Call for Contributions – ‘Crossing Swords, Crossing Boundaries – multilingual and intercultural interactions and exchanges in the Fechtbuch Corpus’
On the occasion of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts’s ninth...
Welcome to HROARR
Resources for the Historical European Martial Arts and Sports Community
The HROARR site focuses on different aspects of Historical European Martial Arts. It is meant to serve both as a help to active HEMA practitioners and as a source of inspiration for people that are unfamiliar with this form of Martial Arts. At its core the HROARR site is a free online HEMA magazine with contributions from the whole community. It is also a neutral meeting ground where we can all connect, share and learn from each other using the tools provided by the site.
“History or hard science, the awesome HROARR articles cover any conceivable perspective on HEMA.”
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Call for Contributions – ‘Crossing Swords, Crossing Boundaries – multilingual and intercultural interactions and exchanges in the Fechtbuch Corpus’
On the occasion of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts’s ninth...
Announcement: The “HEMA goes Public” event in Austria!
Dear fencing friends!, it is our pleasure to announce the “HEMA goes Public” event....
New article: On Individual Lessons in HEMA
Long overdue here is a really good article on teaching methodology for HEMA by the great Maciej...
Call for Contributions – ‘Crossing Swords, Crossing Boundaries – multilingual and intercultural interactions and exchanges in the Fechtbuch Corpus’
On the occasion of the International Federation of Historical European Martial Arts’s ninth...
Faces of HEMA
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Running a large knowledge hub and community site like HROARR unfortunately involves both a lot of costs in cash and time, paying for server, software, security and maintenance. For this reason, a Patreon page has been set up, so you, our dear visitor, can help out.
It is of course entirely voluntary, and HROARR will never have content locked up behind a pay wall, but the better HROARR's finances are, the better content you will have, and the more frequently it will be updated with content and features. Hopefully, one day, the site will have a full time editor to manage it.
From the HEMA Blogosphere
- The strange case of the “wooden sword conspirators”
By Maxime Chouinard 1830s London was a dangerous place, full of ruffians, bludgers, street gangs and… apparently fencers! This article deals with a rather strange and comical event that took place in March of 1832 in London, when a group of men practicing broadsword fencing were arrested by the ... - Pavlov’s FencersGreetings,Are you fencing for the points, or for the joy of swordsmanship? Is it more important that you struck your opponent, or how you struck your opponent? These are some important questions that we must ask ourselves as fencers, and as practitioners of swordplay.I would say that there are some ...
- The Hanging
Two “Hangs” arise in one-handed fencing in general, in all fencing be it strikes or leger, be it soft or hard. Make the “Speaking Window” and stand cheerfully and see what his cause ...
New Articles
The use of the German battle sword in the late 16th and early 17th century
The use of the striking German battle sword as found in many armories through out Germany still poses many unanswered questions. This article provides an overview over contemporary sources and proposes an approach to combine the information gained from those sources to determine possible techniques and principles for this weapon.
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The Wreath or the Cash? On Tournament fighting
“Ey fåår Fächtare Krantz förn ändas Manlige Strijden. The Fighter shall not receive the...
RECENT POSTS
The use of the German battle sword in the late 16th and early 17th century
The use of the striking German battle sword as found in many armories through out Germany still poses many unanswered questions. This article provides an overview over contemporary sources and proposes an approach to combine the information gained from those sources to determine possible techniques and principles for this weapon.
Read More
Polish and Czech sources on medieval urban violence
Note to reader: This document complements an essay published on the blog Martial Culture in...
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A historical fencer’s primer on late medieval and early modern magic
When you first start reading the medieval fencing manuals, one of the curious things you keep...
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A Wonderful Struggle: The 16th Century Art of Civic Combat, Part 2
The procession arrives at the square. Publicans erects their tents and tap their barrels....
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Meyer’s Four Types of Fencers: How we conceive of them and ourselves
And the first are those who, as soon as they can reach the opponent in the Onset, at once cut and...
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A Wonderful Struggle: The 16th Century Art of Civic Combat, Part 1
There is a particular tension at play in the modern Historical European Martial Arts community...
