This week at Crossing Fight School, we will have our final installment of Sword and Buckler, with class being led once again by the incomparable Aidan Witherspoon. He has been collaborating with Austin Straub to bring us a few plays by someone considered by many to be the grandfather of modern HEMA, the one and only Paulus Hector Mair.

You DO remember Mair….don’t you?….the figure from 16th century Germany who wrote an extensive (and boy, do I mean EXTENSIVE) series of plays for nearly every weapon at use in the period, both common and obscure. The man whose text had no system per se, but instead featured a massive series of ponderously long ‘plays’ which often results in an eye-glazing, brain-melting experience when you try to break it all down and somehow train it as it’s written. Indeed….THAT Paulus Hector Mair.

Given the nature of Mair’s work and the collective proficiency of Aidan and Austin, who are more than capable of squeezing meaning and substance from the ill-fated fellow’s dense material, this promises to be a memorable class. Be sure to attend.

See you all on Sunday.