Exploring history at the tip of a sword
With each swing of his sword, with each parry and dodge, Brennan Faucher is trying to reach back in time.
Each movement brings him closer the 14th-century Italian duelling master and mercenary Fiore dei Liberi, whose teachings Faucher takes to heart.
“It is a bit like being a detective,” said the 30-year-old student and teacher of historic European martial arts. “You have to try to recreate something based on the clues you have.”
Historic European fencing, the predecessor of Olympic fencing rooted in the methods of combat used by knights, isn’t as popular as Asian martial arts like karate or jiu-jitsu. Teachers are hard to come by.
So Faucher became his own. The idea taking up the sword had long captured Faucher’s imagination, he said. The romanticism of the weapon — the tool of real-world knights and samurai and fictional heroes from Zorro to the Jedi — was too powerful to resist.
The swordplay of Europe held a particular attraction for Faucher, but there was nowhere to learn.
Three years ago Faucher found his teacher in the pages of an ancient text titled “The Flower of Battle,” written by Fiore sometime around 1410. It is perhaps the most famous fencing manual of the period and provided Faucher with a direct window to the past.
But learning a fighting method from a book isn’t the same as having a living, breathing master show you the way.
Fiore’s drawings and descriptions are detailed but static. How you get from one movement to another can be entirely a matter of interpretation.
“It’s tricky,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount of trial and error. I’m fortunate enough to have an English translation of the manual, which helps. But even then you are looking at drawings of technique and trying to apply them. You just have to have patience. When something doesn’t work, you try again.”
The fencing style uses long swords, daggers, grappling and even polearms.
“If you understand how the human body works and moves, you can start to understand the techniques,” Faucher said. “I’ve also been fortunate to attend tournaments and learn from people doing this longer than I have.”
While solo practice is important, the name of the game is fencing, which means duelling with someone else. So the modern practice of Fiore’s methods borrows heavily from Olympicstyle fencing for safety and structure.
Faucher said the helmets worn by historic fencers are very similar to those worn by Olympic athletes. Gloves and chest protectors are modelled after their historic equivalents but use modern padding and design.
And while the long swords have a menacing look, they aren’t sharpened.
Shortly after diving into
Fiore’s manual, Faucher founded Niagara School of Arms as a place to train with others eager to learn the archaic form of fighting.
“It’s true to say that this kind of fighting art really has no place in modern combat. But that isn’t why we do it,” Faucher said.
“It’s a great way to get to fit and really learn about history.”
The school of arms trains at E. I. McCulley School on Berkley Drive in St. Catharines every Tuesday and Thursday night.
For more information go to niagaraschoolofarms.wordpress.com.