Zorro first inspired Paul Macdonald to pick up a sword and fence. He did not start officially fencing until he reached university level, learning Modern Olympic Fencing. Something was missing from this type of fencing for Macdonald. That something was found in Domenico Angelo’s late seventeenth century treatise and the rest for him was history. Today, Macdonald took some time to talk about how he founded the first historical fencing school in the United Kingdom, swordsmithing, and teaching fencing. All images provided by Paul Macdonald.
Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Welcome Maestro Macdonald! Thank you for taking the time to speak with us about historical fencing!
Paul Macdonald: Thank you for having me!
MAYTT: You began fencing in 1992 at Napier University, acting as the club’s president and instructor. Two years later, you helped form the Dawn Duellists Society. What sparked your interest in historical fencing and ultimately led you to start your own school?
PM: My first memories of seeing fencing as something ultimately engaging were in watching reruns of the original Zorro TV series as a teenager in the Highlands.
There was a sense of thrilling reality about the reality of bladed combat – even though those sequences were clearly choreographed! – and something which I tried to find during Lochaber High School years, but to no avail. My first adventure with the sword was in 1992, when I arrived in Edinburgh for University studies, and I found I took to it with some earnest attention and practice.
It was in being engaged in sports fencing over a couple of years, during which time I entered tournaments at local, national, and international levels that I realized it wasn’t exactly what I imagined it to be and what I was really looking for.
I stood, one day, closely studying a smallsword technique print from Domenico Angelo’s late seventeenth century treatise and it transfixed me with the stark realization that this was ultimately what I sought – traditional martial swordsmanship. In the same manner that the entire universe might be seen in a single flower, centuries-worth of historical developments and advanced bladed Arts were evident in this one image. But where were they now?
I then spent some months seeking this out by any avenue possible, attending SCA and Jacobite re-enactment groups only to find their practices were either very basic or based upon stage combat. Searches online – when net cafés were a new thing! – yielded nothing anywhere in Scotland or the UK. Try as I might, I could not find that tartan Yoda! [Laughs]
This realization astounded me, that centuries of martial culture had seemingly been lost or forgotten. Surely not! The responsibility of starting something dawned and was not a light decision, as I was fully aware of the significant implications likely to unfold.
I decided to start a duelling society, dedicated to the revival and practice of historical fencing, and that was the Dawn Duellists Society, founded in June 1994. Many visits were made to the National Library of Scotland in those early years, discovering treatises written centuries ago from which we learned directly towards understanding historical methods and techniques.
MAYTT: How would you characterize the training you experienced both in modern fencing and historical fencing? How difficult was it to learn the historical form after learning and teaching the modern form intensely?
PM: There are similarities and differences between instruction in both historical and modern fencing.
Both must be taught progressively and systematically to have any student fully comprehend and be capable in any complete system. The instructor or Master must also in both disciplines study and know the student to determine the most efficient way they learn, and how best to deliver that training.
The ultimate difference, however, between historical fencing and modern sports fencing lies in the mental approach.
A primarily competitive approach is required in sports fencing, which is also played out in blade techniques. The sporting blade techniques, such as whip hits, are drastically removed from martial swordsmanship as such techniques are simply not possible with historical blades. The mental approach is also distinct in that sports fencing blades are not regarded or treated as sharp blades in engagements, which results in tactical approaches and physical movements departing from those that would be realistically required martially with sharp blades in play.
Personally, I was always looking for historical fencing, so I was delighted to firstly discover source materials and then make contact with my own historical Fencing Masters, Maestro Andrea Sinclair, Maestri Ramon and Jeanette Martinez. The decision to stop sports fencing completely in favour of historical fencing for myself was an easy one.
The main difference noticeable in that transition apart from the mental approach was the far greater emphasis on the discipline of physical form required with martial swordsmanship. As the context is one of stark reality played out with sharp blades, risk avoidance primarily lies in learning and maintaining good and precise form. Loss of blood can be the minimum consequence of undisciplined form.
