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Revision as of 13:52, 18 October 2022

Here begins Master Liechtenauer's art of fencing
Hie hebt sich an meister lichtenawers kunst des fechtens
Author(s) Unknown
Ascribed to Pseudo-Hans Döbringer
Date before 1495
Genre
Language Early New High German
Manuscript(s) MS 3227a
First Printed
English Edition
Żabiński, 2008
Translations

"Pseudo-Hans Döbringer" is the name given to an anonymous 15th century German fencing master.[1] At some point in the 15th century (or possibly the last decade of the 14th), he dictated a gloss on and expansion of the teachings of the grand master Johannes Liechtenauer, including the only biographical details of the master yet discovered; it is even speculated that he was personally acquainted with Liechtenauer, who was still alive at the time of the writing.[2] These comments were written into MS 3227a, a commonplace book, by an equally unknown scribe.

Textual History

Modern HEMA

The first transcription of the fencing sections in MS 3227a were completed in 2001 by Grzegorz Żabiński and posted on ARMA-PL. This was the foundation of the first translations.

In 2005, David Lindholm ("and friends") completed the first English translation of the long sword and posted in on the ARMA site. A second English translation, including all fencing sections this time, was completed in 2006 by Thomas Stoeppler; he intended to contribute it to a never-realized book with a complete translation of MS 3227a and thus never released it publicly until he donated it to Wiktenauer in 2013. The first Spanish translation of the long sword was also completed in 2006 by Francisco Uribe (based on Lindholm's English) and posted on esgrimahistorica.cl; the first French translation of the long sword was completed in 2007 by an anonymous author and posted on the ARDAMHE site.

In 2008, Żabiński's English translation of the long sword was published by Paladin Press, along with his transcription, as “Unarmored Longsword Combat by Master Liechtenauer via Priest Döbringer” in Masters of Medieval and Renaissance Martial Arts. 2008 also saw the first transcription of all fencing teachings in 3227a by Dierk Hagedorn for his site Hammaborg, and a German modernization of the long sword by Bertram Koch which was posted on Lupi-venaritis. Hagedorn's transcription formed the basis of Francesco Lanza's subsequent Italian translation, which he posted on a blog called “Hanko Döbringer in Italiano” from 2009-11.

A third, highly-experimental English translation was self-published by Jay Acutt in 2010 (under the pen name James Wallhausen) as Knightly Martial Arts: An Introduction to Medieval Combat Systems. The first Polish translation was authored by Maciej Hammer and submitted to the Uniwersytet Jagielloński as part of his master's thesis in 2015.

Since Stoeppler's translation was missing the sword and buckler and staff sections, they were filled in by Michael Chidester and Betsy Winslow (respectively) in 2013. In 2017, Christian Trosclair authored a fourth translation of the long sword (as part of his ongoing project to translate the entire Liechtenauer tradition) which he donated it to Wiktenauer.

Most recently, Michael Chidester released a fifth English translation as a free download on Wiktenauer. Then in 2021, revised versions of Dierk Hagedorn's transcription and Michael Chidester's translation were published by HEMA Bookshelf in 2021 as “The Foundation and Core of All the Arts of Fighting”: The Long Sword Gloss of GNM Manuscript 3227a.

