapons therein, where he did teach his scholars his secret fight, after he had perfectly taught them their rules. He was very much beloved in the court.

There was one Austin Bagger, a very tall gentleman of his hands, not standing much upon his skill, but carrying the valiant heart of an Englishman, upon a time being merry among his friends, said he would go fight with Signior Rocco, presently went to Signior Rocco his house in the Blackfriers, and called to him in this manner: Signior Rocco, you are thought to be the only cunning man in the world with your weapon, you that takes upon yourself to hit any Englishman with a thrust upon any button, you that takes upon yourself to come over the sea, to teach the valiant noblemen and gentlemen of England to fight, you cowardly fellow, come out of your house if you dare for your life, I am come to fight with thee.

Signior Rocco, looking out at a window, perceiving him in the street to stand ready with his sword and buckler, with his two hand sword drawn, with all speed ran into the street, and manfully let fly at Austin Bagger, who most bravely defended himself, and presently closed with him, and struck up his heels, and cut him over the breech, and trod upon him, and most grievously hurt him under his feet. Yet in the end Austin of his good nature gave him his life, and there left him. This was the first and last fight that ever Signior Rocco made, save once at Queen Hith he drew his rapier upon a waterman, where he was thoroughly beaten with oars and stretchers, but the odds of their weapons were as great against his rapier, as was his two hand sword against Austin Bagger's sword and buckler, therefore for that fray he was to be excused.

It would probably be appropriate here to post a link to a picture of my new sword, kindly made by Ewan. It's a wonderful piece of work - it's about two pounds in weight, which is a good period weight, unlike some of the crowbars that have been made previously. Ewan's first few swords suffered from poor hilt design - the handles were wide and flat, so it felt a little like you were fighting with a paperback novel in your hand. This sword does not have that problem.

I got him to make it in a deliberately ambiguous style - it could be used with Viking, Norman or later period costume equally well. It would be a fairly late Viking, or an old-fashioned C14th sword, but it can still be used. It's got a brazil-nut pommel and a recurved cross, and a nice wide fuller.

And it swings beautifully. It is so light in the hand, it's quite amazing. The blade has a little more flex than I'd like for ideal, but takes the dings very well. I still need to get the scabbard leather-covered.

I've made an I.33 buckler as well - my first attempt at dishing metal plate. It turned out quite well. I still need to get the handle attached, but I'm giving way on my desire to have a pretty forged handle, since it will be a while before I can get access to a forge again. Maybe I'll just settle for a plain handle after all.

Still haven't got my helmet finished, and I really need to make myself a pair of padded gloves. We've recently had a bunch of newbies turn up at training, and club gear goes to them first.

The AAF Website is coming along nicely. I'm starting to feel like it's really starting to pull its weight. We've had at least two people turn up to training because they saw the site. And we've had two school display bookings as well. The forums aren't getting as much use as I would have liked though. Perhaps it's because they don't look like PHPBB forums (which of course they're not) and the interface is a bit more clunky.

I've been struggling with the look and feel of the site. Learning the CSS is pretty straightforward, but the difficulty is in working out which section of the style sheet affects which area on the page. A number of elements on the page are marked as transparent, and there is alternating shading for odd and even rows of tables. It's not hard, it's just complex, and I'm finding myself getting very frustrated at it.

So I've been spending time more recently reading George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence, a work which is usually dismissed as a long-winded assault on the Italian rapier masters - which it is - but the actual content regarding English swordsmanship is frequently ignored. He does go into more detail in his Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes Of Defence, but I find it a lot harder to follow than the first work. It is in Paradoxes that he lays the ground rules that the Instructions build upon.

Again, it's hard to read properly. It is written in Elizabethan English, and while all the words are, as it were, the same as we read now, yet the language, and the formulation of the sentences, with their endless stacked commas, over and over, making sentences the length of the Amazon, all these make it difficult, without practice, to read, as can be seen in the excerpt quoted below.

The old D&D bugaboo of polearm nomenclature raises its head though. Silver refers to the short staff, forest bill, partisan, glaive, halberd, black bill, morris pike and javelin, and it is not at all clear what these weapons look like, although some details can be glarked from context. It is apparent, however, that the forest bill is superior to all other weapons. I just wish I knew what it looked like.

I rather liked Silver's description of a maneuvre called "Cob's Traverse", which is (or should be) well-known to AAF fighters:

Then thus do I conclude, that he that fights with a long rapier, against him that fights with short sword, can do nothing in due time to defend himself, or hurt the other, but is still in danger of his life, or at the mercy of him that has the short sword, or else has no safe way to help himself, but only Cob's Traverse(29). This Cob was a great quarreler, and did delight in great bravery to give foul words to his betters, and would not refuse to go into the field to fight with any man, and when he came to the field, would draw his sword to fight, for he was sure by the cunning of his traverse, not to be hurt by any man. For at any time finding himself overmatched would suddenly turn his back and run away with such swiftness, that it was thought a good horse would scarce take him. And this when I was a young man, was very much spoken of by many gentlemen of the Inns of the Court, and was called Cob's Traverse and those that had seen any go back too fast in his fight, would say, he did tread Cob's Traverse.

Linked on the same site is DiGrassi's fencing manual, which I found a lot less interesting. For a start (and having read it after Silver), DiGrassi makes the same arguments in favour of the rapier that Silver debunked. For example, DiGrassi advises that the thrust is superior to the blow, because a thrust travels in a straight line, while a blow compasses a circle, and thus travels longer. Whereas Silver points out that the blow is just as fast as the thrust, and is more likely to inflict grievous injury on its target.

DiGrassi also appears to present only one possible strategy with each guard and opposition. For example, if you are in high ward, you should always strike thus.