It’s hard to be bored when you’re watching two guys sword fighting with real steel.
This is not your fancy pants Olympic fencing or epee – traditional European longswords all the way here.
The blades and points are dulled but there’s some serious aggression when they connect.
Lots of padding & protection, combined with a running commentary about how much damage and how fatal or maiming each individual blow might have been without it.
The five and ten and fifteen minute long epic sword battles of Hollywood? Total fiction. (This is my surprised face!!) At least in these battles, thirty seconds was a long time to spar before a fatal or crippling blow was landed.
Many rounds also ended quickly in stalemates. I suspect in the muddy killing fields of Twelfth Century Europe “break & start again” wasn’t the normal procedure in that situation.
But my thanks to St. Michael’s Salle d’Armes for the demonstration!
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 