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Sword Fighting Wasn’t As Romantic As It Is Made Out To Be
In fact, it was more terrifying than anything else
There are few things as romanticized in modern popular culture as sword fighting. From series like Game of Thrones to Star Wars, there is no shortage of slavish interest in the ancient art of bladesmanship. Whether it be the iconic lightsaber or the sleek katana, swords continuously appear in our media because people find them entertaining and alluring. But in reality, sword fighting was neither of these things.
Sword fighting was difficult, short, and nasty work.
Unlike the prolonged fights portrayed in media, most sword fights would end in mere seconds. The longest fights would last a couple of minutes at most. There are a few reasons for this. First, swinging a blade is tiring. Not many people have the stamina to keep up a relentless attack or defense with a blade. Second, when a person grows tired, they are prone to making a mistake. And it only took one mistake to end a life in a real sword fight.
A single slash, a stab of the gut, or a gash on the shoulder, would be enough to drop a man. If a person didn’t die right away, many times, these wounds would get infected from the dirt and blood-smeared blade. An infected wound was almost surely a death sentence in the ancient and…
