Introduction

My name is Konnát Árpád (in Hungarian name order, the family names comes first), I am 25 years old. I live in Kovászna, Transylvania, nowadays Covasna in  Romania. Kovászna historically is a part of Háromszék county in Szeklerland, so by nationality I am Szekler-Hungarian. I study at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, I learn archaeology. My main sphere is age of migrations, while my secondary sphere is Medieval ages. I wrote my thesis on bachelor class about the artefacts of archery from the two of the biggest Avar cemeteries in the Carpathian basin, the Budakalász and the Zamárdi sites. I am interested in history, especially in military history since my early childhood. Even when I was very young I made wooden swords, rifles and bows and we organized huge battles with other pupils from our street. I made my first public presentation about military history when I was 14, at the memorial place near the possible place battle of Sajó river in 1241. When I graduated at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, I had a crush in our archaeology class, who was a military reenactor in those ages. Once we have talked about sabers, and she added that I may know the theme by books, but as I do not fence practically my opinion is not very relevant. That hurt my soul so badly, that even on the same day I have started to look for some historical fencing team. Then I met dr Hidán Csaba's Golden Saber historical fencing school- and my life has changed. I already know him from Kőrösi Csoma Sándor scientific conference from Kovászna, but from now on, he became one of my very best teacher and fencing master, a close friend and almost as an adopted older brother. Almost everything that I am gonna publish on this blog is taught by him. I took part weekly basis on the trainings of Golden Saber for three and a half year. Now I am member of a relatively new, but rather developing and constructive Hungarian reenactor group, Altin Elma. That means Golden Apple in English, and we impersonate Müstahfiz garrison soldiers from Turkish border fortresses in the Carpathian basin from the 16-17th centuries. So all in all these are my experiences on theoretical and practical ways BUT I am neither the cleverest student, neither the best warrior. I don't know any Steppe language, I know only Hungarian, Romanian, English and Russian so I have not access to Turkish, Mongol etc literature. All in all, I may miss and be incorrect too, in these potential cases I am really grateful if a more experienced and trained reader helps me with critics. As you will see, in vain I have a C1 level English exam, I will make spelling mistakes, mainly because the sentence word order appears in my head conform Hungarian spelling rules and I translate usually directly, but as soon as I hope that the bigger majority of you are not born Englishmen neither, in usual terms my English will be understandable. Shortly this is me, but in long terms I plan to pick other writers as this is a very huge theme, then they will also introduce themselves. Lets start.

The official Altin Elma facebook page (in Hungarian, English and Turkish): https://www.facebook.com/AltinElmaEgyesulet

The official Golden Saber site (in Hungarian only): http://www.aranyszablya.hu/

The official Golden Saber facebook page (In Hungarian and English too): https://www.facebook.com/aranyszablya

The official Golden Saber Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAWMuxuw8snfA_Lun97amfw/featured