English Martial Arts

Terry Brown
ISBN 1-898281-18-1
250mm x 195mm / 10" x 7½"
220 photographs 240 pages

Little is known about the very early history of English martial arts but it is likely that methods, techniques and principles were passed on from one generation to the next for centuries. By the sixteenth century English martial artists had their own governing body which controlled its members in much the same way as do modern-day martial arts organisations. It is apparent from contemporary evidence that the Company of Maisters taught and practised a fighting system that ranks as high in terms of effectiveness and pedigree as any in the world.

In the first part of the book the author investigates the weapons, history and development of the English fighting system and looks at some of the attitudes, beliefs and social pressures that helped mould it. Tales of skill and courage bring to life the people who played a part in the development of English martial arts.

Part two deals with various English fighting techniques which have been drawn from historical books and manuscripts. In other words, all of the methods and techniques shown in this book are authentic and have not been created by the author. The theories that underlie the system are explained in a chapter on The Principles of True Fighting. All of the techniques covered are illustrated with photographs and accompanied by instructions and should lay to rest the mistaken idea that English martial arts bear any resemblance to the 'methods' that have often been displayed in film and television productions. Experienced martial artists, irrespective of the style they practice, will recognise that the techniques and methods of this system are based on principles that are as valid as those that underlie the system that they practice.

Techniques included in this book are for bare-fist fighting, broadsword, quarterstaff, bill, sword and buckler, sword and dagger.

The author, who has been a martial artist for twenty-eight years, has recently re-formed the Company of Maisters of Defence, a medieval English martial arts organization.

The English Warrior from earliest times to 1066

Stephen Pollington
ISBN 1-898281-10-6
10" x 7" 255mm x 180mm 38 figures and illustrations 272pp

This important new work is not intended to be a bald listing of the battles and campaigns from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other sources, but rather it is an attempt to get below the surface of Anglo-Saxon warriorhood and to investigate the rites, social attitudes, mentality and mythology of the warfare of those times. The book is divided into three main sections which deal with warriorhood, weaponry and warfare respectively. The first covers the warriors role in early English society, his rights and duties, the important rituals of feasting, gift-giving and duelling, and the local and national military organizations. The second part discusses the various weapons and items of military equipment which are known to have been in use during the period, often with a concise summary of the generally accepted typology for the many kinds of military hardware. In the third part, the social and legal nature of warfare is presented, as well as details of strategy and tactics, military buildings and earthworks, and the use of supply trains. Valuable appendices offer original translations of the three principal Old English military poems, the battles of Maldon, Finnsburh and Brunanburh.

Anglo-Saxon Riddles

Translated by John Porter
A5 ISBN 1-898281-13-0 112pp

This is a book full of ingenious characters who speak their names in riddles. Here you will meet a one-eyed garlic seller, a bookworm, an iceberg, an oyster, the sun and moon and a host of others from the everyday life and imagination of the Anglo-Saxons. Their sense of the awesome power of creation goes hand in hand with a frank delight in obscenity, a fascination with disguise and with the mysterious processes by which the natural world is turned to human use. John Porter's sparkling translations retain all the vigour and subtly of the original Old English poems, transporting us back over a thousand years to the roots of our language and literature. This edition contains all 95 Exeter Book riddles.

Anglo-Saxon Runes

John. M. Kemble
A5 ISBN 0-9516209-1-6 80pp

Kemble's essay On Anglo-Saxon Runes first appeared in the journal Archaeologia for 1840; it draws on the work of Wilhelm Grimm, but breaks new ground for Anglo-Saxon studies in his survey of the Ruthwell Cross and the Cynewulf poems. It is an expression both of his own indomitable spirit and of the fascination and mystery of the Runes themselves, making it an attractive introductions to the topic. For this edition new notes have been supplied, which include translations of Latin and Old English material quoted in the text, to make this key work in the study of runes more accessible to the general reader.

Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic

Bill Griffiths
ISBN 1-898281-15-7 250mm x 175mm 10" x 7" 256pp

Magic is something special, something unauthorised; an alternative perhaps; even a deliberate cultivation of dark, evil powers. But for the Anglo-Saxon age, the neat division between mainstream and occult, rational and superstitious, Christian and pagan is not always easy to discern. To maintain its authority (or its monopoly?) the Church drew a formal line and outlawed a range of dubious practices (like divination, spells, folk healing) while at the same time conducting very similar rituals itself, and may even have adapted legends of elves to serve in a Christian explanation of disease as a battle between good and evil, between Church and demons; in other cases powerful ancestors came to serve as saints. In pursuit of a better understanding of Anglo-Saxon magic, a wide range of topics and texts are examined in this book, challenging (constructively, it is hoped) our stereotyped images of the past and its beliefs. Texts are printed in their original language (e.g. Old English, Icelandic, Latin) with New English translations. Contents include:- twenty charms; the English, Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems; texts on dreams, weather signs, unlucky days, the solar system; and much more.

The Battle of Maldon
Text and Translation

Translated and edited by Bill Griffiths
A5 ISBN 0-9516209-0-8 96pp

The Battle of Maldon was fought between the men of Essex and the Vikings in AD 991. The action was captured in an Anglo-Saxon poem whose vividness and heroic spirit has fascinated readers and scholars for generations. The Battle of Maldon includes the source text; edited text; parallel literal translation; verse translation; notes on pronunciation; review of 103 books and articles. This new edition (the fourth) includes notes on Old English verse.

Note: The Battle of Maldon and Beowulf have been produced with edited Old English texts and parallel literal modern English translations which are intended to be of help to those learning Old English.

Beowulf: Text and Translation

Translated by John Porter
A5 ISBN 0-9516209-2-4 192pp

The verse in which the story unfolds is, by common consent, the finest writing surviving in Old English, a text that all students of the language and many general readers will want to tackle in the original form. To aid understanding of the Old English, a literal word-by-word translation is printed opposite the edited text and provides a practical key to this Anglo-Saxon masterpiece.

Dark Age Naval Power

A re-assessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon seafaring activity

John Haywood
10" x 7" 255mm x 180mm 224 pages
ISBN 1­898281­22­X

In the first edition of this work, published in 1991, John Haywood argued that the capabilities of the pre-Viking Germanic seafarers had been greatly underestimated. Since that time, his reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon shipbuilding and seafaring has been widely praised and accepted.

'The book remains a historical study of the first order. It is required reading for our seminar on medieval seafaring at Texas A & M University and is essential reading for anyone interested in the subject.'
F. H. Van Doorninck, The American Neptune (1994)

'The author has done a fine job, and his clear and strongly put theories will hopefully further the discussion of this important part of European history.'
Arne Emil Christensen, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (1992)

'Writing a comprehensive history of the clandestine activities of preliterate Dark Age societies is an ambitious task and this book is a remarkable achievement.'
Gillian Hutchinson, Mariner’s Mirror (1993)

In this second edition, some sections of the book have been revised and updated to include information gained from excavations and sea trials with sailing replicas of early ships. The new evidence lends weight to the author's argument that early Germanic shipbuilding and seafaring skills were far more advanced than previously thought. It also supports the view that Viking ships and seaborne activities were not as revolutionary as is commonly believed.

English Heroic Legends

Kathleen Herbert
A5 ISBN 1-898281-25-4 292pp

(This title was previously published as Spellcraft: Old English Heroic Legends)

The author has taken the skeletons of ancient Germanic legends about great kings, queens and heroes, and put flesh on them. Kathleen Herbert's encyclopaedic knowledge of the period is reflected in the wealth of detail she brings to these tales of adventure, passion, bloodshed and magic. The book is in two parts. First are the stories that originate deep in the past, yet because they have not been hackneyed, they are still strange and enchanting. After that there is a selection of the source material, with information about where it can be found and some discussion about how it can be used. The purpose of the work is to bring pleasure to those studying Old English literature and, more importantly, to bring to the attention of a wider public the wealth of material that has yet to be tapped by modern writers, composers and artists. Kathleen Herbert is the author of a trilogy, set in sixth century Britain, that includes a winner of the Georgette Heyer prize for an outstanding historical novel.

Ærgeweorc

Old English Verse and Prose read by
Stephen Pollington
ISBN 1-898281-20-3 C40 audiotape

This audiotape cassette can be used with First Steps in Old English or just listened to for the sheer pleasure of hearing Old English spoken well.

Accompanied by a booklet giving the OE texts so that you can ‘read along’ with the tape.

Tracks:

1. Deor.
2. BeowuIf - The Funeral of Scyld Scefing.
3. Engla Tocyme (The Arrival of the English).
4. Ines Domas. Two Extracts from the Laws of King Ine.
5. Deniga Hergung (The Danes' Harrying) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Entry AD997.
6. Durham
7. The Ordeal (Be ðon ðe ordales weddigaþ)
8. Wið Dweorh (Against a Dwarf)
9. Wið Wennum (Against Wens)
10. Wið Wæterælfadle (Against Waterelf Sickness)
11. The Nine Herbs Charm
12. Læcedomas (Leechdoms)
13. Beowulf's Greeting
14. The Battle of Brunanburh
15. Blacmon - by Adrian Pilgrim

First Steps in Old English

An easy to follow language course for the beginner

Stephen Pollington
ISBN 1-898281-19-X
250mm x 175mm / 10" x 7" 224 pages

A complete, well presented and easy to use Old English language course that contains all the exercises and texts needed to learn Old English. This course has been designed to be of help to a wide range of students, from those who are teaching themselves at home, to undergraduates who are learning Old English as part of their English degree course. The author is aware that some individuals have little aptitude for learning languages and that many have difficulty with grammar. To help overcome these problems he has adopted a step by step approach that enables students of differing abilities to advance at their own pace. The course includes many exercises designed to aid the learning process.
A correspondence course is also available.

First Steps in Old English Correspondence Course

An easy to follow language course for the beginner.

Stephen Pollington

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this three stage correspondence course in Old English! This course covers the essentials of Old English grammar (the syntax and the accidence - the changes words undergo and the ways in which they combine to make sense) in a progressive manner. To work through this course, you should have the First Steps in Old English textbook to hand, since we shall refer to it throughout the exercises presented here. This course is aimed at the reader who wishes to have more experience of the basic mechanics of the language, of parsing and of translating the kinds of texts presented in the back of First Steps. This complement to the beginner’s coursebook is intended to expand the reader’s contact with the language and to offer some further material for working through.

The course is in three Parts. Part I is the ‘foundation level’ which corresponds to sections 1 to 7 of the coursebook. Here we cover the four main cases and their commonest uses; the present tense of the verb; the adjective and its agreement with the noun(s) it describes.

Part II covers the material dealt with in Sections 8 to 18 of First Steps in Old English, with some more refinements in the uses of the cases; the strong and weak verbs and their past tenses; weak nouns; preterite-present verbs; the weak form of the adjective, its comparative and superlative.

Part III consists of extracts from OE texts parsed and deconstructed like those in First Steps in Old English Part 3, only this time you do more of the work!

In order to maintain the timely progress of course work and keep the learning pace fresh this correspondence course is handled via email, not regular letter mail. Enquiries may be directed to the tutor at stevepollington@blueyonder.co.uk