When writing fantasy, we often have to describe fight scenes. Swordfights, in particular, make for great descriptions. But we often forget one crucial aspect of fighting: when it comes to life or death, everyone cheats. Even the good guys, as Martin Lloyd points out on Quora.
Miyamoto Musashi

Source: Vagabond fandoom
Miyamoto Musashi is one of history’s most celebrated swordsmen. But he was not the quintessential samurai. He was the quintessential anti-samurai. Where samurai went right, he went left. Musashi was famous for a unique style of double-bladed swordsmanship (it wasn’t unique if other samurai were doing it) and winning his duels through trickery (which other samurai fell for).
Musashi’s philosophy was essentially a “strategist” beats a “sword fencer”, so he probably cheated on principle to prove it.
Before he entered his first duel, his father started apologizing to the guy Musashi was supposed to fight. Musashi surprise-attacked him and beat him to death with a quarterstaff. Stunningly, this gets interpreted as a stroke of brilliance, as opposed to a well-established way of cheating.
Others of his strategies were actually clever instead of underhanded. For example, when he dueled Sasaki Kojiro, Musashi used an extra-long bokken. This is because Kojiro relied on an unusually large sword, so he was used to having a reach advantage over his opponent. Losing the reach advantage meant losing the battle.
However, the running theme seems to be other samurai were completely unprepared for Musashi’s tactics.
In the West
Not that chivalrous knights were above this sort of tricks, as this excerpt from Fiore dei Liberi demonstrates:
This poleaxe of mine is filled with a powder and is hollow and perforated. And this powder is so strongly corrosive that the moment it touches your eye, you will no longer be able to open it, and you may be permanently blinded.
My most noble lord, my Marquis, there are some vicious things shown in this book that you would never do. I show you them purely to aid your knowledge.
This is the powder that you use in the poleaxe drawn above. Take the sap of the spurge, and dry it in a warm oven to make a powder. Now take two ounces of this powder and one ounce of powder of fior d’preda, and mix them together. Now load this powder into the poleaxe shown above. You can do this with any good caustic powder, but you won’t find a better recipe than the one in this book.
Basically, this guy is saying, “Do not do this cool thing which I even gave you a recipe for.”
And a German manual from 1430 includes the dreaded “end him rightly” – unscrewing a pommel from a sword, to throw the pommel at them, to surprise them and make them duck or flinch while you follow up with a spear or maybe the sword.
In “The Secret History of the Sword,” J. Christoph Amberger has a story about a German swordmaster who ended up in a duel against a less experienced swordsman. The two of them arrived at the field of battle with their two-handed swords, upon which the swordmaster shouted, “We were supposed to battle one on one! And you brought your friends with you? Look at all those people!”
Upon his opponent turning around, the swordmaster cut off his head from behind and went back to the bar, where he told his friends, “Fight’s over. I taught my opponent a new trick which he’d never learned before.”
No More Cheating
To minimize cheating, European duels often tried to control the conditions of the fights more heavily. For instance, take dueling shields:
These things were used as weapons in part because it is SO outlandish neither fighter is expected to have experience with them.
Also, duellists were sometimes dressed in oiled leathers before the duel to prevent either fighter from grappling and gaining an advantage. Other customs had duellists strip down to the waist, because they knew some sneaky person would wear armor under their clothes otherwise.
And a duel between a man and woman was set up with the man in a waist-deep pit to mitigate the strength and size difference.
In short, it seems to be a given among western swordsmen that everyone will cheat like a weasel to win unless outright prevented.
For more on pommel-launching swords, check out this fascinating video from Joerg!
Much as I abhor violence, in this context I think the attitude should be that chivalry is less important than survival, especially if the former puts the one fighting for his life at a disadvantage! In addition, I feel that the formalisation of chivalry was another way the masters impressed their superiority upon their inferiors. Cheers, Jon.
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Sorry it took me so long to respond, Jon, I’ve been away. Interesting points. Chivalry vs. cheating is an interesting choice. For some, the code of honor was (is) more important than survival. It probably has a lot to do with how much you believe in an afterlife!
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Is it really cheating if there weren’t any rules though? I think these actions all depend on the character in question too. While the examples you give have the main subject playing a trick, their opponents seem to have been playing fairly. They also had time to prepare, which is basically Batman’s heavily abused superpower. Wonder how many stories are there of cheaters failing too.
