What is HEMA?
Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) refers to the study of indigenous European fighting styles, covering a wide variety of armed and unarmed combat methods. This includes anything from pankration in the ancient world through the knightly arts of the Middle Ages to Edwardian self-defence systems such as Bartitsu. Most of these techniques were practised by people in times far more dangerous than our own when the likelihood was that one would, at some point, have to fight for one's life, as likely as not with deadly weapons. As such these systems had to be functional and effective and the masters who taught them had usually had extensive practical experience.
Some of these arts have survived in some form up until the present day but most have had to be reconstructed by the study of historical evidence. There are combat manuals dating from as far back as the 13th century and literary and artistic sources exist from earlier periods. These fighting methods have been brought back to life in recent years through in-depth study of the source material, combined with rigorous practical experimentation, informed by modern fencing and martial arts experience. Although the weapons and techniques studied vary considerably, they all share common principles relating to balance, power, timing and the like - the same principles that underpin Asian martial arts, modern self-defence systems and combat sports.
HEMA differs from some superficially similar pursuits, such as re-enactment and sport fencing, in that the primary aim is to revive and train original combat techniques in a practical manner, not to put on a show or play for points. That said, people practise HEMA for a variety of reasons- historical interest, fitness, or just because they like the idea of fighting with swords. There are highly competitive tournaments at all the major HEMA events for those who enjoy this side of it, although stringent efforts are made to encourage realistic, historical swordplay. Most classes use similar training methods to other martial arts and usually consist of a mixture of solo drills, paired work and sparring.
Reconstruction
Unlike the later middle ages, there are no similar sources for the training of early medieval combat techniques. All the same we seek to answer our question about single combat in early medieval Europe. For this purpose we seek analogies in contemporary iconography and the fighting-related literature from later times and complement this with practical experiments.
As the outcomes of any experiment of this nature rely on the interface between the workings of a human actor and the tool, there is a strong actualistic element to our experiments. We realize that if we remove the human element from experiments on the nature of human activities, then we run the risk of gathering unrealistic results from those tests. If the theory we investigate hinges on the interaction of the actor and the object, then to replace that human actor and all its attendant flaws is to invalidate the experiment. Additionally, it is vital that any reproductions used in experiments must be as accurate as possible to those from the archaeological record in order to preserve this validity.
The reconstruction of historical martial arts is a mission that constantly questions its own results. We seek to gather as much knowledge as possible and to test our assumptions with detailed experiments. To this end, interaction with other groups that share our interests and goals is encouraged.
