The Swordman's Companion: A Manual for Training With the Medieval Longsword

by Guy Windsor

How was the medieval sword used? Although many books have been released detailing techniques of the medieval swordmasters, none of them can really be termed easily interpreted manuals of technique. For the beginner, they are hard to decipher and interpret.The well-respected founder of the prestigious Helsinki School of European Swordsmanship, Mr. Windsor has offered a nuts-and-bolts approach to teaching Italian historical swordsmanship through drills, exercises. Based on the systems of Fiore dei Liberi, Fillipo Vadi, and others, this work should be one of the first books acquired by anyone wishing to explore swordsmanship as a practical art.

Genres: Nonfiction, Martial Arts, Reference, History

222 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.

Reviews

[Aidan Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great reference that I find best paired with Guy Windsor's "Mastering the Arts of Arms Volume 2 - The Medieval Longsword". Where the aforementioned book goes into technical detail and presents technique and guides for learning the technical aspects of longsword, this book goes into the philosophy of training and how to train with different types of fencers. It also has some technical detail and more drills/technique, however this book really nicely breaks down some of the more metaphysical or mental aspects of learning and fighting with a Longsword. Highly recommend this book, especially paired with Guy Windsor's Longsword book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know how to wield a longsword (for whatever reason) this is the book for you! Forget what you see in movies, those guys would be dead within seconds of the battle.

[Jamie Mellway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Guy Windsor book I've read and strange to review it now as it is part book-that-you-can-read-straight-through and part workbook. I've only read it. But now that he has written many books on the subject, I think that the way to read it now is to just read it straight through, skimming chapters 6-8, and then go on to his other books and courses. You could probably just go with working through those chapters, learning all of the stances and exercises, but there are now better resources by him. Perhaps I'll revisit those chapters once I read more.

I'm trying to figure out the rest of the order. His Solo and Theory & Practice books are other books you can read straight through. For working through the material, his Armizare Workbook series seems like the next step and it seems like a more gentle progression than starting with chapters 6-8 of this book. I should note that if you sign up for his $10/month Introduction to Historical Martial Arts membership, the courses include PDFs of the Armizare Part One Workbook and the Rapier Part One Workbook. After that, going through more of his courses and his three volume Mastering the Art of Arms series, his three volume From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice series, and his The Flower of Battle Companion.

This book is really just a prologue to a much deeper dive into studying the Longsword martial art of Fiore dei Liberi through Guy Windsor.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first book on HEMA and I must say Winsor's approach is very good but can be a bit overwhelming for the beginner, although I will go back over this again at a future period and start to do his drills when I am a bit more competent.

This book focuses on sword fighting only and has some great detail and information regarding this art. Mainly looking at Fiore Dei Liberi's system of fighting and I would suggest getting the translation from Wiktenauer as this is the main primary source that we have on Fiore.

A well put together and informative book

[T. O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most useful and fascinating books on this topic!

[André Padrão · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro foi me recomendado como a introdução ideal à prática de HEMA - historical european martial arts. Cumpriu esse propósito exemplarmente, sendo cativante e bastante prático.

[Jeff Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good companion to help in the study of the sword

I read it more like a cookbook for recipes on how to work on techniques. It is a great addition to any one studying the sword.

[James Velasquez]

Book on Italian Longsword Art. Very Good.