Treatise

Additional Resources

  • Alderson, Keith. “Arts and Crafts of War: die Kunst des Schwerts in its Manuscript Context.” Can The Bones Come to Life? Insights from Reconstruction, Reenactment, and Re-creation 1: 24-29. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2014. ISBN 978-1-937439-13-2
  • Burkart, Eric. “The Autograph of an Erudite Martial Artist: A Close Reading of Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Hs. 3227a.” Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books. Transmission and Tradition of Martial Arts in Europe: 451-480. Ed. Daniel Jaquet, et al. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2016. ISBN 978-9004312418
  • Burkart, Eric (in German). “Informationsverarbeitung durch autographe Notizen: Die ältesten Aufzeichnungen zur Kampfkunst des Johannes Liechtenauer als Spuren einer Aneignung praktischen Wissens.” 2020. doi:10.26012/mittelalter-25866doi:10.1163/9789004324725_017
  • Chidester, Michael. The Long Sword Gloss of GNM Manuscript 3227a. Somerville, MA: HEMA Bookshelf, 2021. ISBN 978-1-953683-13-7
  • Chidester, Michael and Hagedorn, Dierk. “The Foundation and Core of All the Arts of Fighting”: The Long Sword Gloss of GNM Manuscript 3227a. Somerville, MA: HEMA Bookshelf, 2021. ISBN 978-1-953683-05-2
  • Dürer, Albrecht and Wassmannsdorff, Karl. Die Ringkunst des deutschen Mittelalters. Liepzig: Priber, 1870.
  • Hammer, Maciej. Tłumaczenie traktatu szermierczego zawartego w rękopisie Nürnberger Handschrift 3227a z wyszczególnieniem trudności zaistniałych podczas przekładu [unpublished thesis]. Uniwersytet Jagielloński Wydział Filologiczny, 2015.
  • Vodička, Ondřej. “Origin of the oldest German Fencing Manual Compilation (GNM Hs. 3227a).” Waffen- und Kostümkunde 61(1): 87-108, 2019.
  • Wallhausen, James. Knightly Martial Arts: An Introduction to Medieval Combat Systems. Self-published, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4457-3736-2
  • Welle, Rainer. “...und wisse das alle höbischeit kompt von deme ringen”. Der Ringkampf als adelige Kunst im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1993. ISBN 3-89085-755-8
  • Żabiński, Grzegorz. “Unarmored Longsword Combat by Master Liechtenauer via Priest Döbringer.” Masters of Medieval and Renaissance Martial Arts: 59-116. Ed. Jeffrey Hull. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-58160-668-3

