Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.
Helsinki and Horse Armour
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Hi! I’m flying off to Helsinki today (Thursday). I’ll be teaching a class on Friday night, and the polearms seminar on Saturday. Should be great fun! I don’t know if there are any spaces left, but here’s the link just in case: https://gladiolusschoolofarms.yhdistysavain.fi/events/polearms-and-armoured-combat/ On Monday I’ll be in the studio shooting footage for the VR project I emailed about a short while ago. That generated a flood of responses, mostly “I don’t have a PICO headset, can you make it for the Quest?”, and a lot of enthusiasm. I’ll let you know how it went, and what plans we may have to develop it for other platforms, as soon as I can. And, the print proofs for the paperback and hardback versions of From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, the Wrestling Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi are here! So we are on course to launch the book in March. That may steal some of the thunder from From Your Head to Their Hands, but so be it. I’ve never liked holding ready material back for artificial marketing purposes. Now, are you likely to be anywhere near Nova Scotia in May? If so…West Nova Historical Fencing (Nova Scotia, Canada) invites you to their first Broadsword Challenge happening May 3-4, 2024 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. This tournament is sanctioned by Storica Defensa (a first for the region), and will follow their rules and safety standards. It aims to be a beginner-friendly and queer affirming event with divisions based on skill, age, and gender. Learn more at https://www.westnovahistfence.ca/broadsword-challenge This week on The Sword Guy: Horse Armour at the Royal Armouries with Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys
Eleanor 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. You can find the episode here:
yours, Guy |
Guy Windsor's Swordschool
Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.
Hi! I’m writing this in Minneapolis St Paul airport, waiting for a delayed flight to Chicago to connect to my flight home. This three-week trip has been extremely eventful, so much so that I’m going to split telling you about it over a couple of emails. After a magnificent week with Jessica Finley (as you no doubt recall from the last missive), I went to see my friend Jason James, currently stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. Just getting “on post” (as these military types call it) involved a...
Hi! And greetings from stormy Kansas. I arrived on Wednesday night after a more eventful than is ideal trip. There was a medical emergency on the plane (I’m the wrong kind of doctor to be useful there, but the right kind of doctor literally ran across a row of seats to get to the action); then there was a queue at passport control that took over 2 hours, while I had an hour and 40 minutes to catch my connecting flight; which was fortunately delayed just long enough that I made it, though my...
Hi! Guns in Helsinki While I was in Helsinki my friend Jan Kukkamäki took me shooting, with his family. It’s the first time since leaving Finland in 2016 that I got to shoot my own guns again. Here they are: A Ruger Mk II 22/45 semi-automatic target pistol; a Ruger bearcat .22 revolver, and a Ruger GP100 .357 Mag. revolver. That was much fun… but then Jan introduced me to the Remington New Army (1860s, reproduction) percussion-cap revolver… It’s a lovely gun, which you have to load chamber by...