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Features
About the Author
Russ Mitchell was born in Rhode Island and subsequently shipped all over
the place as a "Navy Brat," attending eleven different schools before
going off to college and obtaining Master's degrees in History in Texas
and Medieval Studies in Budapest, where he suckered a Hungarian lass
into marrying him.
Russ writes fantasy stories for his friends'
and daughter's amusement, and teaches martial arts in his home-town and
at regional seminars, with a special emphasis on movement structure and
body mechanics.
Russ
Mitchell's _Hungarian Hussar Sabre and Fokos Fencing_ is easily one of
the best "HEMA" (Historical European Martial Arts) books I've had the
pleasure to read. As approachable as it is informative, _Hungarian
Hussar Sabre_ introduces the reader to more than Russ' first-hand
experience and knowledge of a "broken" Hungarian sabre tradition--it
provides a template for how one might best write about or teach such a
tradition. In fact, Russ provides a wonderful model for anyone trying to
explain a complicated martial system, from warm-up to tactics.
The
author's experience with an instructor of the tradition is well
laid-out; the descriptions and explanations for positions, techniques,
and plays are explained clearly and accompanied by illustrations of
everyday folk, the very folk you might know from your own club or
school; the context for those positions and techniques are situated in
context, and, in a way unlike many works on military sabre. As a quick
example, the squared stance, the guards/parries make complete sense
given the kit a late 19th/early 20th century soldier would have been
wearing, and, given the contexts in which that same soldier may have
found himself having to use a sabre--this information, given to Russ by
his instructor (Prof. Csaba Hidán), provides a unique layer of know-how
to this system. As someone intimately acquainted with late 19th century
military sabre texts this sort of second-hand information, something
Hidán learned from his grandfather and grandfather's friends, who were
Hussars, fills in critical gaps that the official texts left out.
Added
to this, Russ includes translations from key works that provide a
window into his own tradition, such as Baron Samu Chappon's _Sabre
Fencing_ (1891), and works that, to date, have not been translated into
English. For students of Italian sabre like myself, who were trained in
the mid-century blend of Hungarian and Italian fencing (i.e. the
Italo-Hungarian tradition), what Russ reveals here supplies a much
needed glimpse into what differentiates the Hungarian from the Italian
systems. There are translations of most key Italian sabre texts, but
precious few for Hungarian sources (of which there were far fewer).
_Hungarian
Hussar Sabre and Fokos Fencing_ goes one step further and introduces a
short section on the fokos, a form of "shepherd's axe," that is, again,
unique. Students of axe, especially those familiar with the mss. of
Fiore dei Liberi or the anonynous "Le Jeu de la Hache," will see much
that is familiar. Taken together, the sections on sabre for foot, fokos,
and the sabre for cavalry present, for the first time in English, a
valuable introduction to Hungarian sabre. More than that this book fills
in a critical piece many fencers know exists but which few of us,
lacking Hungarian, have had access to.
If your interest is sabre
generally, you need to read this book; if you are a student of modern
sabre, you should read this book; if you, like me, were taught by
maestri within the Italo-Hungarian orbit, you must read this book to
understand better your own tradition; if you need a guide for how to
write for HEMA, you need to read this book. Informative, fascinating,
and fun, Russ Mitchell's _Hungarian Hussar Sabre and Fokos Fencing_ is a
fantastic read.
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Excellent beginner book to Hungarian Fencing 
