The Sword Guy Podcast

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/vadi-and-the-four-virtues-of-sword-making-with-eleonora-rebecchi/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Today’s episode is a bit different to the usual format, as we have both a delightful sample from an audiobook and a related interview. I have created an audiobook of Philippo Vadi’s De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. It comes in three parts: 1. My friend, Eleonora Rebecchi (more on her later) has read Vadi’s words in mellifluous Italian. 2. I have read my translation in a rather more clunky English.  3. There’s a combined version, with the Italian chapter followed by its translation in English. Find the audiobook and more details here: https://swordschool.shop/products/de-arte-gladiatoria-dimicandi-audiobook This podcast episode contains a couple of sample chapters of the audiobook in both Italian and English, and it’s followed by a repeat of my interview with Eleanora Rebecchi (episode 129, October 2022). Here are the show notes for the interview: Eleonora Rebecchi is the creative director at Malleus Martialis, producer of excellent training swords, as well as a practising historical fencer and a graphic artist who has done some lovely covers for Guy. She is also a classically trained singer, which you’ll get to hear in this episode. We talk about how Eleanora and her partner Rodolfo got into designing swords for a living, what goes into the design process, and what qualities a business selling swords needs. Eleonora explains how the aesthetics, ergonomics and dynamics of a sword fit together, which is demonstrated by Guy’s longsword. Here is the unboxing video so you can see what he means: https://vimeo.com/722218823

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/could-hema-ever-be-big-in-china-with-zeng-yang/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Today’s episode is with Zeng Yang, who is a doctoral student at the Shanghai Sport University, where he is pursuing a PhD in the history of European swordsmanship from the 14th to the 17th centuries. He is a lifelong martial artist having begun training in Wushu at the age of eight. His master’s degree is a comparison of Duan Bing and HEMA. In our conversation, we talk about the spread of Chinese martial arts to the Western world, through things like kung fu movies and immigration, but the question is, why the same hasn’t happened in the other direction? How could HEMA become more popular in China? We hear about a new term, Bing Ji, which combines all steel weapons in an exciting new form of cross-cultural communication. Here’s a bit of detail on some of the terms that come up in this episode: Wushu: The official name of Chinese martial arts Guoshu: The name of Wushu in the early 20th century that literally means "the art of the nation", thus elevating the status of martial arts to the level of the country. But currently people no longer use this term. Tau lu (routine or form): It is a pre-designed practice method and an important form of expression in Chinese martial arts. It had already emerged in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) and has been widely used since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). It is very similar to Assalto in Marozzo. It usually has a fixed start and end action. Each routine roughly contains dozens of actions. Bing Ji: The literal meaning is "fighting with cold weapons", which broadly refers to all fighting sports related to steel weapons, and narrowly refers to the fighting sports of historical martial arts. It is a term that emerged around 2016 to replace the concept of HEMA. Because China's HEMA not only involves European weapons, but also includes Chinese weapons, many people believe that continuing to use HEMA is inappropriate. Therefore, this new term has been created to describe historical martial arts sports. At present, Bing Ji has been widely used in China, and it is used in almost all historical martial arts competitions.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/hema-and-heresy-with-xian-niles/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Xian Niles is a fencing instructor, martial artist and the founder of Spada, a recreational Bolognese fencing study group in maritime Canada. He's also the founder of The Niles Fencing Academy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In our conversation we talk about his move from representing Barbados in sport fencing to getting into HEMA in Canada. We also hear about how Xian switched from an engineering degree to theatre, and a very challenging job he had working in mental health security, which required serious martial arts skills to safely restrain people in severe distress. Xian has a different take on HEMA to some other practitioners, which comes from his childhood in Barbados. The culture is such that people settle disputes publicly using sword-like weapons, and Xian witnessed these fights as a child. These experiences have led Xian to question the historical sources: would it work in real life, and did the person who wrote it ever fight for real? This leads our discussion into what Xian refers to as his heretical views about Messers, Vadi, and Liechtenauer. We chat about a whole load of other stuff in this episode, including a universal language of HEMA, the difference between ice hockey and HEMA, setting up a competition for kids, tournament rule sets to avoid concussions, and why Guy would rather pour bleach in his eyes than watch HEMA at the Olympics.  Click here for photos of Guy’s longsword: https://swordschool.com/podcast/hema-and-heresy-with-xian-niles/ 

