When you think of sports societies, your mind probably goes to rugby, football, or tennis. But what would you think about armoured combat with blades? The Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) Society scratches that itch.
HEMA is the practise of historical combat blending martial arts and weapons training. With roots in France and Italy, it wishes to preserve the historical context of which the art was forged. Founded in 2024, the University’s HEMA society is a relatively young group but already deeply involved with their craft. Their weekly events teach the likes of Armizare (ar-mi-tzar-ay) with swords and basic sparring. I got the opportunity to observe an Armizare event.
After a warmup they jumped right into training. Even though I knew what I was walking into, there’s nothing that can really prepare you for seeing an actual sword in-person; even one with a safety tip on and being used by a professional. What surprised me was the technique involved. Chief instructor Kai, who founded HEMA at Edinburgh, made something as barbaric sounding as sword fighting feel like watching someone play an instrument.
I got the chance to speak with HEMA society’s Secretary Jacob, who has been with the club since it was founded. As he explained, there weren’t any HEMA societies within the University despite clear interest in the city through the Dawn Duellists Society. But even with local curiosity it still took a substantial effort to get HEMA started: “As I understand there were quite a few hoops like insurance and kit that HEMA had to jump through. We loan out kit and don’t expect members to buy any.”
Even with the university’s approval a second conflict came from getting people interested in HEMA. “The biggest curve was people getting basic experience,” before they could get into more detailed skills. But this is a problem they have already addressed: “The way we run our beginners’ course, most people by the end knew the lingo within one semester.” Beginner friendly sessions run every Wednesday at Teviot.
One of the society’s biggest accomplishments so far is bringing together people from all academic backgrounds. While the society’s focus is rooted in history, Jacob told me the mix of degrees members hail from such as medicine, maths, and engineering. HEMA Society is exclusively for history students as little as Darts Society is (that’s the second swipe I’ve made against darts so far. I’ll give you an interview next and we call it quits?). Lessons value learning by doing rather than context-based teaching and it was the exact amount of hands-on that I was expecting.
Towards the end of the session, I got the chance for a casual sparring with Jacob. Of course I jumped at the chance and got a try at using a foam sword. It was very casual, less competitive than a match of swordplay in Wii Sports but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Naturally, I took it easy on Jacob.
Where is HEMA Society going? “It’s obviously early days for us, but we want to expand the offering,” said Jacob. In two years, they have already embedded themselves into Britain’s wider HEMA scene fostering a “very friendly competition with other societies” ranging all the way from Glasgow down into England. One goal they have is to step further into the tournament scene and with the guidance of Kai and Jacob, it is very possible.
“Liber amicorum of Joannes Carolus Erlenwein, Herman Arnold von Oienhausen and Joannes Carolus Erlenwein jousting, Walters Manuscript W.922, p. 122” by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts is marked with CC0 1.0.