References

  1. This name stems from the false assumption of many 20th century writers identifying him with Hans Döbringer. It has been argued that this name is inappropriate because the treatise attributed to pseudo-Döbringer (and also pseudo-Peter von Danzig) are not true pseudepigrapha—they are internally anonymous. However, many Ancient and Medieval pseudepigraphic texts were originally anonymous and were assigned their false attributions by later readers, and this is also the case with these two glosses in our fledgling tradition.
  2. The manuscript uniformly lacks the typical prayer for the dead when mentioning his name.
  3. Leichmeister is a pun that I can’t capture in English: leich means a dance or other rhythmic movement, and leiche means corpse. Leichmeister seem to be masters who teach fencing that is more like dancing than fighting, and get their students killed if they ever have to fight a duel. “Masters of the deadly dance” might capture the double meaning, but it makes them sound awesome which is hardly the intent. Alternatively, the pseudo-Danzig gloss makes reference to leichtfertigen schirmaister (“careless/frivolous fencing masters”), and leichmeister could be read as a shortening of that epithet.
  4. False masters
  5. Place of combat
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Leychmeistere
  7. Vorschlag
  8. Liechtenauer’s
  9. the steps or movements
  10. The silver "soon" was added later above the line
  11. This folio, containing two poems and a lesson on continuous movement, marks the beginning of the second quire. It’s made of parchment and is a remnant of the cover that the quire had when it was a separate booklet (prior to being bound into the manuscript). Since they’re written on the cover and no other quire had its cover written on, it’s possible that these writings were added after the rest of the text was written.
  12. This quatrain is similar to couplets 20a–20b.
  13. lit: entirely finished sword
  14. lit: verses
  15. Vor
  16. Nach
  17. Weich
  18. Hart
  19. Indes
  20. Stossen; Jeffrey Hull made the suggestion that Stossen might also refer to pushing someones body, either away or to the side. This is also a possible interpretation.
  21. This final quatrain is taken from the Record, fencing verses 40-41, in the four exposures, and 100-101, in the angles.
  22. Motus
  23. Note that ‘motus=movement’ doesn’t just mean movement in the physical sense, but also in the sense of shifting between mindsets, tactics, etc.
  24. 24.0 24.1 Latin
  25. The following part has proven as untranslatable so far and here I can only guess the meaning! "And this should fool him prior I even have to move." – I guess this is about the concealed quality of the strikes, but I am not sure.
  26. Frequens motus
  27. Nachschlag
  28. “That I laud” is an addition to serve the rhyme.
  29. Jens P. Kleinau has pointed out that in the first couplet, the second line is much longer than most in the Record, while in this second couplet, the version used by the Lew gloss only includes the first line (as does the Dresden version of Sigmund ain Ringeck's gloss) and the version appearing in H. Beringer and Hans Folz only includes the second line. This may be evidence of a ‘seam’ in the Record where two early proto-Records were merged together, each of which only mentioned loving god in the first couplet and had honoring women as the first line of the second couplet. See his 2020 blog post for more details.
  30. Messer is a term that we often associate with the iconic German machete-like knife taught by Johannes Lecküchner and others, but both historically and today it can refer to any kind of knife; mentions of it in the Record are usually interpreted as referring to daggers by the glossators.
  31. More literally “manly”, not “gallant”, but I’ve used ungendered language for the most part in this translation because I want readers to be able to more easily see themselves and their training partners in it regardless of their genders.
  32. Bederben and verderben could be read as synonyms in Early New High German (ENHG), both meaning “to destroy”, but that doesn’t make sense in context so we tend to read bederben in its Middle High German (MHG) definition of “to use”. H. Beringer uniquely has ‘bedurfen=need or make use of’, which reinforces this reading and could represent an earlier, less ambiguous phrasing.
  33. Jens-Peter sees a division here where the moralistic/inspirational address to the young knight ends and practical advice to a fencing student begins. I disagree, and think couplets 6–9 are still about mindset and morality in fighting.
  34. I will generally translate the verb hauwen as “to cut” since that’s the common parlance, but remember that there’s no connotation that the intent is to cleave anything or otherwise directly hit your opponent. The word is instead often used to describe a cutting motion that will set up further techniques (such as cutting in order to hit with a thrust).
  35. More literally “Charge in, let it hit or pass”.
