History Events in San Jose

In the sword and shield class we will look at the use of the round and the heater shield along with the single-handed sword. We do have some loaner shields that can be used in the class, but if you have a round or heater shield, I encourage you to bring it. We will study defensive and offensive use of the shield for fighting, as well as the use of the sword with the shield. There are no known surviving manuscripts detailing the use of the large shield for combat, however there are the Nordic Sagas as well as artwork and architecture reliefs showing the shield as a fighting tool. The earliest manuscript that we know of using a small shield, called a buckler, was written in the 1290s, and it is called the I.33 for its catalog number in the Tower of London library. The techniques we will be studying in this class were learned from years of practice and study fighting with, and against, the sword and shield. We will look at the types of techniques used by the Viking and Saxon shields fights of the 8th-10th centuries, the battlefield shield techniques of the Knights of the 14th century and the Scottish Highlanders of the 18th century.