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/historical-dancing-historical-fencing-and-a-bear-with-sarina-wagner/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Sarina Wagner is a musical actress and dancer who trained at the University of Music and Arts of the City of Vienna, which is probably the best place in the world to do that. She is a historical fencer focusing on Capoferro and Fabris, as well as Spanish destreza. She is currently a member of the Academia da Espada. We talk about why Sarina moved to Vienna, and her work running workshops about musicians and dance. One of her favourite composers is Jean-Baptiste Lully, and she likes to do her fencing training to his operas. Have a listen here to see if you’d like to do the same: (3. Symph., I. Movement // 6. Symph., I. Movement) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ITjm7yPne7OTsUspx5p48?si=aa2708b74265446b The above playlist also contains another of Sarina’s favourite composers, her fellow Bavarian, Christoph Willibald Gluck, plus a couple of tracks from Anton Bruckner. We talk about how a grounding in dance can really help with fencing, and Sarina recommends all fencers go and take a few dance lessons – the waltz is an easy one to start with. And have a couple of beers first. As promised, these are the books on historical dance Sarina is working from: ORCHESORGRAPHY by Thoinot Arbeau (1589) (Sarina’s version is from Dover Publications, 1967) COURTLY DANCE OF THE RENAISSANCE - A new Translation and Edition of the “Nobilta di Dame” by Fabritio Caroso (1600) (Sarina’s version is from Dover Publications, 1995) In our conversation we talk about how we can learn from other disciplines, and Sarina sent an extra note to say, “[T]hanks to Chris Lee-Becker and Ton Puey and Academia da Espada for being so supportive and pushing this work forward, because it's also in the spirit of Academia, where everything from the era is supposed to flow together to develop a sense and understanding of the time. In my words, and this fits so well, because this is also how I see myself as an artist: interdisciplinarity.” Finally, here’s a picture of the armoured bear, Don Herkules, who accompanies Sarina to events: https://swordschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image1-1024x683.jpeg

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/swords-for-all-humanity-with-janna-datahan/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Janna Datahan was born and raised in the Philippines and is currently living in the United States. She's a mother, a published poet, a fibre artist and an aesthetician. Janna discovered Historical European Martial Arts in late 2019 and found her way into the supportive arms of the sword community during the pandemic. She is an active tournament competitor and event organiser. She also hosts a podcast called Swords Against Humanity, a platform she uses to advocate for underrepresented voices in Historical European Martial Arts. In this episode, Janna explains how she got into HEMA and the support she has received from the community. As a 4’10” woman of colour, Janna didn’t see many people who looked like her when she first started, and so being ‘adopted’ by Fran Lacuata opened up a platform for Janna to start her podcast and also become the social media liaison for the HEMA Alliance. We talk quite a bit about tournaments – the good, the bad and the ugly, and Janna has ideas on the sorts of event that she would like to attend and how resources within HEMA could be better spent to improve the art. Of course, as a person of non-average size, the topic of kit comes up, especially gauntlets. There’s also a bit of chat about touring Europe to visit castles and trebuchets, viral crochet patterns, and rage cleaning. You can find Janna’s podcast, Swords Against Humanity, on your podcast player, and here is her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/swordsagainsthumanity and her Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheTangledTentacleCo

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/want-to-write-a-training-manual-how-to-write-training-manuals-for-historical-martial-artists-with-guy-windsor/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy This episode is an unusual one because there’s no interview. Instead, it’s an extended sample from my new audiobook, From Your Head to Their Hands: How to write, publish, and market training manuals for Historical Martial Artists. The book is designed to be short, clear and to the point, with zero fluff! Listen to this episode to get a good idea of what’s in the book. The chapters from the audiobook that this episode includes are: Introduction: what is a training manual? Clarity Things that get in the way: procrastination, imposter syndrome, fear, and other things The publishing process Publishing platforms What is marketing? Content marketing To buy the book, head to swordschool.shop, or your can find it on your usual audiobook retailer.    

