Posts: 2 Location: Portland, Oregon
Wed 24 Sep, 2014 10:20 pm
This may have already been mentioned, but I was reading through R.
Ewart Oakeshott's The Archaeology of Weapons and was reminded of this thread. Given the wealth of martial documentation we have uncovered (rediscovered?) about European fighting methods of the Middle Ages, I also always wondered about the historical veracity of the grip, so it popped into my mind as soon as I saw the diagrams in Oakeshott and I figured that my reading would be interesting to readers and practitioners on this thread.
I haven't read through all pages of this thread in the lifetime it has been here but I did chime in at one point. And there was considerable debate about the appropriateness and some conversation about the historical accuracy of the grip (this may have been cleared up but, again, I haven't read through every page).
Oakeshott references the Psalterium Aureum (Golden Psalter of St. Gall), specifically Codex Perzoni. It was a manuscript written sometime before and around 883 AD (Viking-era time period). It depicts what we called the "handshake" grip with a Viking-style sword, with the fingers firm and the pommel of the sword fitting into heel of the hand.
Of interest, Oakeshott's depiction (pg. 172, Archaeology of Weapons) also shows a variation of our "handshake" grip with the pointer-finger over the guard. Oakeshott shows another variation with the little finger over the pommel, presumably because, as Oakeshott states, "...a man with large hands would have to have one finger outside the grip itself, for generally [the grip] is too short... to accommodate four large fingers." (Oakeshott's words, not the Psalterium Aureum's).
So, it seems that this grip is not only historical but also understood by chroniclers and fighters of the Viking era using Viking-styled swords.
As to the effectiveness of the grip, the proper employ of the weapon with said grip, and possible uses of the grip, I do not know if records attest to that. I suppose that is a question and experience for the martial artist and the student of historical European fighting styles (I, myself, have no experience with historical European styles).