Anthony_Boyd----03/02/2004 2:14 AM----Post Number: 1


Thanks to Casey's mention of "The Art of Zen Sword" and its being on Amazon, I took a look at my bloated wishlist there and realized just how long it has been since I bought and read a non-fiction book of any stripe - at least a year.

So, I dusted off my credit card, accepted the pain of shipping charges to Asia (brutal!) and took a stab at filling my shelves with some new material. I think I was successful in ordering a copy of "The Art of Zen Sword" but as it is not due to arrive for a few more weeks, I can't be certain. A few books came early and I am hip deep in two of them and wishing I had more eyes and more time for reading.

I have been going over the "Damned Book" for so long that further reading in it is starting to feel like a waste of time. I needed a palate-cleanser. So I ordered reprints and translations of European sword manuscripts. I think my project between now and the summer will be to compare the methods the authors used to present material.

So far, the books to arrive speedily from Amazon are:

• Medieval Combat (Hans Talhoffer's manual)
• Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship
• Arte of Defense
• Old Sword-Play
• Highland Swordsmanship

On the way are:

• The Art of Zen Sword
• Codex Wallerstein
• The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: Royal Armoury Manuscripts

Overall, I am most excited about going over the material in Talhoffer's manual and the Codex Wallerstein (although Highland Swordsmanship seems lively and fun).
This list looks like a lot of heavy reading, but for the most part the manuals are pictorial with minimal text. Reading them is more an exercise in intuition and deduction. Some of them include the theories of the translators, but we'll have to take those theories with a grain of salt.
A lot of these books are perhaps over-priced, but as I went through I was able to find a lot of them are available in Amazon's used or alternate seller lists. I was impressed overall with the level of availability in a subject I expected to be poorly represented.

Anthony_Boyd----13/02/2004 2:19 AM----Post Number: 2



All the books have arrived now with one notable exception - Art of Zen Sword. It's funny really, as that is the book which motivated me to go and place an order.

I have sent a query to Amazon about it and am awaiting an answer. It seems that the order was not successfully transmitted to the "Marketplace Seller". Of those companies currently listed with copies of the book, none of them will ship outside of the US - even to Canada.

I knew it all seemed too easy.

Anyway, on the bright side, all of the other books arrived quickly and in excellent condition. The last one arrived yesterday, Manuscript I.33 of the Royal Armouries. This text is the oldest known treatise on sword and personal combat. The manuscript is reproduced in colour and then the translation is presented. This makes for an elegant book.
I wish the "Damned Book" had been reproduced this way - it would have cleared up a lot more things than the current version does.

proselytized----19/02/2004 8:45 PM----Post Number: 4


Anthony,
Sorry to hear about your miss on the Art of Zen Sword. If you can find one you can have it shipped to my house and I'll forward it to you. It may take quite a bit of time but, it might be faster than travelling to the US to get it yourself. Well, at least less costly. Failing that I can send you my copy to read.
Two questions for you: 1) What is the "Damned book"? I can remember several references to it on the site but don't remember where to look. 2) Now that you have had time to read the books you've received, which ones do you recommend? I am assuming they are all special order books and would rather not spend money on something I'm not likely to enjoy.

Russell

Anthony_Boyd----20/02/2004 1:41 AM----Post Number: 5


Russell,

Thanks very much for the offer!

Over the past few years, we have applied a few nicknames to certain texts. The 'Damned Book' is none other than the Muyedobot'ongji. This book, until its recent translation into English, has been responsible for a lot of crap in Korean Martial Arts. It's one of those books you can love, hate, have get you into and out of trouble, etc. Hence the overly dramatic name. My biggest issue with the book is how limited the details are.

The 'White Book' is the textbook for the Hanguk Haedong Kumdo branch of our art. It gets mixed reviews. No one admits to liking it, everyone owns it... that sort of thing. Curious really. It's called the white book because it has a frosty white cover. This book is one of those weird ones - a trade paperback with a dust jacket. It was written by Master Kang Yong Wook (???).

