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.
Coming soon: Vadi!
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Hi! It’s been an odd couple of weeks since I last emailed. For some reason I’ve completely stalled on the Dagger book (From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the dagger techniques of Fiore dei Liberi, to give it its full title). But I am making actual headway on a revised, rewritten, and expanded second edition of Swordfighting for Writers, Game Designers, and Martial Artists. If you have any questions for me to address in the book, or suggestions, or requests for it, please go to this snazzy form and fill it out: https://forms.gle/PuvrMuL6ZELrFW3h9 Everyone who contributes a question will get a copy of the ebook free, when it’s ready. Perhaps even more excitingly, I am a few weeks away from shooting the next online course: Vadi! I intend to shoot every play in his De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, as well as create a training course for actually learning to fence in his style. The current plan includes: 1. Introduction
2. Footwork and mechanics
3. Longsword
4. Pollax plays 5. Sword in Armour plays 6. Spear plays 7. Dagger plays 8. Extra plays Interested? Got any suggestions for things to cover? Reply to this email to let me know. I’ll be opening the course up to early-bird registration (to help cover the costs of creating the course) soon, then launching it probably in late April. Fiore Facsimile UpdateActual progress on the Fiore front! I’ve ordered proofs from two other printers; one of them has arrived and is perfect! So if the issue with the original printer isn’t resolved by Monday, I’ll order a batch from there and ship them out manually. This has been by orders of magnitude the biggest issue I’ve ever had publishing books. But we’re nearly there… Cool stuff from the InternetDo you recall podcast guest Kirk, the Knight of Green? This website basically sums up the details of the project. It is a video game parody series with a helping of choreography based on HMA. I think you need to be a fan of the game Demon’s Soul (which I’ve sadly never heard of, let alone played) to get the most out of it, but it’s definitely a bit of fun. Find it at https://www.demonsslice.com What I’m ReadingRemember last time when I said I’d read The Steel Remains, by Joe Abercrombie? Turns out I hadn’t. The Steel Remains is by Richard K. Morgan! I’m pretty sure I have read it, but the one I was banging on about was, of course, The Blade Itself. I’ve now finished all three volumes of The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings), and it’s superb in all sorts of ways, and deeply, deeply wrong (the main heroes are a crippled torturer and a beserker who has an unfortunate habit of murdering children). But wrong in just the right way, if you know what I mean. I read Gabrielle Zevin’s Elsewhere as a palate cleanser between volumes two and three. I adored her Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and her Storied Life of A.J. Fikrie. This one was good, but not really my sort of thing. It’s an imagined afterlife of a 15 year old girl who gets killed riding her bike. More of a thought experiment with significant logical gaps than a gripping story, but interesting enough to finish. (I’m not one of those readers who expects every one of an author’s books to work for me; I’ll be reading more of her stuff soon.) I’ve also started another Max Barry book, his first, called Syrup. It’s a cracker so far, all about shenanigans in the marketing industry back in the before-times. (Before the internet, that is.) cheers, 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.
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I do weights with my wife on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We normally do classic weight training, but last week she thought it might be fun to do a follow-along “posterior chain” workout from Roxanne Russell (an Australian fitness person on the tubes of you). It was so much “fun” she immediately wanted to do a dumbbell shoulder workout from Caroline Girvan. Caroline was using 8kg weights, I used 5, my wife was on 3. I quite like workouts where you just...
Hi! Historical Martial Arts have come a long way. When I started out, there were no maps, no guides—just manuscripts and guesswork. Now? There’s so much material out there, beginners often don’t know where to start. That’s why I’ve created something new: Introduction to the Art of Arms: Get Started in Historical Martial Arts This set of online courses gives you a clear, structured introduction to the Art of Arms. Minimal gear and no prior experience required—just curiosity. We start with: ✅...
BOOKS PODCAST COURSES COMMUNITY BLOG Hi! I’m just back from the Sword and Balkan event in Belgrade last weekend. It was a great trip, with some of my absolutely favourite rapier bouts (my classes went pretty well too). I’ve written up a review of the event here. I had a day to look around Belgrade while I was there, and can 100% recommend the National Museum. I’ll be writing that up properly in due course, but in the meantime, two highlights: Bronze Smith, ca 700BC "The Traitor" by Pavle...