NASHUA — Wondering where to get your fix of knights and sword fights now that winter has come to season six of “Game of Thrones?”
You could do worse than watch — or, if you dare, join — men and women who duke it out with real swords and real axes, clad in real armor.
That is the combat they train for at The Knights Hall, a small gym decked out in medieval paintings, tapestries, and coats of arms, nestled in a converted shoe factory in Nashua. There, a small band of enthusiasts runs through a grueling workout they call KnightFit, then competes in the medieval martial art of whacking opponents into submission the way they did in tournaments in the 14th, 15th, and early 16th centuries..
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Their sport, armored medieval combat, is no Renaissance fair, live-action role play. It also puts to lie the battles one sees on “Game of Thrones” and the “Lord of the Rings” movies, in which lithesome swordsmen twirl their weapons like batons, dancing and slashing with choreographed precision as they cut apart less-skilled opponents and dodge the strikes of more accomplished foes.
The weapons the combatants of The Knights Hall wield are real, carefully crafted to replicate the arming swords, axes, dussacks, falchions and faussarts wielded by knights of the late Middle Ages. Though dulled to prevent bloodshed, the swords and axes can lop off unprotected limbs if swung with enough force, and produce sparks when they strike cold steel.
The modern combatants also prevent injury the way medieval knights did: by donning suits of armor that can weigh as much as 85 pounds, as well as helmets with modern padding specially designed to prevent concussions, a must when a knight is walloped in the head by a 4½-pound headman’s ax.
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“This is a rough sport — it’s not for the squeamish. There is blood, there is sweat, there is vomit,” said Jaye T. Brooks Sr., 50, a former project manager at a technology company and founder of The Knights Hall. “We teach full-contact medieval martial arts in full armor with real weapons and train people to be fit enough to conduct that type of combat. We are a different breed.”
Brooks, a Middle Ages buff who competed for 30 years in medieval tournament-style fighting that uses wooden weapons, switched to armored steel in 2011 after hearing about competitions in Europe. He began training fighters at The Knights Hall, using medieval texts and modern martial arts techniques to learn and teach the moves. In 2012, he cofounded the Armored Combat League, which is divided into 10 regional teams across the country, each with its own chapters. The northeast regional team, the Northeast Executioners, is made up of the best fighters from its two chapters, the Nashua Knightmares and the Boston Dark Knights, who hold regular clashes (the next events are July 9 and 16; The Knights Hall is also accepting anyone who wants to get their knight fix by getting knight fit; a membership costs $100 a month.)
The very best Armored Combat League fighters are selected for the USA Knights, who represent the country in international tournaments .
Though relative newcomers to the sport, the USA Knights came home with medals in five of the nine events in which they competed at the 2016 world championship. They took gold in the women’s polearm competition, and also won the men’s 16-on-16 competition, a melee in which armored combatants pound each other until no one is left standing on one of the teams. There are rules — there’s no stabbing, and no striking the feet or the back of the knees.
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But other than that, pretty much anything goes.
“You’re allowed to push, pull, kick, push from behind — everything you’re not allowed to do in hockey,” Brookes said as he showed Globe reporters around The Knights Hall on a recent Tuesday night. “I hook people, yank them, pull them forward, and knock into them. It’s demoralizing.”
Because of the armor, Brooks said, the worst injuries have been occasional broken bones.
“Our armor standards are quite high as well, so we mitigate most injuries,” he said. One time at a tournament in Quebec he did knock out a guy in a five-on-five competition. “His armor was substandard. We won that day.”
Some of the 60 men and women who train at The Knights Hall are medieval buffs. That would include Brooks’s son, Catlin, 28, who is captain of the Northeast Executioners, and who “always wanted to be a knight.” He also has knight in his blood; his father and mother, Jana, met at a tournament 30 years ago.
“She slipped her favor into my belt before I went in to fight,” Brooks said. “Then I kissed her hand after the fight, and now we have children and all that stuff.”
Many in this knight’s club are MMA fighters, Spartan race runners, and cross-fit trainers who like armored steel combat for the fitness, adrenaline, combat, and camaraderie. They buy their own armor, which can cost up to $3,500. Those would include Brian Juranty, 26, of Allenstown, N.H., and Evan Ringo, 29, of Nashua, who faced off in an armored demonstration of points fighting, the goal of which is to strike the opponent, kind of like saber fighting in fencing.
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One thing these knights all do is express general contempt for the swordplay seen on screen. Ringo voiced one gripe: “Real fights are brutal, not flashy.”
“ ‘Game of Thrones’ is an interesting story, the politics are great,” Catlin added. “But the fighting is not realistic.”
To demonstrate, his father held up two longswords and tried to twirl them, the way a character does in a notable fight in season six.
“Swinging two swords like that — it’s not going to do much to anybody,” he said.
David Filipov can be reached at David.Filipov@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidfilipov. Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.