May 2025: Studying the Blade

While you were reading The Unbroken, I was studying the blade.

With my first tournament coming up this week, I wanted to share a little bit about my sword fighting journey since so many of you have expressed an interest in it on the internet and in person.

How it Started

Like any good fantasy nerd, I've been a little bit obsessed with swords from the beginning. I'm sure The Sword in the Stone didn't have anything to do with that at all. I could (and probably will one day) write an entire essay about what swords represent to me and my particular, personal obsession (phallic symbol, anyone?) but the time is not now, the place is not here. You can get a feel for it in this essay on the chivalric butch I wrote, though.

More to the point, though, I always wanted more than a wooden sword from a rennaissance faire, but could never convince my parents to buy me an expensive prop/wall hanging sword (though I now know them to be quite cheap in both cost and quality) from one of those kitschy new age plus fantasy plus witch plus head shops . Which is a shame, because I bet it would have smelled great, like nag champa.

Anyway, after I sold The Unbroken, I had a bit more disposable income and was settling in London with the intent to put down some roots and make new friends. It was finally time to pick up a hobby. Enter: Historical European Martial Arts! AKA HEMA!

Then the pandemic hit! 😀

So first I ordered a little nylon arming sword (single-handed) and started taking these online classes with Duello.tv. But it turned out that I was a bit too shy to go outside to the park and swing my sword, and our apartment was...an apartment. Though I didn't actually stick with them at the time, it ended up being a really great grounding start for learning terminology in one of the Italian traditions. (That's one of the big questions you ask when you meet a new fencer, right after you ask what's their weapon--"Italian or German?" and then you descend into heated fisticuffs based on the answer.)

I started in-person classes with Dave Rawlings at London Longsword Academy in August 2021. (Which, I'll add, is predominantly German on longsword days but not always--so I had to learn a whole new language.) I did sword and buckler for a few weeks, but it wasn't my favorite--I just wanted to have to deal with one thing in my hands, thank you very much. Eventually, space opened up in the longsword class, though, and I've been with that weapon ever since! I've also played with sidesword and messer and dagger. I really love the single-hand weapons, I can't lie.

Fun fact: I picture Touraine's long knife as a short messer-style blade.

Leveling Up

After my initial breaking-in period, I knew that I wanted to keep getting better. Maybe even earn my heron-mark blade one day. Many HEMA schools have a general ranking system, like novice, apprentice, and scholar, or just scholar and everyone else, with scholar being a black belt-ish rank. (It seems like a lot of scholars will spend time teaching under guidance before starting their own schools or branches.) I had lofty goals my second year of testing for scholar by the end of it, and started studying another Duello digital course, the apprentice (I'd done the fundamentals course in parallel with LLA). This coincided with my "farmboy to blademaster" 30 day challenge at the beginning of January 202...3?

And that was great! I conquered my fear of training where other people could see me, and even made friends with some of my neighbors. Except that I ended up getting some irritating wrist strain, which...well. Can't have that. Ahem. So I slowed things down again, but then the rest of the world butted in and without the structure of the challenge, I kind of fell off doing anything but my weekly classes.

Time spun on, though, as it does, and I got itchy. I felt my skill stagnating and was faces with a few options. When life meant that I had to take almost two whole months off swords, I had a chance to reevaluate how I wanted to go back in. I knew what my life was without swords again, the openings in my social calendar, all of that. It was, as I think about it, kind of like going back to grad school after taking time off. I had the perspective to be direct and focused.

With regard to swords, that meant trying out a tournament. Tournaments in the HEMA world mean competitors from all over the world and international and national rankings. And training for a tournament meant trying out a more tournament focused school. Right now, I'm training with London Historical Fencing Club, which is also the host club of the LHO tournament. Suffice it to say, they've been a great place to learn this other side of the art.