  36. Couplet 6 isn’t directly glossed, but is mentioned by the author in their gloss of the common lesson.
  37. The Lew gloss replaces couplet 7 with a completely different one:
    So that your art and skill surely
     Will then be praised as masterly.
    Lew then omits couplet 8 entirely. This could be seen as part of the same ‘seam’ mentioned in the note on couplet 2.
  38. This word pair is translated in all kinds of ways, from the abstract/geometric (dimension and extension) to the colloquial (time and place, weighed and measured) to the fencing-specific (distance and reach). My translation goes with a more moralistic read, outlining two qualities the young knight needs to develop, both of which point to the cardinal virtue of temperance. This couplet isn’t directly glossed, but is mentioned by the author in their gloss of the common lesson; it’s also invoked and connected to teachings in sword section of the Augsburg Group manuscripts.
  39. Possibly: "If one cannot flee, then do something cunning, that is my advice."
  40. blossfechten
  41. I believe Döbringer is referring to strikes. But it might also be opponents
  42. Text is blacked out.
  43. The early glosses interpret this as an admonition against passively waiting for your opponent’s actions, but I phrased it in a way that it could also lead Andre Paurenfeyndt and Joachim Meyer to turn it into a teaching about footwork.
  44. Couplet 11 is glossed separately in Pseudo-Peter von Danzig/Lew while 12–14 are grouped together as a sestain, but Sigmund ain Ringeck (and Hans Medel, who copies his text here) combine all four couplets into a single octet. The interpretation is the same in both groupings.
  45. This line is contentious because it encapsulates two approaches to striking among students of Liechtenauer in the 21st century: it either advises you to approach close to your opponent and then cut so you’re sure of hitting their head or body with your edge, or it advises you to cut so that your sword approaches close to your opponent and you can hit their face or chest with your point; I hold with the latter interpretation, which seems most in line with the instructions in the Sigmund ain Ringeck, Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, and Lew (RDL) glosses.
  46. Schilt=shield’ is often treated as synonymous with the flanges that appear on some 15th-16th century fencing swords, but there’s no textual support for this (no, not even in Joachim Meyer’s treatises). ‘Shield’ instead seems to refer to the entire lower portion of the sword most often used for defense: the crossguard, the Strength of the blade (see below), and yes, also any flanges that appear near the shoulder of the sword.
  47. Couplet 12a is very close to couplete 35a, in the section on the cut of wrath.
  48. More literally “don’t avoid the skirmish”; German loves using double-negatives to emphasize a positive. Zecken is typically translated with a variety of words suggesting minor strikes (and Zeck also means “tick”, leading some to read it as something like “bug bites”), but the Lexer gives an alternative reading of “skirmish” or harassing actions. Rühren is “to stir up”, “to cause something to move”, and “to touch or hit” (including “to land a blow in fencing”); I summarize these senses as “harrying”. Zeckrühr doesn’t appear in Grimm or the Lexer, so I read it as a compound of these two words and render it as “harrying strikes” to express the idea of harassing during a skirmish. (Thanks to Christian Trosclair for digging up the zecken lemma.) The terms Zecken and Zeckrühr are not used again in the Record or in the glosses for any other section, so it’s hard to be sure what this term means. There are hints, though: Hans Medel’s gloss repeats this couplet when it covers the take-away (after couplet 28), the misser is described as rühren (see couplet 53), and two specific pieces are given in the gloss of this couplet in Pseudo-Peter von Danzig and Lew. Based on these examples, I surmise that it’s the term for actions that exit a bind and strike to a new exposure, creating a nice contrast between the skirmish and the ‘Krieg=war’ (mentioned in two places below, in which you remain in the bind and attack by turning your sword).
  49. More literally “When you want to drive something strongly, fence with your whole body”, but I went with this translation because one of my objectives was to make this stick in people’s brains, and “always fight with all your strength” has been part of our collective subconscious in Kunst des Fechtens ever it since was used by Sigmund ain Ringeck translators at the turn of the 21st century. Also, not much rhymes with ‘strength’.
  50. Schlecht often means “bad”, but it can also mean “straight, direct, simple”, and that makes more sense here (as Stephen Cheney pointed out), and really in most usages in this text.
