Tag Archives: Viking Age

Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops 2020

09 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Medieval

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

A bout with Viking shields and blunt swords. One fenceruses the strange palm-up cut which was taught in late medival marital arts but not most other traditions.

Roland Warzecha is teaching five (!) workshops this year on his interpretation of fighting with Viking Age shields, and on the sword-and-buckler system of Royal Armouries MS. I.33. The living-history related workshops include:

April 4/5, Viking Museum Haithabu: Viking shield (cancelled due to insufficient enrolment)

June 13/14, History Park Bärnau: Viking shield

August 1/2, History Park Bärnau: Sword & buckler. You are welcome to bring your 13th/14th century shields, too.

September 12/13, Viking Museum Haithabu: Hedeby Bouts

September 7–13, Viking Museum Haithabu: Hedeby Viking Week

All of these events except the Berlin Buckler Bouts are on the margin of ‘enough students to justify it and not, so if you are able to travel to Germany and interested in Viking Age or c. 1320 living history, check them out!

You can find more information about equipment and about the 2020 workshops on Patreon. He is very close to reaching his next fundraising milestone!

Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops September 2018

01 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Medieval

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Dear sword & shield enthusiast,

you are receiving this message because you have either registered for a class in the History Park in September or in the past, or have expressed your general interest at some point.
Unfortunately, neither the class on September 1/2 nor the one on the following weekend of September 8/9 has met the required minimum number of participants.
I have therefore decided to offer a combined class focusing on mutual principles for your shield of choice, be it kite, heater or buckler.
We would cover the following topics:

Lying on top, lying beneath: Learn how to gain a superior shield bind, or how to respond with weakness if you are inferior in order to regain the upper.
Let the sword do the job: Learn how to deliver a sturzhau/plungeing blow either on the right or on the left to circumvent a shield and striking hard, yet without effort.
Commence calmly, conclude quickly: Learn how to use „tempo“, to most efficiently time your actions in relation to those of your opponent.
The geometry of victory: Learn how to be stronger by positioning your weapons instead of using muscle strength.

Please let me know within the next seven days if you are interested in such a weekend class, and pick your preferred weekend … Please also let me know your choice of shield.

I will either confirm or cancel classes within a week’s time.
You are welcome to pass this message and info on to any interested party. …

All the best,
Roland

Cross-Post: Sword and Shield Workshops 2018

28 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in Medieval

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

A living history village with fields and a lake from the air

The Geschichtspark Bärnau-Tachov from the air, courtesy of http://www.geschichtspark.de/

Roland Warzecha will be teaching workshops on the Viking shield, high medieval shields, and the buckler at the Geschichtspark Bärnau-Tachow on the Czech border. The Geschichtspark is a unique location, with replicas of an 8th century Slavic settlement, a 10th century motte and church, and a 13th century village embedded in farmland on the edge of a small Bavarian town.

These are the dates for 2018:

June 9/10: Viking shield

September 1/2: Kite & large heater shields

September 8/9: Buckler and smaller late medieval shields. Watch a video of fights with triangular shields here.

For more information, check out his Patreon.

Cross-Post: Historical Sword and Shield Training 2017

03 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by in Medieval, Modern

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

From Dimicator, the alter ego of Roland Warzecha.

You are welcome to participate in the Historical Sword & Shield Classes 2017 in period costume in the most beautiful venue of the History Park Bärnau in the south-east of Germany [in Bavaria, on the Czech border- ed.] All seminars focus on single combat with shields and hand weapons, but duelling with spears will be covered, too, as a means to convey essential tactical and mechanical concepts. See photos of past classes in these albums here and here.

An info brochure is attached as PDF to this post. This should answer most questions, but do not hesitate to send an email if you need any further information. Registration is open.

These are the weekend seminars offered in 2017:
Viking shield: 17/18 June
Kite and medieval triangle shields: 24/25 June
Small and medium sized triangle shields and bucklers: 22/23 July
Advanced buckler: 29/30 July (requires a medium skill level with historical sword and buckler fencing)

Feel free to ask any questions you might have via email.
See you in the History Park Bärnau in summer 2017!

Roland

From a Patreon post by Dimicator (Warning: invisible without enabling cloudflare and patreon Javascript). A brochure in PDF format can be downloaded here.

While I am not completely confident in what Roland is doing from an academic point of view, I can say that he is a very good fencer and a safe teacher. So if you are interested in how later martial arts can be extrapolated backwards to find effective ways of fighting with earlier weapons, these workshops would be as good a place as any.