Svjatoslav I, Kniea Z Rodu Rurikovcov S Perunovou Sekerkou V Pozad, Jedna Z Hlavnch Postv Srie BohatierAutor

Svjatoslav I, knieža z rodu Rurikovcov s Perunovou sekerkou v pozadí, jedna z hlavných postáv série Bohatier Autor - Martina "Agama" Zrostlíková

Koščej: Slušný plán. No mohli by sme tam zapracovať aj niektoré z nápadov, ktoré som pred chvíľou navrhoval.

Iľja: To neboli nápady, ale samoúčelné násilné činy.

Long Live HEMA!

And various others...

Actually the main reason I'm still on social media is to talk about HEMA, so I hope no one ever thinks twice about doing that with me. If you're interested but don't know where to start, this is a great resource: https://www.hemaalliance.com/club-finders

And there were even corsets made for sport activities and corsets made for summer (more of skeletal design with thin matterial, rather than complete layered lining), but that would be nineteenth century upper mid and upper class. Most people, esp. pre-industrial revolution, would be happy they've got one in the first place. And beside back and posture in general it also nicely supported breasts - less strain on shoulders than bra. And why, yes, it does shape one's figure, sure and there's nothing anti-feministic about having some ideal of beauty. If anything this was less invasive than surgeries or dieting. As for skirts... I would add that beside narrow long ones a wearer could run into a problem with number of undergarments used for the sake of creating volume. I had a reenactor tell me, her gothic costume slowed her down somewhat. Then there is that time in la belle epoque, when fashionable shape required increasing amount of underskirts (and even led to a small movement of short skirt + wide pants (named after Amelia Bloomer)) until crinoline was invented. Which would concern upper mid and upper classes, but it could also explain part of that impracticality myth. Like yeah, running in ten voluptous petticoats instead of one or two simple ones ain't gonna be the most comfortable experience. That said, when it comes to petticoats and outter skirts, they allowed for lotsa space in pockets, which actually is practical for carrying around all sorts of things. When it comes to pants, there is sense of victory in winning over crossdressing bans and un-femininity taboo. But it is stupid to throw skirt away altogether just because at some point females in trousers were frowned upon.

Feminist fantasy is funny sometimes in how much it wants to shit on femininity for no goddamned reason. Like the whole “skirts are tools of the patriarchy made to cripple women into immobility, breeches are much better” thing.

(Let’s get it straight: Most societies over history have defaulted to skirts for everyone because you don’t have to take anything off to relieve yourself, you just have to squat down or lift your skirts and go. The main advantage of bifurcated garments is they make it easier to ride horses. But Western men wear pants so women wearing pants has become ~the universal symbol of gender equality~)

The book I’m reading literally just had its medievalesque heroine declare that peasant women wear breeches to work in the field because “You can’t swing a scythe in a skirt!”

Hm yes story checks out

peasant women definitely never did farm labour in skirts

skirts definitely mean you’re weak and fragile and can’t accomplish anything

skirts are definitely bad and will keep you from truly living life

no skirts for anyone, that’s definitely the moral of the story here

And well, I liked books even before that. There was Dragon Rider (Cornelia Funke), Fairy Treasure (Gwyneth Reeves), Emily Windsnap series (Liz Kessler), The Three Investigators (Robert Arthur Jr), Grécke báje a povesti (Eduard Petiška) and some other such collections, Jacqueline Willson's books, some human-animal friendship stuff... Lotsa things, lotsa. But I don't think it reached obsession level. And by the grace of all gods and demons, I wish I could say LOTR, but I watched that one and I got my hands on the books only after those listed above (had them lent to me), so I think it doesn't count. Somewhere there on later date there were also Pterry's Discworld books (line between hilarious and biting is thinner than the edge of DEATH's scythe) and Funke's Inkworld series (from book appreciation to fantasy italian medieval aesthetic like fine wine) and Michael Scott's Nicholas Flamel series (wild mashup of world's mythologies) and Card's Enderverse (brains and heart in a symphonic orchestra of strategizing and ethics and psychology and various scifi concepts) and fandom world opened to me with ASOIAF and icefire.cz web.

Hey, what about actual research papers and monographies? They tend to be more about slavic in general or eastern area, but you can come across specifically western topics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440321000030?fbclid=IwAR03XfY2LE7EwlrjaD2rY1YGyhxNgfetmfFXRJb6qp_p-UzYweR2NovR79k Don't underestimate archeology. Nor linguistics and comparative methods. Also if you know slovak language... Lumyd is nice popularization web - https://lumyd.eu/

Which makes me wonder how much of local research and publishing gets translated for people abroad...

your options for trying to read anything about prechristian (western) slavic culture really are like

wikipedia (only vaguely sourced)

a website that's antivax modern "witches" at best, fascist conspiracy theorists at worst

texts from the 1800s/1900s heavily influenced by panslavism and conflating russian culture with all other slavs

source: trust me bro (ranging anywhere from baby name websites, lifestyle blogs, or chronicles by medieval monks who filled in the blanks in sources by simply making shit up)