A (very brief and brisk) history of weapons and combatants
In portraying characters of other times, we run into the problem of how to recreate the style of the period. Not only to breathe life into the characters we portray, but also to convince the audience that they are witnessing a slice of history come to life. But too often, the actor views this as simply adding on mannerisms that he has been told are right for the time, without understanding why the character would have moved or even stood in a certain way.
So in addition to having the right costume for the character, the actor needs to have some understanding of the way that people viewed themselves and the world they lived in. The study of how the external aspects of a people develop out of the historic underpinnings in which they lived is called period style. For the purpose of this book, I’m centering our focus on those elements relating to how a society demonstrates violent actions.