The 'Brown Book' seems to be reviled by all. I'm not sure why it is still available considering the level of disdain I have seen for it. You'll notice that it rarely comes up in conversation here either. Guess what colour it is!

The 'Little Blue Book' was a great little manual for beginners in HDGD which detailed everything you needed to know up to the end of SSGB2 (Yellow belt 'in my day'). It even contained a short unarmed form which seems to have died out before the ink was dry. Yes, it was little. Yes, it was blue. The illustrations featured a young man with incredibly huge fists. Veritable sledgehammers. He'd be a good companion for a modern day Doc Savage.

Anthony_Boyd----20/02/2004 7:16 AM----Post Number: 6


I forgot to answer your question about the books.

At this point, I am not deep enough into them to say too much about the 'fight books'. I think though, that before anyone reads the books which are on my list in this thread they should first read J. Christophe Amerberger's awesome book entitled The Secret History of the Sword. It is by far the best single book on the sword that you can hope to find.

I am about half-way through the Arte of Defence ( a study of rapiers) and am enjoying it. Despite the personal quirks of the author the scholarship is sound and well annotated. I am a third of the way through Highland Swordsmanship and am finding it as fun as I had hoped it would be - but it is biased toward all things Scottish. I don't know why I found that surprising.

All of the pure manuscripts are going to be hard work. Most are little more than illustration and cryptic verses - particularly those from the Germanic traditions. There are some with modern commentary, but there is so much spurious scholarship out there I was leery of ordering them.
Of these manuscripts the Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33 (The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship) is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of presentation. All the books are well-bound, even the paperbacks, and beautiful.

If I had it all to order over again, I would not order Highland Swordsmanship. It is the cheapest looking, and while the book is full of solid information its lack of objectivity is not what I am looking for at the end of the day.

I'll prepare a better review later. I just got in from seeing "Lost in Translation" with Clare and it put us both in a slightly melancholy mood. For anyone who has ever lived in Asia it's a must see, I think.

sinbad----25/02/2004 7:36 AM----Post Number: 7



G'day Anthony

Are any fo these booksavailable. If so
can you tell me how to obtain copies for my own info.

Sinbad

Anthony_Boyd----25/02/2004 8:14 PM----Post Number: 8


The Muyedobot'ongji is quite easy to get in hardcover or paperback from www.turtlepress.com (the publisher) or from online vendors like Amazon or yesAsia. The translator is Sang H. Kim. I feel it is important to read this book both for the interesting information about the state of sword technology in 18th century Korea, but also to be able to assess the claims of the flotilla of frauds out there who say their art is based in its material.
The other books are harder to obtain. If can enlist the aid of a Korean-speaker you can order the White Book from the two largest book stores in Korea (Kyobo Moon Go and Youngpoong Moon Go) or directly from the Hanguk Haedong Kumdo website (sometimes). It's entirely in Korean. The author is Gang Yong Wook (???) and the Book is called Haedong Kumdo Kyobone (???? ??). If you really want it, I could look for a copy and mail it to you. It normally runs about 30,000 won.
I recommend against the brown book. It's only good as an example of terrible stances and we see enough of that in the mirror already, don't we? Ha ha.
The Little Blue Book was never commercially available. I will look around the dojang and see if there are any sitting about.

Anthony_Boyd----26/02/2004 2:26 AM----Post Number: 9


Ron let me know today that my copy of "Art of Zen Sword" has been delivered to him. The wait on that piece of history is almost over.

Other books arrived for me yesterday from Amazon (they must love me now.) I have to admit, the timely delivery of my orders is really impressive.

Those of you who are familiar with Sword Forum International (www.swordforum.com) will no doubt recognize the name Scott Rodell. I ordered his text on Chinese Swordsmanship as a direct comparison to all the European texts I have picked up.