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Robert (Bob) Brooks is one of the original generation of historical fencers, who began training with me in the Dawn Duellists’ Society in the early 90s. He founded the Hotspur School of Defence in 2003. So it's turning 20 this year. He has been teaching primarily German historical martial arts and he has taught in over 30 countries on five continents. Bob is the author of the new book At Your Mercy: The Foundational Guide to the Messer. We talk about why it was needed and what the book covers. You can find it for yourself here: At Your Mercy on Lulu. We also talk about a fascinating academic study into Bronze age weapons, which Bob and his school were involved in. Here’s a link to the study: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10816-020-09451-0.pdf And here’s a link to the James Dilley episode where we also talked about the battle of Tollense and forging bronze swords. See here for a picture of Guy's bronze sword: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/  Other links we promised to share: The Book of Judith – the one and only Italian Storta treatise. https://guywindsor.net/2015/04/previously-unknown-falchion-treatise-discovered/ Hans Sebald Beham woodcuts of the 12 months images, showing Messers in daily use: https://swordschool.com/podcast/messers-and-more-with-bob-brooks/ 

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/writing-historical-novels-the-facts-and-the-fiction-with-elizabeth-chadwick/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Elizabeth Chadwick is an award winning best-selling writer of historical fiction. She has been writing since she was a teenager, but it took many years and many books before she was finally published. She has had great success since, so it’s a good example for aspiring writers out there to keep going! In our conversation we talk about some of the historical figures which feature in Elizabeth’s novels, including William Marshal, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Joan of Kent. Have a listen to find out what fascinating lives these people led, and also how Elizabeth separates the myths from the facts in the delicate balancing act that is writing a good historical novel about people who actually existed. We talk about the Akashic Record, which is a way that Elizabeth’s friend Alison can psychically tap into the past. Alison is able to see, hear, feel, touch, and even taste what has gone before. Whatever your beliefs, this is a fascinating way of researching historical characters and events, and check out this article Elizabeth wrote for The History Girls, on the Akashics: https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2015/01/alternative-research-psychic-strand-by.html Here's Alison's description of William Marshal: "He has incredible courage. He's like a bouncy castle: very buoyant. He's riding with a lot of highborn people. He's awed by them but not overawed. He feels as if he's in the right place. He has a good sense of his own worth. He's very flexible and alert, responds not just in a chitchat way but deeply and appropriately. He knows how to say the right thing at the right time and it comes easily to him. He's alert and all his senses are awakened. He has dark hair, long cheeks, strong nose. His clothes are intricate. His eyes look dark but inside they feel light. I'm seeing the youth and the older man mingled. It is difficult for others to gauge what he's thinking. He has very dark eyes: might be brown might be blue. There is a woman laughing and William is making her laugh by telling her jokes about the English being loutish and stupid. It's probably Poitiers they are going to. The woman is Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alison had several stabs at saying Poitiers, and prompted by me. She was unsure how to pronounce it).  Elizabeth’s website is https://elizabethchadwick.com/

