Two Weapons in SCA Period.

Two weapon fighting, a staple of fantasy genres and geek fantasies everywhere. From famous dark elves and their double scimitars to the gun-fu of John Woo. Everything just seems to look better with a weapon in each hand. In the SCA, it's a point of contention how much actual historical evidence there is to support this style of fighting in the period we represent. Looking over the sources, there are examples of the so called “florentine” style of fighting in almost every era of history. In the earliest periods of the SCA, the gladiators were known for their unique fighting styles to entertain the crowds, and then in the end of our period you have sword manuals discussing the use of sword and dagger. More pertinent to what I am working on, the sagas have several examples of two weapon fighting.

In the time of Rome, we have documentation that shows two styles of gladiators as being dual wielders, the Dimachaerus and the Retiarius. The Dimachaerus were fighters that wielded two swords of equal or close length, giving up defense for a more aggressive style that requires control and a level of ambidexterity that not everyone possesses. The flashiness of two swords and the increased potential for blood that not having a shield would have surely been a favourite of the crowds. Retiarius were fighters who used the weapons of the god of the sea, net and trident. These allowed him to control and strike at a distance.

Jump ahead to the Dark Ages after Rome’s fall, just before Christianity starts to take over, our best source for fighting styles in Northern Europe are the Icelandic Sagas. The Sagas are full of examples of warriors using a weapon in each hand, not counting the 8-10 times that it is mentioned that a warrior switches weapon hands to confuse their opponent, an act that shows a certain amount of ambidexterity which makes two weapon fighting possible.

There are several examples of different fighting styles. The one that shows up the most is axe and spear, the favoured style of Thorgeir, one of the main characters in Fóstbrœðra saga. He is mentioned fighting in this manner on at least two occasions. Sword and spear is mentioned as being used by two different people in Njal’s Saga. There is a little bit of confusion about whether the most famous mention is sword and spear, or sword and halberd. I am talking about Gunnar in Njal’s Saga and his altgeir. The altgeir is a weapon that is typically translated as a halberd, but no proof has ever been found of such a weapon. Some more recent translations say that it's a spear meant for piercing mail. Continuing the trend of fighting with two swords, we see an example of it in the Droplaugarsona saga, showing that the trend didn’t die with the Gladiators of Rome. As you read through the sagas, you even see the strange pairing of fighting with a halberd and staff. It seems that nearly every combination of weapons is used at some point or another. My favourite weapon pairing (sword and axe) has two examples in the sagas. Thormod enters battle in Fóstbrœðra saga armed only with a sword and axe, and in Víga-Glúms saga, Eyiolf does the same. This is discounting the idea of the Atgeir as a halberd, otherwise there'd be three examples of sword-and-axe type weapons.

The sad part of history is that the line is not unbroken. It seems there are several hundred-year gaps where there is no mention of two weapon fighting. When you arrive at the 15-16c, you start to see manuals which include several styles that are one weapon in each hand, from the two-baton style of the Flos Duellatorum by Fiore dei Liberi, to the sword and dagger mentioned by Sir John Smythe. As time passed and more and more schools of fighting came into existence, the proof becomes easier and easier to find. 17c-18c manuals include instructions on rapier and main gauche, and other styles that involve a weapon in each hand. While this already brings it out of period, it's a good thing to see, something that shows that as more and more history is written down, the examples stay firm and, more to the point, appear more often. There is no reason to think that the idea of a weapon in each hand disappeared; only that it wasn’t recorded like so much of the history that was lost.

In a non-European setting, we know that in Japan there was a manual written at the beginning of the 17c for using the two swords of the Samurai class to fight. In India, it was a common practice, Viravidyā, to pair two long curved swords for fighting. The Philippines have escrima which is a machete fighting style that involves paired blades. Even in North America, certain tribes were known to fight with war club and long knife, or tomahawk and long knife. The last example is another place where sword and axe could have been introduced to the Icelanders through their interactions with the skraelings.


It's easy to see how nearly every persona in the SCA is a culture that either had some sort of two weapon fighting, or had contact with one. From the beginnings of history, people have been willing to give up the defense of a shield or other protective item for the potential to be had in other fighting styles. In some cases, the styles are limited to a very specific class of people, but in many places it's just a matter of personal choice. At some point in the not too distant future, I'll be making an infographic showing the cultures for which we have proof using two weapons, and in what time periods, but that is very much a task for another day. For now, the proven list is early Northern Europe, Rome, Greece, Nearly all Asian, Nearly all later period (15c+).


Photo by Matthew W. Hoelscher: Sir Gõcauo Ramiriç teaching me at a practice in December.