  51. This quatrain is typically interpreted as referring to right- and left-handed fencers and translated accordingly, but the text just says “right” and “left” and it’s not clear whether it’s referring to handedness, which side of the body the sword is held on (regardless of handedness), or which foot is forward (thus echoing the first lesson, just as the fourth lesson—on Before and After—echoes the second lesson—on attacking to provoke a parry rather than waiting to parry the opponent’s attack). It would be odd indeed for Liechtenauer to make this one solitary mention of handedness when that subject is never addressed again, neither in his writings nor in the subsequent two centuries of writings based on his teachings.
  52. This line is the same as the first line of dueling couplet 62.
  53. Here the Record begins introducing what are sometimes called the ‘Five Words’: ‘Vor=Before’, ‘Nach=After’, ‘Stark/Stärke=Strong/Strength’, ‘Schwach/Schwäche=Weak/Weakness’, and ‘Indes=Within/Inside’. (There are two other words that are sometimes lumped in here, ‘Hart/Härte=Hard/Hardness’ and ‘Weich/Weiche=Soft/Softness’, though no one talks about Seven Words.) I generally capitalize these words, but in this translation I’ll leave them lowercase to avoid unnecessary reification.
  54. “You’ll rule the bind” is an addition to serve the rhyme, but it’s supported by the glosses.
  55. RDL read this as referring to the parts of the sword—the ‘Strength’ of the sword is the part closer to the hand and the ‘Weakness’ of the sword is part near the tip (perhaps specifically from the center of mass to the cross and from the center of percussion to the tip, as swordsmith Paul Champagne (God rest his soul) once opined.); in between is the ‘middle’, and this is where two other words, ‘Hardness’ and ‘Softness’, are felt. Conversely, the author of ms. 3227a doesn’t clearly distinguish these two sets of words and typically refers to things as being both “Hard and Strong” or “Soft and Weak” (perhaps owing to their love of hendiadys).
  56. The meaning of the word Indes changes significantly from MHG to ENHG. It may be translated “within” or “inside” in both languages, but in MHG, Indes was primarily a spatial adverb (i.e., within a place or location) and in ENHG it became primarily a temporal adverb (i.e., within a time or event). Liechtenauer’s Record seems to have been written in the midst of this transition and straddles both senses: the word ‘Within’ is used to describe actions the instant (time) when you have felt the pressure of the bind (place) and must choose a response. By the time of Joachim Meyer, this linguistic evolution was complete and this is perhaps what lead him to accuse masters who taught a spatial interpretation of Indes of conflating it with the Latin word Intus, which does indeed align closely with the MHG definition.
  57. Erschricken is often translated as “frighten”, but according to Grimm, it’s in the sense of a ‘jump-scare’ rather than a feeling of terror. This verse isn’t about cowardice or running away, but rather about panicking and doing something stupid when attacked (as Jessica Finley has pointed out).
  58. Couplet 20a is similar to couplet 57b, in the section on the crosswise cut, and dueling couplet 5b.
  59. This quatrain is taken from one of the poems in the introduction.
  60. Wechsler
  61. 61.0 61.1 61.2 61.3 Czucken
  62. 62.0 62.1 62.2 62.3 62.4 62.5 62.6 62.7 Indes
  63. 63.00 63.01 63.02 63.03 63.04 63.05 63.06 63.07 63.08 63.09 63.10 63.11 63.12 63.13 63.14 63.15 63.16 63.17 Winden
  64. Hawende
  65. Stechende
  66. Sneydende
  67. Abe und czutreten
  68. Umbeschreiten
  69. Springen
  70. Ort
  71. Sneiden
  72. 72.0 72.1 72.2 Gehilcze
  73. Klos
  74. Verse 9.
  75. the opponent
  76. Liechtenauer
  77. In front of the words “denne” and “her” there are oblique insertion marks, which indicate a reverse order – as shown here.
  78. Verse 17.
  79. Harnusche
  80. Blos
  81. Verse 6.
  82. Verses 40-41 (also 100-101).
  83. 83.0 83.1 83.2 83.3 83.4 83.5 Vorschlag
  84. 84.0 84.1 Abweisest or Abeleitest
  85. 85.0 85.1 85.2 Nachschlag
  86. The text beginning with this paragraph and going to the end of the section is written on an extra bifolium (double-page) inserted into the book late in the creation process.
  87. This paragraph is somewhat ambiguous about who is who, and some other translators interpret it as saying that *you* can always deliver a following strike faster than your opponent. This is an equally valid read language-wise, but I don't think it makes as much sense with the overall thrust of the teachings.
  88. Liechtenauer
  89. 89.00 89.01 89.02 89.03 89.04 89.05 89.06 89.07 89.08 89.09 89.10 89.11 89.12 89.13 89.14 Twerhaw
  90. 90.00 90.01 90.02 90.03 90.04 90.05 90.06 90.07 90.08 90.09 90.10 Twer
  91. Here the writing is cut off by manuscript trimming.
  92. 92.0 92.1 92.2 92.3 92.4 92.5 92.6 Wind
  93. his
  94. Veste
  95. Weich
  96. "On Interpretation", the second section of Aristotle's Organon. This, along with "Categories" (the first section), was the only work by Aristotle known to Western Europeans during most of the Middle Ages, and only through a 6th-century Latin translation by Boethius. These works nevertheless formed an important foundation of Scholasticism. By the time of Liechtenauer, though, Europeans had rediscovered many other writings of Aristotle surviving in the Middle East and they were widely available across Europe.
