Real Swordfighting Wasn't Like What We See in the Movies

Hardly surprising, as I believe most of the modern public has its ideas on the subject conditioned by the conventions of fencing, which has conditioned the minds of movie stuntmen. The author of this article has made the study of Medieval and Renaissance manuals on swordfighting and a re-creation of their techniques his life's work. I found the photographs (like the one above) of people exercising these skills and the illustrations taken from the old manuals very interesting.

I found the author's chest-thumping about how knowledgeable he is and how ignorant the rest of us are on swordfighting a bit obnoxious, but it's worth putting up with for the information provided.