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Sorry it took me so long to respond, Charles, I’ve been away. I think it is cheating in many cases. For example, Musashi was fighting samurais who were “playing fair” by following the Bushido code.
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I had a long comment before I did some research. Musashi was alive in the late 1500’s until 1645. The Bushido Code we think of wasn’t really official until near the end of his life. In fact, his book ‘A Book of Five Rings’ appears to be part of the building blocks for the updated version. Prior to this, the code was that a samurai must be dedicated to studying military tactics and loyalty and filial piety to the house they are a part of. There isn’t anything about being honorable. That’s what Musashi started under and many of his ‘cheating’ moves appear come from Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’. One of Musashi’s biggest things was to get the high ground, which is an old strategy. People point to this as a cheat too when it comes to him. A problem here is that Bushido has a romanticized version that we think pushed for modern day honor. It doesn’t look like that was case during Musashi’s time and it was more an unwritten philosophy of dedicating oneself to battle and lord.
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Thanks for the fascinating research, Charles!
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You’re welcome.
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In most medieval combat, swords had no sharp point, and even the edges were chipped and ragged. The weight of the blow was what counted, hence the use of heavy, wide-bladed swords that struck the opponent like a hammer. This could break an arm, collar-bone, or leg, even fracture the skull through a helmet. Once he was thus disabled, he could be killed by a small knife or ‘bodkin’, usually stabbed into the throat, or under an arm.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You make an interesting point, Pete.
In my current wip, i have two men fighting. They use their shields and the boss of one man’s shield cuts the others face. The man cut feigns a slip and stabs upward, killing his opponent. Is that cheating? It’s not in the same league as the others mentioned.
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There was no ‘cheating’, I believe, Vivienne. It was every man for himself, and the apparent rules went by the wayside once combat commenced. Chivalry was really only for jousting and impressing the ladies. 🙂 Most knights would only be spared because they could be ransomed back to their relatives, a common practice up until the 17th century.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sorry it took me so long to respond; I’ve been away. Definitely not in the same league as the ones I mention here, Viv 😀
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Sorry it took me so long to respond, Pete; I’ve been away. And yes, you’re spot-on – that was the main technique used in duels between opponents dressed up in plate armor.
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No problem. I am happy that you had a nice holiday. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Jeanne Owens, author.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Another great article (plus video) from Nicholas 👍😃
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Thank you for another piece of very interesting information, Nicholas. Hope you are well and stay save. Michael
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Sorry it took me so long to respond, Michael; I’ve been away. I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
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Thank you very much Nicholas. Great information. I hope its all OK, and you and yours can enjoy the weekend. Michael
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Coming back from holidays always has a bittersweet feel to it. But we’re fine 🙂
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How can you take vacations out of the beautiful Greece? 😉 Hope you had a nice time. As i heared now the Germans are invading Greece. 😉
Last week i had to send a parcel to Sparti, and iwondered about the new logistics, from Frankfurt to Athens, and back to Sparti (not directly to Kalamata).
Best wishes, Michael
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I don’t think we met a single German while there! A Dutch couple and several Balkanians, but mostly Greeks – most of them locals.
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Hey, i am wondering about. Here they had aired a lot of Germans are on the way to Greece destinations.
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Maybe they went to other parts of Greece? Crete and the Peloponnese are usually popular with German tourists.
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Maybe.Good to know, Nicholas. When i will drive the other directions. Nothing is more worse than meeting our owns outside Germany. Lol
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Lol – I know the feeling 😀
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Lol, but we all love our citizens, if they are far away. 😉
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Reblogged this on Marina Costa.
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And here we thought duels were about… honor.
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Sorry it took me so long to respond, Deby; I’ve been away.
Honor was much discussed and aspired to but less practiced, it seems 🙂
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We’ve come a long way from cheating in swords fight to nuclear and biological weapons. Still I fail to see the point behind killing someone when it is determined that one will surely die. But I enjoyed the read. Thanks for the share. 😊
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I like your “big picture” outlook on this 😀
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Really interesting thoughts, especially when put in the context of storytelling, where authors have a chance to emphasize chivalry in a way that isn’t practical in real life. How realistic or moralizing you’re trying to be in the narrative sometimes has to be balanced with practicalities like you describe. Great post!
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Thank you! Yes, it all depends on the genre. Dark fantasy, for example, might be better suited to a cynical swordsman hero who cheats his way to victory than, say, a time-traveling romcom with a dashing knight in modern-day NY!
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