Why does Bastard Sword have a U in parry in 1 hand?

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Pity that that does not describe the swords used in 'German longsword' fighting, which were thrusting as much as cutting weapons, and might be used in one hand instead of two. Therefore, if the above definition is definitive, the German longsword users were not, in fact, using longswords.

Wrong. "The long sword family includes the claymore, the spandon, the espadon, the zweyhander, and the flamberge""

Zweyhander is the way the author spelled Zweihänder which is a German longsword.

More over the German School of Fencing does appear in the book (pg 270) and begins with "The German school of fencing for many years favored the two handed sword the schwerdt. This weapon was taught as a favored sword from 1480 until 1570 by the reigning fencing association of the time the Marxbruder" and seems to be what many people mistakenly call "German longsword" fighting.

In fact, Castle (the reference used for the Long Sword entry) states "The word Schwerdt in Germany was restricted to the heavier kind of sword, such as was called Long Sword or the old-fashioned sword, m England

In reality, this fighting style wasn't limited to just the longsword (as implied by the misname) but included polearms, daggers, messers (with or without a buckler), and the staff as well.

I should point out that what people calls a "great sword" overlaps with the high end of the longsword category but the really large ones used skills more akin to polearm and staff then two-handed sword for the very simple reason the thing was too big to be used as a sword.