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/what-is-a-volta-a-very-detailed-examination-of-fiore-with-dario-magnani/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy My guest today is Dario Alberto Magnani, better known as Mr. Thokk, who was a longtime scholar of the Italian single combat tradition from the late medieval/early Renaissance period, and a world renowned historical martial arts instructor and gear designer. As a swordsman, he specialises in northern Italian fencing from the early 15th to the 16th centuries, i.e., Fiore, Vadi and into the Bolognese. And he's a successful competitor and sought after instructor. In the late 2010s Dario became a historical martial arts professional, between his teaching activities and the founding of Thokk Personal Armor, a business through which he designs and sells innovative historical martial arts gear, such as the Thokk gloves. The reason I'm chatting to Dario is because I met him in Spain at the Panoplia, and we ended up spending probably five or six hours of the weekend discussing details of Fiore stuff and other things. In the conversation recorded for the podcast, we pick up where we left off in Spain, with an in-depth discussion about the Three Voltas of the Sword in Il Fior di Battaglia. If you own a copy of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, you need to listen to this episode with your book and a red pen in hand! Here's the link to the video giving an example of tornare: guywindsor.net/dvsthrust And the article, One Play, One Drill, Many Questions.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/horse-armour-at-the-royal-armouries-with-eleanor-wilkinson-keys/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Today’s episode is with Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys, who is Assistant Curator of Arms and Armour at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. She has an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds, and works with the European armour and edge weapons collections, which makes us all extremely jealous, and the Asian and African collection which also makes us extremely jealous. She works there with Natasha Bennett, who you may recall from Episode 82. In our conversation, we talk about how Eleanor got into her career and why a jousting helmet sparked her interest in working at the Royal Armouries. Ellie’s particular interest is in later jousting, when the kit got really weird and wonderful. We chat about some of the fantastic decoration on both the horses’ and knights’ armour, such as dragons, snails with wings, and even squirrels.  We also talk about the best way to visit a big museum where there is just too much to see. Ellie tells us which pieces at the Royal Armouries she would make a beeline for. Finally, Guy sets Ellie a challenge, and if you are looking at this after 28th November 2024, you’ll be able to see the results of that challenge! Photos: https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-20471 https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-1292  

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/bronze-age-britons-were-weird-with-dr-james-dilley/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr James Dilley is an archaeologist and craftsman specializing in prehistoric technologies such as flintknapping, and casting bronze weaponry. He is the founder of Ancient Craft, a company that provides expertise and experiences to individuals and educational institutions. James has three archaeology degrees, which seems like an awful lot. He has a BSc exploring polished stone axes, an MA focusing on bone flintknapping hammers, and a PhD from the University of Southampton on Upper Paleolithic hunting technology. So if you get lost in the woods with just a stone, James is clearly your man. In our conversation, we talk about how James got into his career and started Ancient Craft. We talk about casting swords out of bronze, how to do it and what the swords are like. Listen right to the end for a bonus question about hilt design. I can confirm, casting your broadsword is really good fun. I did that with James a while ago. Here’s a video of me casting the sword: ​https://vimeo.com/886422500 Heres a link to the Grotsetter sword: https://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-100-102-426-C&scache=1yxxwujgq5&searchdb=scran We also talk about some of the weird finds (or things we haven’t found) from the Bronze Age period. For example, the Tollense battlefield site in Germany, where after the huge battle all the bodies were just left there. Another weirdness is the complete lack of Bronze Age armour found in Britain, when there was loads just over the Channel in France. Why didn’t the Brits wear armour? Were they just too brave? Also, why didn’t they eat any fish in Bronze Age Britain? And what did they do with their dead? Why can’t we find human bones? Surely the theory that people were cannibals can’t be true? Listen to the episode for speculative answers to these questions and more!

