Swords (and much more)

3 September 2014 by Davide Mana 2 Comments

I’m doing a quick post, here, to point out to interested parties three excellent resources I found about ancient (and not-so-ancient) combat.
Swords.
But also shields and daggers and polearms.

I believe in plausibility when writing my stories – plausibility over overkill.
I’m not writing handbooks, I’m writing fiction – and I want my stories to be believable without clobbering my readers with too much detail.

One thing I learned is, listening to someone passionate about a subject is often better than going through arid web-pages and treaties.
And mind you, I love doing research for my stories, but as I said in the past, there is such a thing as too much research.
So I apply the old Doc Savage methods for becoming an instant expert.

When it comes to swords and swordfights, I swear by Richard Cohen’s By the Sword, but these are my three main “live” resources…
And they are all on Youtube…

Schola Gladiatoria – excellent collection of videos on Historical European Martial Arts.
Clear, simple, no-nonsense information.

The London swordsmen (and women) also have a web site.

Skallagrim – another very fine vlog about weapons, spiced with humor and common sense. And some very fine historical information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qLhq5V2-o

… And last but not least in the least, Lindybeige – opinionated, funny, extremely intelligent and a treasure trove of historical detail (the sort we writers get wrong…)

And Lloyd’s got a website, too!

Check these gentlemen and their Youtube channels out – you will not be disappointed.

Author: Davide Mana

Paleontologist. By day, researcher, teacher and ecological statistics guru. By night, pulp fantasy author-publisher, translator and blogger. In the spare time, Orientalist Anonymous, guerilla cook.