The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

We’re just about finalized on this bad boy (and moving on to Staff, Scythe, Halberd, and Dussack), so it’s about time to kick this off… This is a wildly different form from any of my experience.  As with dagger fighting, it’s most definitely not fencing.  It has some similarities to the two-hander Germanic style which […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley Two High Blows Here you will wish to use now the following position properly. You will place forward the right foot and you will grasp the body of the flail in the middle with the right hand, and you will apply the left hand to the posterior part. Strike the left […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley The Position of a High Blow Against a Low One You will position your body in this kind of competition by reasoning which will soon be described[1]. You will fix forward the left foot, you will grasp the flail in Scales[2] against the enemy so that the flail-body is inclined toward […]

  Translation by Rachel Barkley Reckoning of a High Blow against the Middle  You will accustom yourself to a fight of this kind: Put forward the left foot, grasp the body of the flail with both hands from your right flank[1] against your enemy, from this position thence you will direct the hanging part of […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley High Strike from the Flail Rightly here you will have wished to use this position. You will plant forward the right foot, you will apply the right hand in the middle of the flail,  the left hand on the lower end, and from this position  you will strike with the hanging […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley A Blow by Which the Head is Attacked against a Deflecting Position[1] It is necessary that you take this manner against your enemy in the fight. You will put forward the right foot, you should grip the lower end of the flail with both hands and from this position you should […]

  Translation by Rachel Barkley Two Contacts[1] from the First Fight[2] With Flails You will place yourself in this manner[3]. You will fix forward the left foot, you in the position of first contact will hold the lower part of the flail with the left hand. If you apply force in the middle[4] using the […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley High Strike against a Deflecting Position In the fight against your enemy by this practice, that is to say imitating what is here[1],  you will adjust yourself such that you will put forward the left foot, you will hold the flail near the upper part with the right hand, the lower […]

Translation by Rachel Barkley Two Upper Strokes of the Flail According to this stance, you will position yourself in this manner in the fight. You will fix[1] forward the left foot. You will grasp the flail around the lower  part with the left hand. You will seize the hanging part of the flail together with […]

This is a bit of a fleshing-out of my classnotes from this past University.  I figured it might provide some context for the rest of the posts on flail.   History of German martial arts and Paulus Hector Mair Mair is at the tail-end of the Liechtenauer Tradition Liechtenauer was “The Way” of German Fencing for […]