After a bit of a hiatus, HROARR is back with a new, and quite fantastic article on medieval and Renaissance magic, by renowned HEMA scholar and instructor Jean Chandler! The title of the article is A historical fencer’s primer on late medieval and early modern magic and it is live now. Jean has published a number […] The post New article by Jean Chandler appeared first on HROARR ..read more

The use of the striking German battle sword as found in many armories through out Germany still poses many unanswered questions. This article provides an overview over contemporary sources and proposes an approach to combine the information gained from those sources to determine possible techniques and principles for this weapon. The post The use of the German battle sword in the late 16th and early 17th century appeared first on HROARR ..read more

The procession arrives at the square. Publicans erects their tents and tap their barrels. Musicians collect into bands, and other performers wander the incoming crowd. Dominating the center of the square is a square fence, large enough to host several pairs of fencers at once. Spectators gather while fencers warm up. The host, known throughout […] The post A Wonderful Struggle: The 16th Century Art of Civic Combat, Part 2 appeared first on HROARR ..read more

Note to reader: This document complements an essay published on the blog Martial Culture in Medieval town, available here: https://martcult.hypotheses.org/1373?fbclid=IwAR1Mbz2xWmIo66tI8rp9t9k8-SpHwPOXHXgfX4Q1txgn8QknQqQDzG-EroI This document offers transcriptions and a translation of some useful sources on martial incidents, mostly within towns in Poland and Bohemia (roughly equivalent to Czechia today) in the mid-15th Century. Incidents covered below include events […] The post Polish and Czech sources on medieval urban violence appeared first on HROARR ..read more

Certainly, one of the most exciting HEMA meetings of all time: The MAM — IFHEMA Symposium and IFHEMA General Assembly on December 3th – 4th 2022. There will be four great HEMA collections presented from a cross-cultural point of view: Gotti, Corble, Mokken & Valle. On Sunday, in the morning there will be a Round […] The post MAM and IFHEMA Symposium and IFHEMA General Assembly, Brescia, Italy appeared first on HROARR ..read more

When you first start reading the medieval fencing manuals, one of the curious things you keep running into is magic. As with so much about these strange and fascinating books, this is hard to know what to do with. Like most people I basically skipped over it. But as time went on, I was drawn […] The post A historical fencer’s primer on late medieval and early modern magic appeared first on HROARR ..read more

  On the occasion of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts’s ninth General Assembly, and to celebrate the cooperation agreement signed between the Museum of Martial Arts (MAM) and IFHEMA, a symposium is organised in Brescia, Italy, 3-4 December 2022. The collections of the MAM constitute the largest single private collection of HEMA-related […] The post Call for Contributions – ‘Crossing Swords, Crossing Boundaries – multilingual and intercultural interactions and exchanges in the Fechtbuch Corpus’ appeared first on HROARR ..read more

Dear fencing friends!, it is our pleasure to announce the “HEMA goes Public” event.   Last year, the project “HEMA in the Park” was launched for the first time in Austria and neighbouring countries (e.g. Germany, Hungary and Swizerland) to make our sword fencing known to the public.   This year it is called “HEMA […] The post Announcement: The “HEMA goes Public” event in Austria! appeared first on HROARR ..read more

Last summer, a friend asked me a question that I did not know the answer to. A nagging doubt led me down one of those “rabbit holes” all researchers, and most curious people know so well today. In this case, there was quite a payoff. What follows is an account of this journey of exploration, […] The post Were Poisoned Weapons ever used in Medieval Warfare? appeared first on HROARR ..read more