Symposium XII

[fbhjr]

Saturday morning we set off fairly early to pick up our friend Amy and head to the University of Massachusetts Sword Symposium.

Although the sun rise looked clear, it didn’t look so good to the west.


Worcester and west is pretty hilly and that’s the way we were going.


Getting to Amy’s we passed the place we lived for the 10 years before we got married. (The red building on the left. The dumpster for the fish restaurant is on the right. Our memories of summers there are mixed…)


This year there were a lot of folks who came to the Symposium!


No one is sure how many more symposiums there will be as we know they will go on until the director retires. He’s 83 now…


The main speaker was on Polish Saber fighting by Richard Marsden and was very interesting.



The next talk was by Jay Leccesse on the Fiore manuals from 1400. There are 4 hand made versions of the manual. The idea was to see if the art could be analyzed to find the original, copies and/or the order they were made.



The green highlights were added to show the areas being compared.


Then, time for the free lunch. That got folks moving.


We didn’t go into the book vault this year, but did see the printing press in the basement and examples of Jeff trying it out.

I guess it is harder to use than it seems.


After lunch Michael Chidester talked about the Liechtenauer family of sword fighting.


Then, we headed out to try some of the Polish Saber. Richard put on his hat.

He didn’t wear the shirt, but did put on the coat.



But, he took it off again for show and tell.


I liked the "walking stick" they used.


A fair number of folks did come out to watch.

Of course folks got to try stuff too.


Amy’s cousin and her son showed up. They got very into trying the various items.

Amy too.


Our sword instructors were very into it too…


Then it was time to head back over to hills to home.


It is a nice drive.


Back to the seven hills of Worcester.


Before dropping Amy off we stopped for dinner at a BBQ place near her house.


Then, home again.

Comments

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

neat! That coat was really pretty.

[chaquir.livejournal.com]

that looks interesting.

That dumping place for fish doesn't sound really nice for living next too. Especially with warm weather

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I lived across the street from that fish restaurant for 10 years, but never ate there. I had too many memories of the dumpster in summer...

[merilune.livejournal.com]

I like Richard's hat, it's very stylish!

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Indeed! I do envy that hat!

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

That's a nice coat!

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

Love the hat, coat, walking stick, and saber.