Hard Hat Area- this page is ALWAYS under construction/destruction. . . . .Pardon the dust.
Many medieval interest pages can be found following links elsewhere in my other pages.
I fence in the Society for Creative Anachronism. We do not use collegiate/Olympic rules or do strip fencing, but instead fence in the round and attempt to learn some of the original renaissance techniques. Here are some links to ancient fencing manuals that may be of interest:
In addition of fencing I do armored combat with heavy weapons. These styles of combat are also the subject of many period manuals, some of which have been translated. As links to copies of those texts become available I’ll try to include them here. Until then I suggest doing a search for “Historic European Combat Arts” (note that that was a link), medieval martial arts, historic martial arts, or the like. Seriously, the HACA link above is probably the best place to go and in their manuals page they have both heavy combat manuals and rapier manuals listed. Another excellent source for medieval longsword techniques is Christian Tobler. Tobler has done a lot of work studying the Liechtenauer Technique (and Ringeck’s commentaries).
My dear friend Rowan has wonderful links to historical pages, Celtic pages, Arthurian pages, textile arts pages, search engines, and much, much more. He does this sort of thing far better than I.
Religious links
If you are interested in very early Christianity and want to see some of the texts that didn't get into The Bible, here is a link to some Gnostic Texts. (Gnosticism was a 1st and 2nd century heresy- you decide what you think of it. The early church did its best to stamp it out of existence in favor of a more orthodox, male centered view). While many Gnostic writing seem quite strange others are probably just as valid and relevant as the books of the orthodox canon. One such is the Gospel of Tomas, which figured into the plot of the popular film, Stigmata. It is of considerable note that some of these texts did influence the early development of Islam, for example the Infancy Gospel of Jesus.
I am an ordained minister of the
Musical
Links
My life has been affected and molded by the music I've listened to, just as the lives of many others have been affected this way. I've listed here some links to the music that has affected me the most in my life. Unfortunately, many music interest sites change frequently, so some links may become outdated. Besides, Google is a much quicker way to find that sort of information. I’ve removed a lot of links to various music sites because they became dysfunctional. You can find my own band, Fuzzy Duck, listed on my space music.
SQUIRREL
NUT ZIPPERS
I've always liked twenties and thirties vintage jazz. These guys aren't from
then, but they sure could have been. My daughter first brought them to my
attention. I just love their music. You can find a sample on this web site
dedicated to them. It reminds me of the soundtrack of old cartoons (probably
why I find it so appealing).
PENTANGLE
One of my all time favorite albums is Pentangle's
BASKET OF LIGHT. Some, if not all, of their material seems to be available on
CD, and you might still be able to find some special order copies of the
albums. This English group that played traditional music with a slight jazz
influence was popular back in the early seventies. The guitarists were John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. You can also find more about
their music at www.folkcorp.co.uk/pent/welcome.htm
STEELEYE SPAN
Steeleye Span is another group that does traditional English
music with a new slant, this time a rock influence. These guys are great and
have lots of available stuff.
JOANNA MELL
Joanna Mell is a harpist in the
For those interested in medieval things here
is a link that has pictures and information on all the Castles of Wales.
Here is a link to some short stories that I've written.
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