I treated the training like I have other aspects of my athletic life, down to making a chart in my bullet journal, just like when I was training for my half marathon. I can see the plans I made, the days I missed (cough, skipped), and better manage my weaknesses. (I'm very weak at solo practice, for various reasons, some practical and others...not.) I also revisited the online classes and scheduled out how to finish them in the lead up to the tournament. (I'm still a couple weeks short, but hey ho. perfection isn't the game, doing is.) Like my half marathon, I also added the "Why?" section. It's an important part, and obviously personal, so it's guarded by ninjas. Perhaps if you ask me at some event or other, I'll share some of them with you.

April Internal Tournament

This is where I did a bit of a test run. Those of you who run races may recognise a similar tactic--in the middle marathon training, you sprinkle in a 10k here, a half-marathon there. They get you used to the race day environment and give you a chance to test your race pace, your fueling strategy, your outfit. Basically, the tournament was a chance for me to do all of that, too.

I went through my first equipment check--putting on all of my clothes and pads, including figuring out that I had no idea how to put on my forearm protectors! And that I couldn't quite get them comfortable in a way that didn't also restrict my wrists--so I took notes on that. They also test the flex of the blade to make sure it's not so stiff that a thrust into your opponent is going to do real harm. My sword is a Sigi Standard Feder, and is generally on the accepted list, so I'm not too worried about this.

The part I was most eager to rehearse, obviously, was fencing under tournament conditions, at tournament speed. Making the effort to win, not just to have a fun time learning with a fellow classmate, like in after-class sparring. Tournament bouts are 10 points or 3 minutes long, whichever comes first. Points are scored thus:

• 3 points to a cut or thrust to the head
• 3 points to a thrust in the inner torso
• 2 points to a cut anywhere else
• If points are stricken by both fighters, they're subtracted from each other
• An afterblow may be taken if it's within the same tempo (i.e., turn)

One thing that was surprising but perhaps shouldn't have been is how subjective it all was. The primary judge relies on the line judge, but there's not always agreement there. It often comes to the fighters themselves to accurately report what they felt happen, including qualities of the strike--did the cut strike with a flat blade? did the thrust hit the middle torso, or the arm? It is very much a question of honor and fairness, but it's also an incentive to build good fighting perception. This is, admittedly, something I'm still working on; it's hard to keep your head when someone is whaling a big steel bar at your face!

The tournaments themselves are divided into pools and eliminations, like other sporting tourneys. All registered fighters fight everyone in their pool, and then the highest ranked from each pool go on to eliminations.

15 people from my LHFC fought in the internal tournament, with a range of skill levels minus all of our ranked members/instructors (or something). I tied for fifth place! And given the skill of everyone in spots 1-4, I'm pretty pleased with myself. 😆

This weekend at LHO, I'll be in the Womens+ Longsword (steel) division. (One day, I'll be in the open division, but Open Longsword sells out very quickly in every tournament, and LHO was no exception.) There will be 27 people in my division. At the very least, I'll get five fights! That's pretty exciting.

Wish me luck! I'll report back!

Other News

• In Conversation with Antonia Hodgson, author of Raven Scholar @ Waterstones Canterbury, Tuesday 27 May @ 18:30 - A reminder! The Raven Scholar was immensely clever and so enjoyable, a return to my favorite kind of epic fantasy. There will not be a livestream of this.
• License to Write with V. Castro @ Cymera Festival in Edinburgh, Saturday June 7 @ 17:15 - Join us live or on livestream as we talk about writing licensed IP projects, specifically Ambessa and Rebel Moon.
• In Conversation with [TBC], about Fate's Bane @ Toppings Edinburgh, Tuesday 4 November @ 19:00 - Come out to Edinburgh if you're nearby and we'll chat Fate's Bane! I love this little book and I'd love to spend the evening talking about it with you.
• Fate's Bane is out on Netgalley and The Sovereign is out on Edelweiss - if you're an early reviewer with access to these sites, now is your chance!

And finally, a question.

As I intend to stay here longer, kick up my feet and invite you all in--what would you all like to see here as the newsletter becomes a regular fixture in the way I communicate with you all?

Alright. Stay sharp, my friends.

C. L.