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Forerunners of the Fechtschule Pt I : Antiquity
“An average, foundational knowledge of the past helps us understand the 14th-16th c. Fechtschulen...
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Some thoughts on playing the victim
A problem that we commonly encounter in the training and teaching of martial arts in general, is...
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Community Interview: Maxime Chouinard
Today’s community interview is with Maxime Chouinard who lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada,...
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On The Five Words and Withdrawal
Mark, this is that before all things you shall rightly undertake and understand these two things,...
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On fencing societies and charity in the 19th century
At least as early as in the early 17th cent, fencing masters swore to care in particular for...
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Community Interview: Lillebjörn of Wisby Historical Fencing School
To better help us all get an insight into the fantastic variety of this great community, and the...
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Glossary of Late Medieval Terminology (15th Century Baltic)
Over the years I have spent researching Late Medieval Central Europe, I ran across many unfamiliar...
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The South Italian Longsword of Marc’Antonio Pagano (1553)
This article translates and contextualises the longsword bout detailed in Le tre giornate di...
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On Individual Lessons in HEMA
Ours are fighting systems that are under (re)construction. Those of us who consider themselves...
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Brief notes on fencing, from the military treatise of Giovanni Alberto Cassani (1603)
Giovanni Alberto Cassani published a military treatise in Naples in 1603.1 In this work he...
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Johann Georg Paschen’s Rapier Lessons: Developing a curriculum for teaching rapier fencing
This article will present an analysis of Johann Georg Paschen’s (1628-1678) Kurtze iedoch...
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Concerning the Reliability of the Waggle Test
Dynamic parameters define a rigid body’s reaction to external forces. While their importance for a sword’s behaviour is known since the 19th century, many data sets of original swords, replicas and training weapons include mass and the centre of mass, but lack a third parameter such as moment of inertia, radius of gyration, or corresponding centres of oscillation/percussion. A third parameter, however, is required to calculate a rigid object’s response.
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Fighting Successfully – Bridging The Gap Between Technique And Free Play
Did you ever face the situation that you trained a technique over and over, again and again and it just straight out refuses to come out during free play? Then you know the frustration if expectations and results don’t match.
Failing time and time again, because you can’t pull of what you should be able to doesn’t feel nice. It can be devastating and lead the most dedicated of us down a path of frustration. It can be a reason why people quit HEMA altogether.
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The Dutch Experiment – De Hollandsche Methode, Christiaan Siebenhaar, and fencing in the Netherlands in the 19th Century
In the mid-19th century, not that long after the Belgian war of independence, an experiment was...
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Riddled in Ink – A Stylistic Comparison of Artwork in MS M.383 and the Novati Facsimile
Proposition This article proposes that Francesco Novati’s 1902 facsimile reproduction of Flos...
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The Flower of Battle of Master Fiore Friulano de’i Liberi
Last week, in the same spirit of information freedom that inspired Wiktenauer’s creation, I...
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The Recital of the Chivalric Art of Fencing of the Grand Master Johannes Liechtenauer
Though long delayed, this book represents the most complete picture possible of the Liechtenauer tradition of foot combat as it was recorded in the mid 15th century. It’s the text I wanted for my students when I was leading a study group, and I’m happy to finally offer it in print. I hope it serves in some small way to advance the study of Johannes Liechtenauer’s art.
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The point of sparring
While sounding like a simple thing to define, sparring can have quite a few and very different...
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“Take great pains in your knightly practices” – A brief review of Medieval and Renaissance training methodologies
Few men are born brave; many become so through care and force of discipline. – Flavius...
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Basic Meyer Quarterstaff Techniques 02: Schnappen & Zucken
This video was recorded by the MFFG at the 4th Meyer Symposium in Iowa, USA, 2016 and is yet...
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Basic Meyer Quarterstaff Techniques 01: Ruck & Truck
This video was recorded by the MFFG at the 4th Meyer Symposium in Iowa, USA, 2016. It is a small...
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King and Fool – The Vier Leger of Liechtenauer’s Tradition
King and Fool – The Vier Leger of Liechtenauer’s Tradition and their relationship with...
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The Historical European Martial Arts Coalition
The Meyer Frei Fechter Guild
The HEMA Alliance