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/community-and-the-club-with-samantha-west/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Sam West is an instructor at the Dueling Weapons Academy of Renaissance Fencing aka DWARF, a historical martial arts club in Barrie, Ontario, where she teaches Italian longsword, 1.33 sword and buckler, and rapier. We chat about running a non-profit club and creating an open and inclusive space for everyone to take part in HEMA. Sam is passionate about relating the club to the community, and she tells us about the different projects they get involved in to help the local community and also create awareness of HEMA.  Amongst other things, she's also involved with running The Gathering of the Blades, which is not a tournament. It’s a historical martial arts buffet of a weekend seminar. We also talk about smallsword, aka murder spikes, access to equipment, bringing together women in HEMA, translating sources, and starting your own club to have people to play with. You can find Sam’s school at Barrieswords.ca.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-politics-of-eastern-and-western-martial-arts-with-jonathan-bluestein/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy   Jonathan Bluestein is a martial artist and author who contacted Guy with some interesting questions related to his research. Jonathan is looking into the similarities and differences between the traditional Chinese martial arts and traditional European Martial Arts, both in Medieval and Renaissance times as well as in our everyday lives today.   Jonathan’s background is in traditional oriental martial arts in general and he practices and teaches traditional Chinese martial arts from his school in Israel. He is the author of a number of books on the martial arts as well as other topics. He’s also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine.   Jonathan is currently in the midst of working on a book called Martial Arts Politics Explained. In this episode we discuss how we might classify different types of martial arts school, and how the structures and hierarchies of different types of schools inform the politics within the school. Jonanthan explains how Chinese martial arts schools work and the culture of family and disciples within them. We discuss how the cultures within Western historical martial arts schools compare.   This is a wide ranging conversation which also covers philosophy, the war in Israel, straight swords versus curved swords, and Chinese medicine.   You may find this list of terminology useful, which was helpfully provided by Jonathan:   Names of Jonathan’s teachers: Master Nitzan Oren Grand-Master Zhou Jingxuan  Master Sapir Tal Master Stephen Jackowicz Master Brian Hall   Martial arts Jonathan has studied and have taught: Xing Yi Quan Pigua Zhang Jook Lum Southern Mantis Bagua Zhang Li Jia Shaolin Quan (Li Family Shaolin)   Weapons mentioned: Dao (Chinese curved sword) Miao Dao (Chinese equivalent of the Nodachi/Odachi)   Historical figures and periods: General Qi Jiguang  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Jiguang Japanese Pirates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wokou Meiji Restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration Chinese Cultural terms: Wuguan - 'Martial Hall' - Chinese equivalent term to 'Dojo'.  Kwan - the Cantonese pronunciation of 'Guan', and short for 'Wuguan'.  Gongfu - A high level of skill, acquired through longstanding effort and practice Gongfu Family (Gongfu Jia) - the martial arts family within a given lineage, of teachers and disciples Shifu - a teacher in a traditional relationship of a Master and an apprentice Tudi - a disciple of a Shifu - the Apprentice Bai Shi - the ceremony with which a Tudi is accepted into the Gongfu Family. 

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/medieval-music-and-the-troubadours-with-alix-evans/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Alix Evans is a professional performer and teacher of historical music, founder of Falsa Musica, and has even fenced rapier in the SCA. We talk about what led Alix into becoming a musician, with a mention of her husband David Biggs. (Check out his episode here.) Alix explains what it is about historical music that is so interesting and how it differs from how music is commonly thought to work today. To listen to some troubadour music performed by Alix, at the end of the episode you can hear: Amours u trop tard me sui pris - attributed to Blance de Castille (who was queen of France around the beginning of the 13th century), voice and harp Deus enim rorem in ilas misit - by Hildegard of Bingen - this is is in phrygian!, just voice Ecce tempus gaudii - an instrumental setting of a 12th century song, just harp Gloria sanctorum - a 14th century chant from Ireland, voice and harp Frondens virga - another Hildegard piece just because it’s pretty, voice and symphonia (early hurdy-gurdy) Reis glorios - 12th century troubadour piece by Giraut de Bornelh, just voice Troubadours came from Occitan in around the 11th and 12th centuries. They were a diverse set of people, writing poetry and setting it to music. Some were the wandering minstrels we think of today, but many stayed in one place. We talk about how to make a living from your passion by having a ‘portfolio career’, and Alix tells us about her new project uncovering unknown and unfamiliar ways of making music and bringing them to audiences.   For more information about Alix and her work, see her website: https://www.alix-evans.com/