The last sports fencing I engaged in, incidentally, was after I had decided to stop and travelled to Carrickfergus Castle in Northern Ireland in 1995 to present a demonstration of historical fencing. I had brought my sports sabre fencing kit to sell there and hadn’t sold it by the end of our demo when I was then asked if I wanted to participate in the sabre tournament.
Out of sheer curiosity in bringing a martial approach to a sports fencing tournament which included national-level fencers, I entered, donned my old kit, and took the gold! [Laughs] Satisfied with this result, I hung up my electric kit for good.
MAYTT: That is amazing! In the same vein, how have you seen historical fencing training and teaching approaches change or evolve since you first started?
PM: That’s an interesting question and I think from the start I have seen historical fencing training and teaching approaches mirror exactly those differences known throughout history, essentially being the differences between instinctive fighting and artistic fencing.
In the same way in which we all naturally gravitate towards certain characters and types of people in Life, everyone naturally finds the ideal martial approach which suits them along the way. For some, this requires little training and plenty of safety kit and they will happily get torn in with more instinctive fighting.
For others, they seek the long-term challenge and personal investment of years and decades of progressive development in the counter-instinctive Arts.
The only definitive difference I’ve personally seen other than this is the emphasis some approaches place on training for tournaments.
Makers have certainly played their part over the years in developing affordable, functional arms, specifically aimed at the historical fencing market, and there are a lot of quality swordmakers now hitting the right balance of historical weight/balance and affordability.
MAYTT: In 1998, you formed the British Federation for Historical Swordplay (BFHS). What were some of the influencers behind this course of action? How do you feel the BFHS has aided in the development of historical fencing in the United Kingdom?
PM: From the first day of making my personal commitment to the sword, I understood that other groups would be established over the coming years and that national and international gatherings and events would naturally evolve.
It made sense after a few years to start thinking about establishing a form of national umbrella organization for UK historical fencing groups.
I feel the BFHS has over the years acted as a conduit for recognition and cross-training between UK groups, particularly by running national events and workshops since its establishment. It has certainly allowed for different approaches to be better understood.
MAYTT: I see. Moreover, in 2001, you established your own academy, Macdonald Academy of Arms. How has teaching historical fencing helped you better understand the art?
PM: Seneca surmised “When you teach, you learn,” which is certainly true across all martial arts.
Teaching directly requires us to listen to the student and bring out their form as efficiently as possible. In creating martial artists, we are constantly engaged in bridge-building from concepts to knowledge, from theory to practice and from instinct to counter-instinct.
Teaching constantly reminds us of the fundamental human qualities of the Art.
It confirms that only our most essential human qualities carry across time and place when we are put under pressure and forced to defend ourselves. Teaching hundreds or thousands of students over decades and to the most elemental levels helps us better understand martial forms and realities, regardless of weapon form or origin.
MAYTT: You also head the Macdonald Armouries, crafting “well-balanced, sturdy, and elegantly functional reproduction weapons.” What was your first introduction into swordmsithing and how has this experience helped or aided you in gaining a better understanding on how to use historical weapons in modern practice settings?
PM: I recall my very first fencing lesson, where several fencing foils were resting on a table as our introduction was given.
There was a magnetic attraction in the glint of steel from those blades. It was more than sensing something of the Life they could be given in the hand, but also a wonder at those blades being crafted by hand.
Having always been somewhat creative in Life, this wonder was compelling, and being in Scotland’s capital city, I set out to find who in town made blades and how I could learn. I did find two makers of our traditional knives (dirks and sgian dubhs) and both took me under their wing to impart various skills, with one (Norman C. Milne of Castle Arms) offering me full-time work the day I finished university. I worked there for a couple of years before establishing my own armoury towards making more accurate, functional historical reproductions.
Crafting arms has been an entirely complementary creative path to the study, practice, and teaching of arms. Accurately reproducing historic arms requires countless hours of close study and handling of original examples from private and museum collections.
The original arms still speak to us today and provide fascinating and invaluable insights regarding their original construction and why they are constructed in certain forms and ways. Invariably, constructed form results from simple ergonomic considerations, and the ways in which arms were designed to be gripped and used can be determined directly from this.
