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HIGGINS ARMORY SWORD GUILD
The Sword Guild researches and practices
techniques based on historical combat manuals. Areas of focus
include the longsword (also called the hand-and-a-half sword or bastard
sword), staff weapons, dagger, sword and
shield, rapier, smallsword, and saber.
The Guild meets at 3:30 at the Higgins on the 1st, 3rd, and (as applicable) 5th Saturday afternoon of
each month. The schedule occasionally varies; be sure to confirm times before showing
up.
The Guild offers an ongoing series of
training courses and
workshops.
Prospective members must pass a Safety Evaluation with the
Guild
Steward. No equipment is required for new participants. Participants should wear
loose, comfortable clothes and athletic footgear. Guild
participation is free with museum membership
For other information about the Guild, please contact
the
Guild
Steward.
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Personnel
Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng is one of only a handful of professional scholars in the world specializing
in the history of European martial arts, a field in which he has been involved since 1990. His books
include Joachim Meyer’s Art of Combat (2004) and The Medieval Art of Swordsmanship: A Facsimile and
Translation of Europe’s Oldest Personal Combat Treatise, Royal Armouries MS I.33 (2003); forthcoming
are Hans Lecküchner’s Art of Falchion Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1482, Paulus Hector
Mair’s Treatise on the Martial Arts (c. 1555); and Pedro Monte’s Collectanea.
Dr. Forgeng is the Paul
S. Morgan Curator at the Higgins Armory Museum, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of History at
Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Mr. Mark Millman is a long-time student of the martial arts. He has fenced for over twenty years
and has studied Shotokan and Kyo Kushinkai karate and Kodokan judo. He has coached fencing at the
high-school level, and has given private lessons. He is a former member of the Society of American
Fight Directors, and has choreographed fights for over sixty productions. He took his degree at
Harvard, where he studied social anthropology as viewed through material culture. He has a particular
interest in the sword; his collection numbers over fifty items.
Dr. Ken Mondschein brings both academic and practical expertise to the study of the sword.
He teaches classical and historical fencing both here at the Higgins Armory Museum and at
the Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy in Easthampton, MA, and has over a dozen years’ experience
in traditional and reconstructed forms of Western martial arts. He has also translated Camillo
Agrippa's Treatise of the Science of Arms (forthcoming from Italica Press), is a 2009 Visiting
Fellow at Harvard University, was a 2007–2008 Fulbright scholar to France, and
received his
Ph.D. in History from Fordham University in 2010. He is also the editor of the
Swordmaster,
the United States Fencing Coaches' Association journal, and writes on historical and political
subjects for the popular press, having had work appear on Nerve.com, and in New York Press
and Renaissance magazine, among other venues. Ken's forthcoming projects include earning
AAI moniteur certification and translations of Alfieri's longsword (1640) and of the Paris
MS of Fiore dei Liberi that he discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale. In his spare time,
he can usually be found on horseback.
Dr. William R. Short is an independent scholar and author, specializing
in medieval Icelandic literature and Viking-age topics. At Higgins
Armory Museum, he has been researching Viking weapons and their use, and
his research results were recently published in the book Viking Weapons and
Combat Techniques. He demonstrates and teaches Viking-age combat
techniques and regularly lectures on Viking-age topics at museums,
universities, and schools in North America and in Iceland. His most
recent book, Icelanders in the Viking Age: The People of the Sagas was
released March, 2010 and discusses the culture, society, and history of
saga-age Icelanders.
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