Over the past 30 years or so, the growth of HEMA - or Historical European Martial Arts has - blossomed. Many people today aren’t aware that European martial culture has a long and deep heritage, and that pre and even post widespread introduction of firearms our forbears were practising fighting systems every bit as complex and effective as those from the East, which are much more well known.
Surviving manuals have been the key driver for this rediscovery, and there are a surprising number that are still available to us. However, they are not all meant to be straightforward sets of instruction, and in most cases they require an understanding of basic principals before they can be interpreted.
Over the years there has been a worldwide collective effort to appraise, interpret and understand these enigmatic texts. Some are illustrated, some have annotation in cryptic forms, some are more straightforward. All require a good deal of background knowledge, and this has been gleaned through patient transcription, translation and experimentation. The result is a plethora of good information in easily accessible published forms. Martial arts groups have formed to train using these guides.