One on-going martial project has been in back-engineering martial methodology from reproducing weapon forms as accurately carved on our indigenous Pictish monoliths, which are over 1,000 years old.
Crafting and wielding go very much hand-in-hand.
MAYTT: How have you seen the UK historical fencing community help influence the American historical fencing community and vice versa?
PM: Perhaps, in small ways, the early days of historical fencing in the UK inspired some movement in the US.
A couple of early Dawn Duellists Society students were Jared Kirby and Tim Ruziki, who returned to the US to establish the NDDS (New Dawn Duellists Society) and subsequently went on to become respected instructors (Jared is himself now a Maestro) and establish some of the great US historical fencing events such as the International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention which later became Combat Con.
US events have proved popular with UK instructors and students, who thrive in these opportunities to cross-train and come away with fresh skills and ideas.
MAYTT: Who would you consider to be crucial or a pioneer to the modern HEMA revival movement? What was it about these individuals that set them apart from their contemporaries?
PM: My own fencing Masters, Maestro Andrea Lupo Sinclair of FISAS (Federazione Italiana Scherma Antica e Storica) in Italy and Maestri Ramon and Jeanette Martinez of the Martinez Academy of Arms in New York have certainly been crucial to my own development and to maintaining the most traditional standards in the Art in recent decades.
They have all been uncompromising in learning and keeping the highest standards alive in the Art from their own respective martial lineages.
Whenever we learn in Life, it always pays to learn from the best.
MAYTT: Most historical fencers split the movement into two aspects: academic and competition. How important are these two aspects to you when you approach historical fencing in your Academy? Is there another aspect that you focus on in addition to or in place of academics and/or competitions?
PM: I would put a certain importance on academic considerations, but my Academy places no importance on external competition.
Academic aspects are present from decades-worth of historical treatise studies and weapons research and handling/crafting which cross-over into the core broadsword method taught. Students are not expected to study historical treatises in class but learn the Academy method of broadsword and other arms directly towards becoming proficient martial artists.
Our most important aspects are the traditional ones of study, practice, and teaching, each being a particular Art in itself.
MAYTT: Final question; how have you seen the global historical fencing community grow since you first started training? Where do you think that community will be in the next ten years?
PM: When I started, there were no dedicated historical fencing groups existing in the UK. I had no doubts that it would exponentially grow and imagined national and international events happening within some twenty years, but it was only five years later this was evident.
The rise of the internet through the mid-1990s has, without doubt, facilitated such ease of growth, providing an immediacy to contacts, information, sources, and events like never before. Long gone are those days of frequent library visits with notepad and pencil.
With this, however, associated issues, conflicts and divisionism also occur – nothing new in martial arts! – which in the long run is only a healthy effect given the broad range of approaches existing.
There have been all sorts of ideas towards taking historical fencing “further” in today’s age including the re-introduction of singlestick to the Olympics and televised tournaments in the style of MMA. The question that should be asked firstly however is “How does this benefit the Art?”
With the sole exception of medieval judicial combat, traditional swordsmanship and European martial arts for self-defence were never tournament-based practices. Public trials of skill for the settling of personal grievances or for public entertainment were held, though often with sharp swords. The only way today to approach our practices the same is by taking that same approach from historic Masters and students forward, that our arms are sharp and blood, at the very least, is on the line. This becomes more difficult to control on an individual level when competition and point-scoring becomes the focus.
If we don’t practice with the same approach and intentions as our ancestors did, be this 100 or 1,000 years ago, then we are doing something else. This doesn’t mean we have to spill blood in the process as clearly training was every bit as accessible and safe historically, and we can affect the same today as long as we are willing firstly to step outwith our modern environs, conveniences, and mindset, and strip ourselves back to our fundamental elements, devoid of audience, comforts, or immediate reward.
The community, overall, will doubtless continue to grow, and further national and international events flourish as a result of heightened technological communications, though I can only yet feel that the future of historical fencing lies in its past, and in understanding those who came before us to better know who we are today.
MAYTT: Thank you again for joining us, Maestro Macdonald! This was a great conversation!
PM: It has been my pleasure!
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