To be involved with these martial arts, is it necessary to join the SCA or a similar “let’s pretend” type of organization? Or are there people who study and practice medieval fighting who don’t also do all the roleplaying?
Or am I wrong to think that in the SCA, everyone is interested in role playing?
I ask these questions because I love the idea of learning to fight with the equipment you guys are describing, but I hate the idea, for myself, of “roleplaying.”
I used to fence and hope to do it again soon. (Argh. Babies get in the way of everything.) But I’d also be interested in the sword-and-shield stuff if it were available outside a roleplaying context.
At the sca website, it says “Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.” Can I take it from what you’re saying that “dressed in clothing of hte Middle Ages and Renaissance” is optional?
I don’t want to just ignore the question, but I’m officially registering that though I saw it and think it’s a fair question, I’m not going to answer it as nothing good could come of my answer. Apologies!
The SCA isn’t bad, but sometimes they focus a bit too much on earlier weapons, whereas I’m interested in things that are a bit later (1500-1800). You can try reading up on this at the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, and I believe they can connect you with others who are studying and fighting in your area. For me, I’m lucky that I found a school which is not SCA-affiliated and which teaches primarily from 1550-present day.
Edited: FWIW we only wear costumes if we want to, or we’re at RennFest. Which means only at RennFest.
Baronies vary, but in my case, there really is no “roleplaying”. You dress the part, and you have a society name, but nobody expects you to speak in proper accents or utilize period speech patterns. Heralds do, thats probably the best position for those who want to “play the part”. Your average SCA member is just as likely to tell you his real first name as his society name. More people know me by another nickname I earned at my first war than my society name.
Although we have many positions that sound like roleplaying, in many cases they are more like actual jobs. The person who is the exchequer for a barony does not just play bookkeeper, they are the bookkeeper for the barony dealing with actual finances. If you have interests of a more martial nature, the marshall positions will put you up to your eyeballs in training new guys to fight and helping run the battles and tournaments at events.
I am a constable (site safety, security, lost & found) we actually run roving patrols at major events making sure there are no non participants mucking with campsites, unattended fires, helping track down lost kids. Constable isn’t a role I play, its a job/service I perform for the society.
if you would be more comfortable PM’ing one of us, any of us would be happy to address any questions or concerns you may have.
Showing up not in garb is discouraged however you can easily get away with a basic tunic and a pair of jeans. Usually all anyone ever asks is,“make an effort”, a tunic over otherwise normal street clothes counts.
There is one guy in our group, his wife and kids do not “dress out” but they do tag along and show up at court to watch and stuff, nobody really cares as they are basically just spectators, they do not participate directly in any of the activities.
Look for something like the Wallace Collection books (I was there last year in London doing some studies) - they have several incredibly detailed catalogs of thousands of weapons and armor examples. Or possibly there are resources on the ARMA link above.
Thank you Una Perrson. I will check out that wallace collection. It must have been lovely in london, were your studies around swords or the related, if you don’t mind me asking?
For a quick online resource, myArmoury’s not bad for some info, but yeah, you really want to dive into books.
And Frylock, no, quite a lot of people are in the SCA purely for the martial arts aspect of it (I’m not one of those, but even I wouldn’t call what I do in the SCA “roleplaying”)
You could say the same about SCA, we dont go to business meetings in garb, just at events. If one is worried about roleplaying, ren faire is about the last thing they want anything to do with. RF is all about roleplay.
Honest question, whats the issue with SCA fighting training. Its is pretty difficult to get much more practical experience with a full contact melee weapons elsewhere. Plenty of kingdoms have active rapier communities if you are more into such things.
Other resources include the ARMA forum, Sword forum International, and youtube
There are a few German schools I’m familiar with posting you tube videos on various interpretations of the masters.
I’m not sure how such a general weapon such as the sword could not emphasize both offense and defense through out it’s medieval history.
In fact one of the things that set the medieval long sword apart from the rapier (one of the many things) was it’s ability to both defend and threaten in single time - it’s the entire premise of the “Master Strikes” in the German fencing tradition.
Smallswords/court swords, specifically, but I like most all swords. I just received a wonderful modern interpretation of a katana yesterday from Fierra which is awesome - short blade (24 inches), straight, slightly oversized handle, smaller tsuba, and a polymer and steel saya which is intended for not only parrying, but has a sharp tip for opportunistic riposting. It’s designed as “the sword you grab when someone is in your house at 2:00am.”
Can anyone speak about modern riot gear - shields, batons and the like? How would these compare to historical shields and blunt weapons? Do riot officers look to historical uses of such weapons in their training?
Wait - people still make swords as actual, no-kidding personal defense weapons? Not fantasy-fan toys or glorified letter openers, but actual implements for killing people?