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/swords-in-south-africa-with-david-wagenfeld/  David Wagenfeld is a fencing coach, creator of the En Garde model for teaching fencing in schools, and the co-founder of Table Mountain Fencing and Historical European Martial Arts. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has been instrumental in creating the HEMA scene in the country. We talk about how he got into sport fencing, then coaching, then HEMA. He feels that coaching fencing is what he was born to do, but fencing in South Africa doesn’t have the history that it does in Europe, and the culture is very different. David tells us about the model he has created from scratch, and how it has created some extremely successful fencers, as well as a broad base of lots of students having fun. Of course, there is the equipment problem, and the challenge of being so far away from everywhere else. Over the years there has been a lot of improvisation! We also talk about sports psychology, what makes a good tournament fencer, and what sport fencing can teach HEMA. Link to En Garde Fencing  

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/life-in-the-stone-age-and-bothering-hedges-with-sally-pointer/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Sally Pointer is a freelance heritage educator, archaeologist and presenter of traditional skills and historic crafts. She is also an author and an Experimental Archaeology MSC student at Exeter University. Sally lives near Hereford, which is in the west of England on the Welsh border. It’s a rural area and perfect for her hobby of “hedge bothering” – a mix of foraging, looking at all the species that are in the hedge, what the birds are up to, and also checking for any pixies or interesting bits of wood. We talk about her time spent in the Middle East as a child, where she and her family could go off into the desert and find stone age campsites and dinosaur bones, just sitting there. This sparked a love of experimental archaeology: finding out how people actually spent their time, what they made and how they lived. We discuss the misconceptions about “cavemen” and how actually they weren’t at all stupid. They made Bunsen burners, they dug mines, they wore makeup, and they wanted the same things out of life that we do now. Sally has written a book about the history of makeup and tells us about a slightly alarming experiment she performed on herself, which explains why on earth people were so keen to wear toxic white lead makeup, despite its dangers. There is lots more in our conversation, including the stupidest thing a member of the public has ever said to us at an event, how to gain an extra two hours in the day, and whether Sally could survive in the wild. To find out more about what Sally does, and see her YouTube videos covering things like the acorn pasta and nettle material mentioned in the episode, see: https://www.sallypointer.com/

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/business-chivalry-and-life-or-death-training-with-jason-kingsley/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy One of our most listened-to guests is back on the show! Jason Kingsley OBE is the co-founder and CEO of the games company Rebellion Developments, which also owns 2000 AD, and he’s the man behind the YouTube channel Modern History TV, starring Warlord, which goes into depth of detail regarding many aspects of medieval life, most notably combat and horsemanship, but also aspects of daily life. We catch up on how Warlord is doing since our last chat in episode 81. It’s always great to hear that a podcast guest has acted on the best idea they hadn’t acted on. Jason has written his book, Leading the Rebellion, which he tells us about in this episode. Here is the info for the book: A fascinating look into the business and lifestyle philosophy of Jason Kingsley OBE, CEO of Rebellion. Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent games developers and also a film and TV production company and publisher. Combining his love of Medieval History and success in business, this unique book will give insight into a modern interpretation of the Knightly Code of Chivalry, the moral system which combined a warrior ethos, knightly piety, and courtly manners, all combining to establish a notion of honour and nobility, in a motivational and aspirational take on how to live life to the fullest. Find it at: https://rebellionpublishing.com/product/leading_the_rebellion/ We talk about writing: how someone as busy as Jason managed to get the book written, how to get useful feedback, and how to finish what you start. We also talk about how to train for a life-or-death situation, without the death bit. How does one train to be in a situation where someone is actively trying to kill you? To see more from Jason (and Warlord) check out the Modern History TV channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernHistoryTV

