History loves to put people into neat little boxes: hero or villain, saint or sinner. Abigail R. Williams shows that Saint Olga of Kyiv refuses to fit into any of them. In Saint Olga of Kyiv: The Viking Queen – Saint or Savage?, Williams tells the story of one of the most remarkable women of […]
Two late-medieval fencing masters, one shared tradition — and a body of work that still informs practice today. The World They Inhabited The second half of the fifteenth century was a golden age for the German fencing tradition. The Liechtenauer system, named for the great synthesiser Johannes Liechtenauer, whose cryptic verse Zettel underpinned virtually all […]
Hidden weapons have long captured the imagination, from ancient battlefields to modern martial arts films. Yet beneath the romantic legends lies a sophisticated martial tradition grounded in real technique, rigorous training, and documented history. This article explores two of China’s most notable hidden weapons: the Feidao (飞刀), or flying knife, and the Feijian (飞剑), or […]
When most people picture a samurai, they picture a katana. It is the iconic image — a warrior with a long curved sword, perfectly balanced and supremely deadly. But the samurai were nothing if not practical, and the reality of feudal Japanese combat demanded a far broader arsenal. Among their lesser-known but highly effective tools […]
