Feb '25: Two for the Money
Whoops, I'm late again, I've just stated my Masters and things have been a bit hectic, sorry about that. Jumping straight into swords, I've been asked about dual-wielding, and just how realistic it is.
The answer is, as usual, it's complicated but unlike most times you hear those words, it's more a yes than a no.
Perhaps most famously, Miyamoto Mushashi advocates for a twin-sword style in The Book of Five Rings.
Japanese swordcraft is a little outside my wheelhouse, but speaking to folks who know it better, it seems pretty consistent with Western twin-sword systems, which is to say: you've got a big sword for killing people, and a little sword for keeping yourself safe.
In European swordcraft it tends to be more commonly a parrying dagger than a shortsword, we see this in Marozzo:
Ghisliero:
Fabris:
and dall'Agocchie:
Twin swords are rare but not completely unknown, the two sources I could find going into detail are Achille Marozzo's Opera Nova and Antonio Manciolino's ... Opera Nova. Lads I feel like you could've coordinated this better, you both called your book "my new book", you came to the dance in the same dress and it's not even a very nice dress. I am also about to teach you a funny word which is the subject of a lot of HEMA jokes, because these two men share something else: they're both Bolognese.
Yes, if you're going to learn to dual-wield swords, all your swords are pastajoke.mp4. I'm really sorry about this, you'll never escape it. "Bologna is a city in Italy! Things from there are called Bolognese!!!" you'll say but it's too late everybody is imagining a rich meaty ragu. Also now whenever you see a man with two swords you're obligated to quote Hot Fuzz.
Bolognese fencing is actually an important and respected school of swordcraft, and that will not and cannot stop the spag bol jokes, if you want to watch a soul die you can find a bolognese fencer and go "bolognese, like–" and something inside them will die before you finish the sentence, even though they thought the cruel world had nothing left to take. RIP Teddy Spaghetti. I'll stop now I promise.
Anyway Marozzo goes into detail:
You know that I tell you that you will remain with the right sword in the coda lunga e alta and that the left sword will be in the porta di ferro alta. Here there is a need that you are agente to make a strike at your enemy and for this reason you will put your left sword under the one tha the has forward. With the right you throw a rising falso to his sword hand. Do not move your feet at all or return to the first guard. But know that if your enemy throws a stoccata or a ponta to the face that I want you to (in each of these) issue a falso with the left sword to the outside. In this manner you will step forward with the right foot and thrust to the chest. For your defense you will throw the right foot behind the left and cross your swords together. You will then settle in the same guard as at first. Here I want you to be patiente, that is to allow your companion to attack you.
and I'm gonna be honest I had to check in with like five different fencers then spend the afternoon practicing this to make sense of it. Okay so, I think this is the stance:
from here: use the sword in your dominant hand to cut upwards into their hand. This will probably miss but that's fine, it's bait so they'll try to thrust at your face, at which point you parry with the off-hand and strike with the dominant. Immediately back up, crossing your swords in front of you to cover your retreat.
The cross is present in both manuals, it sacrifices offence for defence but in situations (like the retreat above) where offence isn't on the table it seems to be extra security?
Now rapier and dagger I know well: in rapier and dagger, your rapier is for attack, your dagger is for defence. You rarely actually strike with the dagger, unless (like me) you're a perfidious southpaw and you actually get the occasional opening for it. From what I've seen while researching this and from speaking to Bolognese fencers, the big advantage of the dual swords is that both hands can attack or defend, and you can switch on a dime, in ways where it's really hard for your opponent to predict. If they move like you're going to parry with the left, strike with the left; if they move like you're going to parry with the right, strike with the right.
The thought genuinely scares the shit out of me, if I saw a man advancing in these positions there's be vomit on my sweater already, mom's spaghetti.
Okay so we gotta talk about sword and cape. Sword and cape I have done, and it rules actually? The thing you have to understand is that it's not a thin cotton superhero cape like a bedsheet, it's a big heavy medieval and early modern wool cape. These things are heavy. You can screw it into a ball and biff it and your opponent's face and it's not gonna knock them out, but it'll snap their head back like a good jab and give you a really solid opening.
You can also throw it OVER their face so they look like a halloween ghost, then you stab them. You can ALSO throw it over their sword and the weight will drag their blade down, which gives you a half second to stab them. Are you seeing a pattern? The cape isn't there to cause damage, it's there to create openings.
The fact that the cape is heavy also makes it non-shit for blocking. It's not metal, but it's multiple folds of thick cloth. You're probably going "that's noI t going to stop a sword, right?" and I gotta tell you, there are multiple fencing moves that involve grabbing your opponent's sword by the blade to disarm them, and all of them say "if your gloves are good enough this is chill."
Sword and cape is in heaps of manuals, it seems like a very common way to fight in early-modern Europe, for something that's pretty under-represented in media depictions of swordfights, and only then as the niche technique of certain swashbucklers, it actually just seems like something that happened in a lot of random fights, because dudes had a cape available and it's better than nothing.
Also Marozzo has a section on using a cape to kill a horse.
You wait until it's almost on you, then throw the cape over the horse's face while stepping out of its path. This will confuse and slow it down so you can grab the bridle and start stabbing the horse and/or rider.
I love sword and cape. Cunty and utilitarian? More of it please.
Which leads us to one last common combo: sword and gun. We talked about Michael Hundt last time, I just wanna bring him up again because I love this panel.
Hundt basically uses it like a holdout weapon or an emergency FUCK OFF button, you don't use it in tandem with the sword, it's just one shot that can quickly end a fight outta nowhere.
Does anybody use the sword and pistol in tandem? Like use the pistol as a buckler and a club at the same time? No way right, that's absur–
William Pringle Green was a Canadian Naval Officer in the early 19th century. He was pretty good at boats, really famously good at boats, which explains why he decided to illustrate his manual himself, because those two skills naturally go together.
NGL the first time I saw them I thought they were terrible but over time they've taken on a certain scrungly Quentin Blake charm to me, and also for some reason all the dudes have massive fat asses and at least one of the combatants will have an expression of paralyzing anxiety.
Common practice at the time seems to have been that you start the fight with your pistol, fire it, throw it away, draw your sword then start fighting with that. Pringle Green is mad about this. The pistols get damaged or lost when throw on the ground, and they're underfoot creating a hazard during the fight, and also YOU JUST THREW AWAY A BIG HEAVY ASSEMBLAGE OF WOOD AND METAL. Pringle Green wants sailors with their sword in their dominant hand and their pistol holstered on their off-hand side. Sailors were to board with their cutlass, then draw the pistol and fire a shot into the biggest group of enemy sailors they could see. After the pistol is fired, they whip it around backwards so the barrel is protecting their forearm. You may be asking "can a hollow piece of metal stop a sword" and the answer is "maybe, but definitely better than your arm can."
I want to see this done in media so badly. I'm not sure whether it was common in the time period (Pringle Green self-published, and doesn't seem to have influenced other writers much) but it looks cool as hell, and half the purpose of this newsletter is showing you that real historical techniques can in fact be cool as hell.
Okay the newsletter is done, there's nothing to see there, you can stop reading.
No really, go home.
Why are you still here?
SPAG BOL SPAG BOL SPAG BOL SPAG BOL SPAG BOL SPAG BOL GET READY TEDDY SPAGHETTI AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
As usual, if you like my writing you should check out The Dawnhounds and its sequel The Sunforge or follow me on Bluesky which is the only social media I haven't abandoned at this point. First draft of Dawnhounds #3 has been handed in, I'm working on something else while I wait for edits to come back, it'll still a secret sssssh.
Spaghetti.