Because It Looks Cool: Art, Inspiration, and the Growth of HEMA

There are many reasons fencers begin their journey in Historical Fencing. For some, it is the athletic challenge and the spirit of competition. For others, it is the history and research aspects and the challenge of interpreting older sources. However, for many, whether they are aware of it or not, they were motivated to join this activity because of art. A movie. A video game. A book. A painting. A character we wanted to become, or a world we wanted to experience.

​Today, we will be discussing the importance of art and how it applies to the growth of HEMA.

Before we get started, however, I would like to dedicate this blog to Dr. Rene Laufer of Baylor University. He was the professor who really taught me how I like to learn, which has led to wonderful opportunities for me, both in HEMA and in life.

Dr. Laufer started his Introduction to Spaceflight class with a simple question: “Why does the TIE Fighter from Star Wars look the way it does?” Students in the room would pitch ideas and try to rationalize its shape, but the ultimate answer Dr. Laufer was looking for was “Because it looks cool.”

He challenged us to think about what inspired us to pursue engineering. For many in that specific elective, the answer was Star Wars or Star Trek. Dr. Laufer used this to explain why supporting art in all its forms is so important. Art inspires people to become interested in things they might never have otherwise considered.
A rather philosophical concept to kick off a syllabus day for an elective, but it stuck.

When I think back at why swordsmanship interests me, I can easily point to The Lord of the Rings movies and The Legend of Zelda video games. I am a huge Tolkien nerd, and The Legend of Zelda made me feel like if I were ever in a sword fight, I would want a shield by my side. It’s one of the many reasons I was interested enough to dedicate my time to learning the I.33 system.

I have had students who joined HEMA because they loved Dungeons & Dragons and wanted to live out their characters' experiences. I have met others who loved The Witcher and even fight with Geralt’s famed medallion in tournaments as a homage to the source of their inspiration. The number of examples of video games, movies, and books that have inspired people to take up our hobby is endless.

In HEMA, we tend to discuss the realism of sword fighting as we search for the perfect rulesets or the most valid attacks, while exploring which techniques work and which do not. That work is critical when we are discussing objective truths in HEMA, such as which actions win tournaments or what historical sources meant by their techniques.

But it is equally important to remember that, for many, HEMA began with something much simpler: they saw something they thought was cool.

Maybe it was a movie. Maybe it was a video game, a book, a painting, or a fictional character. Whatever it was, that art sparked enough interest for someone to pick up a sword and discover something new.
That is worth celebrating.

Art does not have to be historically accurate to inspire someone to learn history. A fictional sword fight does not have to teach proper technique to make someone curious about the real thing. Sometimes, it just has to make someone think, “That looks cool.”

And maybe that is why supporting art matters so much. Because we never know where that inspiration will lead someone.
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For me, it led to HEMA.