  97. This passage does not seem to appear in the Organon, but Kendra Brown discovered that it does match a passage from Problemata, another Aristotelian work which returned from the Middle East during the later Middle Ages, and specifically the Latin translation by Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274). For slightly more information and further references, see Renana Bartal (2014). "Repetition, Opposition, and Invention in an Illuminated Meditationes vitae Christi: Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 410." Gesta 53(2): 163. doi:10.1086/677347.
  98. conflicting
  99. pushes you aside
  100. Verse 78.
  101. Verse 99.
  102. Alternative interpretation: keep your blade on top of his.
  103. Verse 12.
  104. Limpf
  105. Masse
  106. Couplet 22 is omitted by the author; it’s also worded awkwardly (in German) and doesn’t rhyme. It’s possible that this was a late addition to the Record and perhaps even not authored by Liechtenauer.
  107. “Speed” is an addition to serve the rhyme.
  108. Krumm und twer is an expression meaning something like “to and fro” (per Jessica Finley). Likewise, the cut of wrath is described by both RDL and the author of ms. 3227a as a ‘schlect haw=straight cut’, and schlect und krumm is an expression meaning “straight and crooked” (per Christian Trosclair). But since this couplet is clearly designed to be mnemonic rather than a functional description, I devised something memorable.
  109. Schiller mit Scheitler is listed as one of the six ‘master cuts’ that the Brotherhood of St. Mark would test prospective masters on, but neither RDL nor the author of ms. 3227a make any effort to explain these two things in context with each other. Hans Medel offers a play that he labels that way, though, and Hans Talhoffer modifies couplet 62 in the cockeye to include a reference to the part (see below).
  110. Note that den alber der versazung is another one of the six ‘master cuts’ that the Brotherhood of St. Mark would test prospective masters on. The author also connected the foolish guard specifically to parrying in the section on guards below.
  111. Couplet 24 is strange: it can be read as describing the first five main pieces, but if that were the intent, we’d expect to see:
    Leger versetzt
     Nachreisen überlauff absetzt
    (which would even have the same meter). Instead, it says ‘Alber=poplar tree or foolish’ (see the note in the section on lairs) rather than Leger in the first line and ‘haw letzt=hinders cuts’ (or sometimes ‘haw setzt=set [aside?] the cut’ in other witnesses) rather than absetzt in the second. This might signify that it was manipulated to make it more memorable than a simple list would be, so I similarly tried to phrase it into a narrative sentence. (Lew is unique in that the Record quoted there does indeed have absetzt, but no extant copy of the Record has Leger instead of Alber.)
  112. I’ve tried to emphasize opposing pairs whenever they are apparent, even if the Record doesn’t call attention to them. ‘Stossen=push’ and ‘zucken=pull’ are such a pair; they might be translated even better as “shove” and “yank”, emphasizing the forcefulness of the action, but I hate both of those translations (not for any good reason, they’re just not part of my dialect so they sound unnatural to me) so I’m going with push and pull.
  113. 113.0 113.1 113.2 Alber
  114. 114.0 114.1 114.2 Vorsetzen
  115. Zuckt
  116. When the manuscript was being written, the scribe included small guide letters to tell the rubricator what large red initial letters to add. In this case, the rubricator was careless and changed the word Wer to Der.
  117. Werner Ueberschär has suggested that there may be a double-meaning in this verse: ohne Fahr would be “without danger” (rendered as “care not” here), but ohne Farr would be “without ox”, emphasizing that this technique is used instead of turning your sword into guard of the ox (which the next couplet describes).
  118. This line is the same as the second line of couplet 97, in the section on the angles.
  119. Some witnesses have far or var instead of vor, and the alternate rhymed version would be “‘Within’, and then drive after more”.
  120. Couplet 32 uses similar phrasing to 80, in the section on overrunning, and dueling couplet 36.
  121. The text actually names the three attacks again, but I have “which one of them” to avoid redundancy and make the text smoother.
  122. Werner Ueberschär has suggested that this couplet would make more sense if it appeared after the couplet about confounding the masters (35) rather than before, though I don’t see a reason for his complaint. The statement of the Record at the beginning of the Dresden manuscript moves couplet 35 before the one about turning (33), but it’s unique in making this change.
