Viking Age

Cross-Post: Some Thoughts on Guy Halsall’s “Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West”

Even in this most unusual year, the plants grow and people play volleyball This week’s blog post is on Ancient World Magazine: a review of Guy Halsall’s “Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West 450-900” (Routledge, 2003). Halsall is a thoughtful scholar, and when I read his book I was struck... Continue reading: Cross-Post: Some Thoughts on Guy Halsall’s “Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West”

Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops 2020

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... Continue reading: Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops 2020

Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops September 2018

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... Continue reading: Cross-Post: Roland Warzecha Workshops September 2018

Cross-Post: Sword and Shield Workshops 2018

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... Continue reading: Cross-Post: Sword and Shield Workshops 2018

Cross-Post: Historical Sword and Shield Training 2017

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... Continue reading: Cross-Post: Historical Sword and Shield Training 2017

Recreating Combat in the Viking Age

A number of people are trying to recreate prehistoric European martial arts: ones which have left neither a living tradition, nor manuals. One of the most serious attempts focuses on early medieval combat with sword and shield and is lead by Roland Warzecha: