I now have a new book titled the above. This book is all about the history of fencing. It has already answered most of my questions. For starters, I discovered that some people did die in a duel from things ranging from blood loss to decapitation. In this time period that never happens. Occasionally, a person may say that the last touch hurt a bit, but no one gets any serious injuries or is even remotely bloodied during a bout due to all the protective gear a fencer wears.
Another thing I learned was that older swords were basically like modern swords, except they were not as blunt and they could potentially maim or even kill. Nowadays a sword has a bit of rubber or a flat push button(only for electrical fencing)at the end of the blade.
This book also answered my question about woman fencers. Historically, some women were allowed to fight with swords in Rome as gladiators. This didn't start until just before the fall of the Roman Empire. This practice didn't continue after that, so it did not last long.
I also learned that fencing was always used as a duel for honor or for battle. Every country had a different way of fencing. Some, like the Greeks and Persians, referred to it as instinct and felt it did not need to be practiced. Other countries believed differently and thought it should be perfected,like the Romans.
In my last blog post I talked about the basic fundamentals of fencing and what a person could become if they become very skilled. To illustrate what advanced dueling looks like, here is a link to a video of two fencers in the 2008 Olympics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpo7O8SVRVQ
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