  123. Treffen=touch, meet, hit, contact, encounter, etc.’ can be ambiguous. It’s not talking about a conference with the masters, nor is it about hitting the masters with your sword; instead, when treffen is used in the Record, the glosses agree that it refers to one sword hitting another sword, and I try to make that explicit in this translation.
  124. Couplet 35 is very close to 90, in the section on pulling, and dueling couplet 63.
  125. Effen, translated “confound” here, can also mean “to imitate”, so this could alternatively be read as a statement about acting like a master. RDL frequently invoke the archetype of the ‘master’, which is a fencer who seeks to bind and turn (essentially the opposite of the ‘buffalo’ mentioned below), and this could be another reference to that. However, the other places where this construction is used are more clearly about causing trouble for the opponent, not imitating them.
  126. Couplet 35a is very close to couplet 12a, in the common lesson.
  127. This line is the same as the first line of couplet 12 in the common lesson.
  128. This line is similar to the second line of couplet 94d in the section on the slicing off.
  129. 129.0 129.1 129.2 129.3 129.4 129.5 129.6 129.7 Keren.
  130. Couplet 35d is very close to couplets 79b, in the section on the pursuit, and 85a, in the section on the setting aside, and dueling couplets 13a and 59.
  131. In Medieval art, the concept of ‘wrath’ is often represented as a man stabbing himself to show its self-destructive nature; the name of the ‘wrath cut’ may thus be meant to indicate that you are offering your point for a wrathful opponent to impale themselves upon (as Jessica Finley has pointed out). The text here can be read as indicating that this strike is meant to be used against a person in their anger and wrath (as Maciej Talaga has pointed out), which supports this interpretation. It’s also worth noting that Grimm states that Zorn began as a term for excitement in battle, not an expression of irritation or hatred.
  132. "Wisely" inferred from the summary
  133. Wrath strike
  134. Thrust exchange from the bind
  135. striking the wrist and arms
  136. point
  137. Strike from above
  138. Zornhaw
  139. or slide?
  140. Oberhaw
  141. Supplemented according to fol. 29v.
  142. Verse 27.
  143. strike from above
  144. strike from below
  145. the next sentence is unfinished
  146. The two words “hewe” and “ander” are interchanged in the manuscript, as indicated by corresponding insertion characters.
  147. At this point there is an ink stain which might hide an original “g” (which can only be seen indistinctly).
  148. 148.0 148.1 148.2 148.3 148.4 148.5 148.6 148.7 Wenden.
  149. Literally "half an ell"; the length of a Medieval ell varied by city and region, but is generally based on either the length someone's elbow to fingertips, or six times the width of someone's hand. I find the hand-breadth measure to be easier to visualize.
  150. first strike
  151. turning-off
  152. roughly 30 cm
  153. Vorreben?
  154. 154.0 154.1 154.2 154.3 Wenden
  155. 30–40cm
  156. Note that Medieval people generally wore their belts at the top of their waists, meaning at their navels or just below their ribs.
  157. Blossen
  158. Duplier
  159. Mutier
  160. "With your" and "their sword" are inserted over the deletions and seem intended to replace them. However, the deletions describe the typical teaching of the curved cut, whereas the insertions seem to represent a unique idea or teaching. For this reason, unlike other instances of deletion, both the original and the replacement text are translated here for comparison.
  161. to the side, apart, sideways
  162. 162.0 162.1 162.2 Krumphaw
  163. 163.0 163.1 163.2 163.3 163.4 163.5 Krum
  164. the other
  165. feint
  166. 166.0 166.1 Veller
  167. feint
  168. inverse strike
  169. feint
  170. Cut to the hands and then cut the throat
  171. The page is clipped. only 'cut' remains. This manuscript spells 'haupte' as 'cutpte'
  172. transversal strike
  173. from above; the high guard
  174. upper opening
  175. lower opening
  176. crossing strikes
  177. 177.0 177.1 177.2 Pflug
  178. Ochsen
  179. von dem tage
  180. "Hew" is inserted in the margin.
  181. Literally "for your neck"; in German, as in English, "neck" is a metaphor for one's life or survival, coming from popular execution methods targeting the neck (like hanging and beheading) as well as the windpipe or jugular vein being the preferred target of many predatory animals.
  182. 182.0 182.1 182.2 182.3 182.4 182.5 182.6 Abwenden.
  183. first strike
  184. i.e. for your life
  185. 185.0 185.1 185.2 185.3 185.4 Abwenden
  186. Twerhaw
  187. 187.0 187.1 187.2 Ochs
  188. Verwenden.
  189. Text ends here abruptly.
  190. The comment ends here and remains unfinished
  191. 191.0 191.1 191.2 191.3 191.4 Schilhaw
  192. 192.0 192.1 Schiler
  193. or a fool
  194. Wechsel
  195. 195.0 195.1 195.2 195.3 195.4 Schil
  196. probably the opponent’s right side, but it could be your own as well
  197. schilende
