ARN - the Secret History of the Sword
CADET1313@aol.com
CADET1313 at aol.com
Sun Jun 4 08:37:35 PDT 2000
I found a good book that I would like to share with the rest of you. it is
called The Secret history of the sword by: J. Christoph Amberger. I think it
is a wornderful book that every rapier fighter should have in his or her
collection. but don't just take my word for it. read the comments below
and/or goto amazon.com and read all the reviews there :o)
Pieter
The publisher, Multi-Media Books, would like to bring you the , May 5, 2000
"A remarkable job!"
"The Japanese don't hold a monopoly on fascinating swordhistory and evolving
combat methods. Europe has equally venerable sword traditions, ably revealed
and chronicled in J. Christoph Amberger's *The Secret History of the Sword:
Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts*.
Evidently, your average Western sports fencer has as little idea of the
"true" history of the art as does your average Japanese sports kendoka.
Misinformation and myths abound (sound familiar?).
In *The Secret History of the Sword*, Amberger does a remarkable job of
laying many of these to rest, correcting prevailing misconceptions with
numerous primary accounts of sword combat throughout European history from
medieval trial by combat to modern German student dueling fraternities.
Amberger uncovers many of the realities of both battle and personal combat
with blades--and he knows whereof he speaks: as a member of a German student
dueling fraternity he participated in seven Mensuren, armed with a live
blade. His story and the others he presents are loaded with useful
information. (...)
The chapter "Men of Iron" covers a topic relevant to all involved in the
pursuit and study of combat systems, ancient or modern, Eastern or
Western--the fact of fear and its effects on even the most well-trained
combatants. (...)
The entire volume is simply fascinating reading; my sole complaint is that
for someone not up on the details of Western fencing terminology, it can get
a little confusing at first. I found that Part Two cleared up a lot of those
details for me, so you might want to consider reading it first, then going
back to the beginning.
All in all, I recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in
swords!"
-- quoted from the Reviewn by Diane Skoss END
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