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/washing-paper-and-restoring-books-with-aurelia-sedlmair/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Aurelia Sedlmair is a historical fencer, a translator, a transcriber, and is now studying the conservation of paper and books. Her Instagram is @freiraum.buch In our conversation we talk about what brought Aurelia to the Isle of Man, a small, independent island off the coast of England, and her study at West Dean College of Art and Conservation.  We talk about what happens when you get a book restored, and Guy recommends the bookbinder in Colchester who restored his copy of Alfred Hutton’s The Sword and the Centuries. (Colin Brown, at Cuckoo Farm Studios. bindingarrangement.co.uk). The aim is not to modernise the book, but instead to make it look as if nothing has been done to it. No modernisation. Aurelia describes how to repair paper and how to clean it. Amazingly, if dry cleaning doesn’t work you can just wash it, and she explains how it’s done. Click here for some before and after images of books and paper that Aurelia has worked on: https://swordschool.com/podcast/washing-paper-and-restoring-books-with-aurelia-sedlmair/ Of course, this wouldn’t be the Sword Guy Podcast without talking about swords. Aurelia is a rapier and smallsword fencer, though there’s not much of it happening on the Isle of Man. We talk about the brilliance of smallsword and also about how to encourage beginners to give historical martial arts a try.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/how-to-fight-like-sir-gawain-with-dr-przemyslaw-grabowski-gorniak/ To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr. Przemysław Grabowski-Górniak is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw. His research focuses on the chivalric tradition of the late Middle Ages, be it chivalric romances or medieval manuscripts and treatises on the art of war, with a special focus on the English literary portrayals of Sir Gawain in the period of the 100 Years War and the Wars of the Roses. His admiration for the Middle Ages goes beyond academia, as he is also a historical reenactor and a Harnischfechten instructor, combining his knowledge of the period as well as his experience in working with medieval manuscripts with a practical approach, in order to reconstruct martial techniques of the 14th and 15th centuries. We talk about all of this in our conversation, plus Przemysław details his extensive training routine that includes sprints wearing a helmet, and wearing weighted straps on his arms. All excellent practice for fighting in armour. Przemysław explains the book he is working on, which is a fascinating look at how Middle English romances can serve as a record of English martial arts. He believes they could have been used as a vehicle to translate certain lessons that might otherwise have been found in fight books, which people rarely owned at the time. Some of the romances have very accurate fight descriptions, which can be read as teachings on how to fight as well as Sir Gawain. Click here for the armour of Frederick the Victorious Przemysław mentions: https://swordschool.com/podcast/how-to-fight-like-sir-gawain-with-dr-przemyslaw-grabowski-gorniak/ Links to other podcast episodes featuring people mentioned in this episode: Dayna Berghan-Whyman (Buhurt) https://swordschool.com/podcast/historical-medieval-battle-nz-episode36/ Beth Hammer (Battle of Nations) https://swordschool.com/podcast/battle-of-nations-episode34/ Toby Capwell (armour) https://swordschool.com/podcast/armour-of-the-english-knight-episode76/ Daniel Jacquet (armour) https://swordschool.com/podcast/is-there-anything-daniel-jaquet-cant-do-in-armour/ Ariella Elema (The Last Duel) https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-last-duel-or-was-it-with-ariella-elema/

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/seven-frenchmen-vs-seven-englishman-who-will-win-with-dr-rachael-whitbread/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy Dr Rachael Whitbread is a historian and author. Her PhD from York University was on tournaments, jousts and duels. She is the co-author with Graham Callister of Battle: Understanding Conflict from Hastings to Helmand, and is currently working on a book called Duel: Single Combat in Medieval England for Pen and Sword Press, which sounds just up our streets. In our conversation we talk about chivalry, jousting, tournaments and how to become a famous knight by winning a pre-battle duel – especially if you chop a dog in half in the process. We hear Rachael’s thoughts on whether Lady Agnes Hotot really jousted her neighbour to settle her father’s land dispute, which could mean Guy needs to alter the decks in his Audatia card game… We also talk about themes in European warfare over 1,000 years of history. Not a small topic! Rachael has some fantastic stories about battles; often with the English getting absolutely trounced, and if you have an interest in medieval history, you’ll thoroughly enjoy this conversation.