Відео

The one great thing about what we do is the amazing people and the different personalities you’ll see from all walks of life. And then there’s Johnny. In the background doing his own thing 😂

We are from the North of England (Yorkshire) which was part of the Danelaw for several hundred years. Old Norse forms part of the DNA of the places and people in the North. Not everyone portrays a "Scandinavian Viking". I portray a Norman for example (which makes me popular!) but we have Saxons too. I think Re-enactment tends to attract Pagans, I know my overall group has many practicing pagans. As the Saxons were Christian, they don't have the same appeal. The Term Viking, is overused I think to describe a civilisation and not a thing people did. You are correct, the Saxons were a powerful people, but the North of England seems to hold its ties to the Scandinavians dearer!

@ No, you’re quite right, and you do know your history. Please forgive me, I’m just so sick of decades of TV and Film media portraying my people as bumbling idiots. I will say, however, I am very sad to hear about the paganism in your group, and what you tell me confirms what I myself have observed. People tend to choose paganism for connection to a person’s sense of cultural identity rather than any real belief. I myself believe the pagan “gods” are real, only that they are demons luring souls away from the one who made them, the one true God. I will pray to him for your boys, I’m sure they are nice lads and it’s good that they care about their heritage, especially nowadays when European identities are so under attack

All part of the fun!

every contact sport or martial art carries with it a degree of risk. as long as you do it uncompetetively, in a good atmosphere with friends you trust and adhere to some basic safety precautions you should be fine. it would be nice for all of them to have face coverage though, but then again, the likelihood of getting jabbed in the eyes with those flatnose helmets is nearly non-existant and I assume the guys without face mail accept the possibility of getting a tooth chipped.

The Spangen helms (Flat nosed) offer much more protection that you might think. Under the rules in which we fight Swords cannot thrust and the face nor neck are target zones, we are also trying to hit each other hard, but not injure. Its a fine line sometimes and accidents do happen. This is a great mini lecture on this type of helmet. ua-cam.com/video/sQvR21foy8A/v-deo.html

Hema bullshit to, all bullshit if you don't now how fight in formation.

You are of course entitled to you opinion, if your ever in our part of England, come along and train with us for an evening and see if we cant change your mind. But you are right. 100% not HEMA.

I`d have to disagree, Eastern and HEMA are two different games. But we train for en-masse combat where I don't think I've ever seen HEMA fighting between multiple combatants.

@@dreyrihrafn All sparring and 1 on 1 duels are just games of the rich and the nobility; in a real battle, all the knowledge that any of the disciplines gives is useless since battles in formation are completely different from pampering in sparring. That's why it's very funny when fans of one "game" criticize other fans of "games" What you are doing is just as much a game as HEMA. So do what you like and don't listen to anyone)

Although in the 9th - 10th Century there would have been professional warriors, I think much of the training would have been anecdotal, passed on as it wasn't written down until the 12th C (I think). Its fun to get a good flow on, feels good and looks entertaining.

Everything is a sport mate.

First, thanks for taking the time to post a comprehensive comment. Nothing you say is wrong, the point I was trying to make to people not in the know is that that this is a different animal to HEMA. The little HEMA I did back in the late 90`s was very amateur and certainly not the well spring of knowledge and professionalism that it is now. And that I suppose is kind of the point, HEMA is a martial art that is being rediscovered by enthusiasts, training in the same way a Kendo practitioner might, or Judo, Karate etc. The contests and tournaments for longsword I watch on UA-cam are very reminiscent of those Asian martial arts contests that have existed for decades. We fight “In the Eastern Style” which is to say, mostly full contact to land a telling blow that would incapacitate a combatant. What we upload on here so far is the one-on-one fights, when the season kicks off proper you should start to see 1v1 tournaments, 50 vs 50 (or more) line fights, Bridge fight contests and the like. How we fight makes more sense when you see the massed combat with the rules applied across all the fighters. As far as protection is concerned, you are right, but that makes the fighting more visceral and real. The risk of injury is the same as any contact sport, its up to each participant to decide how much protection they want whilst remaining as true as possible to their chosen “Portrayal”.

All modern armies still use spears. Pop a bayonet on an assault rifle and you have one!

Drones with bayonets attached to them, and a speaker playing Hohei no honryo banzai!

