The Armour Archive

I was doing some slow work today in between loads of laundry, and I happened upon a move that would really work for grasping the other fighter's bastard sword, pole arm, ect. My question is would it be "legal" and more importantly not a 'slimy trick' .
Here it is. Bastard sword held in the right hand just under the quillions, with the blade laid across to the left resting on the left wrist, palm facing away, about half way up the blade from the quillions. Sword position is low to invite shots for the left side; head to mid leg. Defense is normal for the head- pivot left at hips and pick up the head shot. For shots thrown to the shoulder and lower, the blade is pivoted down, fulcrum on the wrist, angled back along the length of the left forearm to defend it; with the right hand being shot up and forward. The grapple comes from rotating the left wrist pinky side down to engage the other's blade. In this way the left hand acts like a second set of quillions, so long as it is the hand and not the wrist or forearm taking the hit . Left hand grabs sword, right hand engages its sword to any part of the other guy's upper body that is most open.
Thoughts???

Gruber wrote:I was doing some slow work today in between loads of laundry, and I happened upon a move that would really work for grasping the other fighter's bastard sword, pole arm, ect. My question is would it be "legal" and more importantly not a 'slimy trick' .
Here it is. Bastard sword held in the right hand just under the quillions, with the blade laid across to the left resting on the left wrist, palm facing away, about half way up the blade from the quillions. Sword position is low to invite shots for the left side; head to mid leg. Defense is normal for the head- pivot left at hips and pick up the head shot. For shots thrown to the shoulder and lower, the blade is pivoted down, fulcrum on the wrist, angled back along the length of the left forearm to defend it; with the right hand being shot up and forward. The grapple comes from rotating the left wrist pinky side down to engage the other's blade. In this way the left hand acts like a second set of quillions, so long as it is the hand and not the wrist or forearm taking the hit . Left hand grabs sword, right hand engages its sword to any part of the other guy's upper body that is most open.
Thoughts???

In the 13th and 15th centuries they called this the vidilpoge (fiddlebow). Nice one.

Cool! how would fighters in our game take it though? I don't want to piss anyone off.

So you would be intentionally blocking with your hand if any blows came that way, right?

The intent is to catch as much of the strike on the blade as possible- I really like my hands With my torso twisting to the left, the side the shot is coming from, I'm hoping their sword is more redirected with my blade first, then engage the hand for the grasp. The 'V' that is formed by crossing the blade and wrist would hopefully act like a second set of quillions. If after a few attempts it seems more like a hand block than I intend- I'll ditch the manuver completely. I'm only using hockey gloves at the present time... I don't trust em to take a full on shot.

so long as it is the hand and not the wrist or forearm taking the hit .

I would call it "target substitution" and a less than honourable manuver. I can reach out and block a sword with the back of my gauntlet. According to the "rules" it doesn't count as a blow. However, if that was aimed at my head or body it is "target substitution".
There are a LOT of cool manuvers we can't do because of the rules the SCA provides us with.

This can be done with a sword and buckler, as depicted in I.33 or as Gruber describes so long as you keep the hand out of the way. Please check with your local marshals as this would not be allowed where I live. Grasping the opponent's blade while it is in motion is also somewhat debatable. If you are going to use the vidilpoge you should also be aware of what your options are if your opponent attacks you on your right (which is the counter) instead of your left. If you use the hand to block, target substitution applies.

Leo makes an excellent point about a lot of medieval techniques not being useful in SCA combat. I'll expand on this by noting that some of the techniques that are legal in the SCA are dangerous. See my sig line.

thanks for the input. Much appreciated. Being a fair fighter is much more important to me than 'winning' a fight at the cost of a reputation.
I'll check it out at Maidens this weekend and see how it is taken.
Gruber