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Today I would like to blog about one of the two most important myths about Medieval and Renaissance swords from Europe. There two two HUGE and false myths which continue to be misunderstood by modern society due in large part to popular media and esspicaly the movie industry. One of those myths is that horizontal cuts are thrown in a ball ball like swinging fashion. IT IS NOT. There is plenty of surviving fight books which have survived from the Renaissance and late Medieval period which tell us that horiztonal cuts were thrown with the whole hilt (which includes the pommel, handle, and crossguard of the sword) of the sword over the head while the blade swings out in front of the person throwing the cut. The second myth which this article addresses is that attacks on a fencer were blocked with the edge of their weapon. They were NOT. It would be more ideal for a fencer to not have to block with the sword at all and avoid on coming blows by using good footwork such as side stepping to get off the line of attack while throwing your own blow but even good fencers get in a bind once in a while where they will have to use their sword to block an incoming attack. The surviving fechtbuchs (german for fightbooks) are very clear that if a fencer needs to defend theirself with their sword from an incoming attack then this should be done WITH THE FLAT OF THE BLADE. This means that the fencer should block with the non-cutting edge of their blade if they must block an incoming attack. The fetchbuchs are full of techniques about how to do this. Some are litterly a static block, some are swings that actualy smack the edge of your opponent away with the flat of your own blade, and some of the more advanced techniques (and the ones that fight masters in Europe highly praised) both block the attack of your opponent away with the flat of your blade while at the same time attack with your own. IF YOU DO NOT BLOCK WITH THE FLAT OF YOUR BLADE YOUR SWORD WILL LOOK LIKE THE PICTURE ABOVE. The word will have a bunch of bite marks in it and will destory the sword. I can attest to this personaly one day when I accidently hit one of the bricks outside in the yard on the edge of the brick with the edge of my sword and a bite got took out of it just like the one above. Parish from your minds this myth that hollywood (a constant unrealiable source on anything having to do with sword fighting which will be discussed in the next blog regarding sword for entertainment and sword for fighting) shows the correct use of sword fighting in their films by showing edge on edge blocks. What good is a CUTTING sword to you if you have so many bite marks out of the sword that you barley even have an edge anymore?
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