  198. a peasant, that is
  199. At first glance, this appears to be a poem of the author's own devising, but many of the verses are based on couplets from Liechtenauer's Recital (the ones written in grey ink); the couplets in grey italics are based on those of the Recital on short sword fencing. The lines in black text are original, but several of them appear elsewhere in this text and only three couplets are completely unique.
     This is a fine example of the Medieval practice of using the text of a mnemonic (like the Recital) to teach different, distinct lessons, through paraphrase and reorganization. Here, he seems to have stitched together fragments from those sources in order to present a new teaching: a general lesson on fencing from the draw.
     Because the verses are rarely in their exact normal form, the rhyming translation has not been used and instead they are translated more literally.
  200. In all other extant versions this is "point"
  201. Vorschlag
  202. Nachschlag
  203. Vertex strike
  204. crown displacement technique
  205. Scheitelhaw
  206. Scheitler
  207. 207.0 207.1 Kron
  208. Scheitelhaw
  209. Unlike other places where there are definitely passages originally forgotten and inserted with a caret, such is missing here. Thus, it can be conjectured that this is a later addition or comment.
  210. This proverb doesn't come from the Recital and doesn't appear in any other source in the Liechtenauer tradition.
  211. Guards
  212. Ox
  213. Plough
  214. fool
  215. high guard
  216. Liechtenauer
  217. Leger or Hut
  218. dueling yard
  219. Vier Leger
  220. 220.0 220.1 Vom Tag
  221. Leger or Huten
  222. parrying
  223. Absetzen
  224. Schranckhut
  225. Pforte
  226. Alber
  227. your opponent
  228. Hengen
  229. Nochreizen
  230. This last sentence was added after the rest of the text on the page, in the same ink and script as the text at the top of the page.
  231. High guard
  232. Langen Ort
  233. The text here runs into the destroyed corner of the page, and what remains is ut ptu͞it s. Based on 22v, I read this ut patuit s[upra].
  234. This verse is phrased similarly to 43.
  235. versetzen
  236. that is, when the opponent parries
  237. Illegible deleted character.
  238. Nochvolgen
  239. strike from above
  240. strike from below
  241. This verse is phrased similarly to both 35 and 90.
  242. This verse is phrased similarly to 14.
  243. adhering
  244. Nochreisen
  245. Ewsere nymme
  246. overreaching
  247. Oberlawfen
  248. setting aside
  249. Abesetczen
  250. changing through
  251. with your thrust
  252. Durchwechsel
  253. or with doing the changing through, do it at once
  254. pulling
  255. or perhaps strike at you
  256. Durchlawfen
  257. Rangen
  258. Vorkeren
  259. in this case inverting is also possible
  260. cutting off
  261. adhering
  262. Abschneiden
  263. alone?
  264. a possible meaning is do not waste time stepping when you cut, but do it as a stationary movement
  265. The gap between the verse and the explanation here, along with the lack of a gloss label (which is present in every other section with commentary), makes it questionable whether this text is intended to explain the verses on hand-pressing or to be a separate teaching.
  266. pressing the hands
  267. Hende drucken
  268. you catch the attack
  269. Verses 100-101 (also 40-41).
  270. Verse 17.
  271. hanging
  272. speaking window
  273. lower hanging
  274. upper hanging
  275. high strike and low strike
  276. speaking window
  277. skilled
  278. Hengen
  279. 279.0 279.1 Sprechfenster
  280. Ober
  281. away from his body since he is pushing yours
  282. In motu seist
  283. This is the only place in the treatise where verses from the Recital are presented out of order. Furthermore, verses 102-104 are omitted entirely, as is 109 (though 109 is itself a repetition of verse 77).
  284. This phrase is written in both Latin and German, so I left the Latin untranslated.
  285. Verses 40-41 and 100-101.
  286. marginal insertion. latin: dampno => damno => harm
  287. weak and strong
  288. Verses 8.
  289. Text cuts off here, and the rest of the page is blank.
  290. Latin passage follows; very difficult.
  291. Grzegorz Żabiński offers: ++ rape radices viole et mitte contare tibi hinssis debtem urgre et quocumque tetigeris suas operis
  292. Please note that there are only three methods described against the turning-out.
  293. Korrigiert aus »sin«.
  294. Alternate description follows, it hopefully should make the method clearer:
    If he holds you by the shoulders, and you grab his shoulders from the outside. Then you sling your right arm with the elbow over his left and below his right, and push downwards, so his right arm moves up. Take this arm over your head and secure the grip with your left hand behind your head; and then push against his chest with your right again. This will lead to a painful breaking lock.
  295. This is a partner exercise, similar to one I know in chinese shuai chiao
  296. Oder »slosse«? Unleserlich.