@@tatumergo3931 lol

I'm pretty sure it was silly funny for the vikings as well, when they landed at Lindisfarne...... Oh look how I just skewered that monk like a chicken: said Olaf to his friend Ivar.

In this case we are showing it exaggerated for the camera. This move would only be used in certain cases. Many people on shield get complacent and relax their grip if they feel no threat. When this happens the shield is easily moved to create a gap. When on a battlefield with a whole bunch of people and a lot going on. People lose focus of whats in front of them because there will be things happening from all angles. Hope that makes sense

@@dreyrihrafn Thank you

@@horator9895 This works best in the chaos of a large line fight, and I being left handed makes this one much easier. The spears tend to be more twitchy and step back further when under pressure, especially when under a confident attack. This technique is more about trying it repeatedly until it works. Like much that we do in combat sports, you have to reply on your opponents creating the environment to allow you to take advantage. It doesn't work every time. but 20% of the time it works 100% of the time.

​@@XxVonMullerxX . The technique is not that dissimilar to Nihon sojutsu (yari spear). It would work even better with a wing spear.

@@tatumergo3931 I suppose there's an optimum way of using a Knife on a stick. If you look at sword or polearms, there`s plenty of commonality between Western and Eastern forms. Theres a cool channel where a Kendo Master tries European weapons that sorta highlights this. ua-cam.com/video/K6qhERJlENI/v-deo.html

Thank you. The channel is in the hands of the UA-cam algorithm gods haha

It’s the best day of the week

Accidents happen. But they are very rare. This is why we train weekly. We also do live reenactment shows and we are not allowed to wear anything that doesn’t look authentic. You can get full mail with cages underneath if you need to. I’m predominantly on Spear. And vision is everything. So I cut the mail off the front for better vision.

@@dreyrihrafn Yea I have a close sparring partner that just did his jomsviking tests (I think thats what it was) and know it's not uncommon in the viking scene to spar with this level of equipment. I'm assuming you guys have specific limitations for safety but I still worry lol.

Sometimes you have to improvise. Seems to work well for what we do. And keeps costs down.

The size of the round shields are based on historical examples, the kite (Tear drop shaped one) is about 25% smaller than it should be. Unfortunately, they are heavy as the are used over and over. The size is important for larger engagements where Dane axes and more spears are involved.

The example in this video is rubber tipped so as not to cause serious injury. The speed at which it attacks is incredible. Although slower, the full weight metal headed spear is is amazingly quick when used well.

@@XxVonMullerxX makes a lot of sense. I just expected the shield to confer more of an advantage compared to having both hands on the weapon. I think we don't often see two-handed spear with no shield in hostorical pics, I wonder how come. I imagine the missiles are a big threat, but even then a lot of shield designs you see spearmen carry both in the classical and the iron age seem primarily melee shileds... its really nice to have this kind of experimental data :)

@@konsyjes The period we try to stick to is 900 - 1100, missiles are not widely used in England at this point until William I brings a European army with him in 1066. In an open skirmish where all body parts are valid targets the speed of the double handed spear is a huge advantage and the leverage for parrying and guarding are strong. The single handed spear is hard to control once laid aside or set in a bind. Although wat we do is based on historical techniques, this is a sport and therefor what we do is much different from say HEMA.

@@XxVonMullerxX i see. right. I imagine that lateral rigidity that the extra hand gives is very important. there wasn't a lot of archery, huh. Why do you think that is? Seems like a fairly simple weapon... but oh, and also, so why do you think there are so few historical depictions of this "loadout" when it is clearly effective

@@konsyjes Ill be honest, I just don't know. I've had discussion in the past with various people and come to no conclusions, it could be that the Saxon and Scandinavian warrior culture simply didn't hold the bow in high esteem as a warriors weapons. Spears are certainly thrown and on the Bayeux Tapestry you can see Saxons throwing "Maces" and spears in reply to the Norman arrow and bolt shot. The double handed spear has many advantages in speed and power but you are very vulnerable unless your part of a mass. A shield allows you to resist strikes and hold ground without exposing your torso to strikes, without it you have to parry or move back. One mistake and your done for as you can see in the vid, I get run down plenty of times and end up entirely vulnerable to my opponents strikes. The thing to consider is what we do is a sport and although there is the risk of injury these are not sharp, were they sharp all the fighting would be much more tentative.

I hope so!

The swords are Steel. Heavier than historical examples but they take more punishment.