According to New York magazine contributor Hana Michels, a sword guy is “a man who collects swords, values swords, or has ever used the phrase ‘respect the blade.'” She may be right, but I—who am not a man—have plenty of the symptoms myself. Childhood obsession with any novel set in the Victorian era? Check. Been to more than a couple of Ren Faires (at least one in costume)? Check. Overwhelming desire to point a sword at someone and say: “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Checkmate.
Despite Michels’s definition, a love of cold, hard steel knows no gender, as I found out last weekend at Swordsquatch, an annual festival of historical European martial arts. The basic idea is reflected in the festival’s motto: “Make friends, then fight them!”