To further my understanding of the effect of weapons on the body, I bought the slightly controversial 'Blood Red Roses' which details the exhumation and archaeological / forensic analysis of a major battle's mass grave. (Towton, 1461)

To add perspective to the various German manuals in my new collection, I got the Italian, 'Arte Gladitoria Dimicandi' which primarily looks at sidesword and longsword technique while armoured and unarmoured. It's part of the same series as the Royal Armouries Manuscript. Lovely book, again with full colour reproductions of the pages, translation and original text side by side. Commentary is kept separate. An interesting parallel to the German treatises is that the author also used cryptic mnemonic verses to encode his teachings for his students.

The feel-good book of the order was for Oakeshott's 'The Archaeology of Weapons'. I just love what and how he writes and this is a long overdue addition to my little library. Like the walkie-talkies I wanted for Christmas for more than a decade of my childhood, this book has been on my Amazon wishlist for years. I never did get the walkie-talkies, but I took matters in my own hands with this book. Now it is mine!

More books are on order to further round out my suddenly reawakened thirst for dull, dry sword facts and theories.

For reading, I have settled on 'The Arte of Defence'. I am partial to sideswords and rapiers anyway, but the author's clearly cited references (now mostly sitting on my bookshelf) are forming a good framework for study. It's too bad I can't get degree credit for this... or can I?

Can you do a Master of Arts in Sword Trivia?


Is anyone else doing any sword research?

Ron----29/02/2004 1:45 AM----Post Number: 10


I recall seeing a copy of the Little Blue Book when I was in Korea (a decade ago, now). I had completely forgotten about it until this post. I recall it was...interesting, in a nostalgic sort of way. Know who the author/model was?

Anthony_Boyd----15/09/2004 12:38 AM----Post Number: 11


It's been a while since I have posted to this thread. I completed my summer project before summer began and have since been going over the material on a per technique basis. That old martial arts expression about there being only so many ways a body can move is really shown to good light when comparing what I have been taught in HDGD to what existed in European styles. Progress has been slow as I have had little time, little energy, and of course no one to practice/experiment with. Still, the mental exercise has been very enjoyable.

So, if I had this book-ordering binge to do over again I would order differently. I think I would choose one period and one tradition, such as the medieval period German tradition where there are more books to choose from - some with informed period commentary in addition to the commentary of modern recreationists. My approach was to take representative samples from the major traditions (German, Italian, and French) and from a variety of periods, notably medieval and rennaissance and try to do a survey of approaches. That, it turns out would take many years. Despite what seems to be light content in each of the 'fight books' the material requires a significant amount of practice time.

Of all the books I ordered, Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword (A medieval commentary on Leichtenaur's Fight Manual) is possibly the best practical manual, good illustration, intelligent modern commentary and excellent layout. It's a fantastic manual for longsword containing the original text, translation, and interpretation. The illustrations are redone to a modern standard. I also have the original version of this work (without the modern commentary) and the work on which Ringeck was explaining. This would have been an ideal way to perform my palate cleansing. I went a bit overboard.

Anyway, I am trying to slowly round out my varied collection now to help create a sense of unity in my thoughts about the whole of "European Swordsmanship". To that end I added Capo Ferro's work on Rapier combat to my collection this week. The author is a man of strong opinions and I think the translation will be a lively rendition of his passions. Wish me luck keeping it all straight.

The process grinds ever on. Many books have found their way to me since I last posted in this thread. I filled out my Oakeshott collection to a greater extent and am now trying desperately to get one or two final volumes of his to deliver the coup de grace to that part of my collection.

I added both of Scott Rodell's DVDs to my collection. One of them, his commentary on the International Taiji Sword festival is noteworthy in that it contains a short clip of a practioner of Chinese two-handed sabre. The differences and similarities to HDGD are gripping.

A great, great book called the Swordsman's Companion, by Windsor was given to me as a present and I was thrilled with it. Good solid practice basics in one handy volume.

There are more but it is a case of a lot of the same ol' stuff. One book I do want to mention is Kaeuper's 'Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe'... Has anyone in the forum read this? I'm about to begin having just finished a diversion into music with "This Monster Lives" by Berlinger.