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Difference between revisions of "Sigmund ain Ringeck"

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| <p>[1] {{red|b=1|Here begins the explanation of the epitome.}}</p>
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| <p>[1] {{red|b=1|Here begins the interpretation of the record}}</p>
  
<p>In which lies recorded the knightly art of the longsword, composed and formed by Johannes Liechtenauer, who was a great master in the art, may God be merciful to him. He wrote the markverses with deep and hidden words, so that the art would not be widely known. And these deep and hidden words have been by Master Sigmund ain Ringeck, fencing master to the highborn prince and noble Lord Albrecht, Count Palatine of Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, recorded and explained in this little book which now follows, so that every fighter who otherwise can fight, shall be able to take these and understand them.</p>
+
<p>In this, the knightly art of the long sword lay written; that Johannes Liechtenauer, who was a great master in the art, composed and created. By the grace of god he had let the record be written with obscure and disguised words, therefore the art shall not become common. And Master Sigmund ein Ringeck, fencing master to the highborn prince and noble Lord Albrecht, Pfalzgraf of Rhein and Herzog of Bavaria had these same obscure and disguised words glossed and interpreted as lay written and pictured<ref>The phrase "and pictured" is omitted from the Dresden.</ref> here in this little book, so that any one fencer that can otherwise fight may well go through and understand.</p>
 
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{{paget|Page:MS Dresd.C.487|010v|png|lbl=10v|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 011r.png|1|lbl=11r|p=1}}
 
{{paget|Page:MS Dresd.C.487|010v|png|lbl=10v|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 011r.png|1|lbl=11r|p=1}}
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| [[File:MS E.1939.65.341 035r.jpg|200px|center]]
 
| [[File:MS E.1939.65.341 035r.jpg|200px|center]]
| <p>[2] {{red|b=1|Foreword to the epitome.}}</p>
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| <p>[2] {{red|b=1|The foreword of the record}}</p>
  
 
{| class="zettel"
 
{| class="zettel"
| <poem><small>1</small>
+
| <p><small>1</small><br/><br/><small>2</small><br/><br/><small>3</small><br/><br/><small>4</small><br/><br/><small>5</small><br/><br/><small>6</small><br/><br/><small>7</small><br/><br/><small>8</small><br/><br/></p>
 
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| <p>Young knight, learn;<br/>&emsp;Love god; ever honor women<br/>Thus increase your honor.<br/>&emsp;Practice chivalry and learn<ref name="line omitted">Line is omitted from the Dresden.</ref><br/>Art that decorates you<br/>&emsp;[and] In combat exalts with honor<br/>Grasp easy<ref>ringe adv. easy, light, carefree manner</ref>, well<br/>&emsp;Lance, spear, sword and messer.<br/>Valiantly sundering<br/>&emsp;and make useless in others' hands<ref name="line omitted"/><br/>Hew-down<ref>darhauen: To chop down, to fell</ref> hard therein.<br/>&emsp;Rush in, hit or let pass<br/>Thus the wise envy him,<br/>&emsp;For he seeks virtues.<br/>Hold yourself to this:<br/>&emsp;All art has reach and measure</p>
<small>2</small>
 
 
 
<small>3</small>
 
 
 
<small>4</small>
 
 
 
<small>5</small>
 
 
 
<small>6</small>
 
 
 
<small>7</small>
 
 
 
<small>8</small>
 
&nbsp;</poem>
 
| <poem>Young knight, learn
 
:to always honour women, and love God,
 
so increase your honour.
 
:Practice chivalry and learn
 
arts which improve you
 
:and in the battle bring honour.
 
Wrestle well, understand the lance,  
 
:spear and sword and use the knife
 
like a man.
 
 
 
Cut fiercely!
 
:Storm forwards: Hit or miss;
 
The well-experienced hate that
 
:which seeks to cut them.
 
This you shall understand:
 
:all arts have length and measure.</poem>
 
 
|}
 
|}
 
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| <p>[3] {{red|b=1|Many good general lessons about the longsword.}}</p><br/>
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| <p>[3] {{red|b=1|This is the text of many good common lessons of the long sword}}</p>
 
{| class="zettel"
 
{| class="zettel"
| <poem><small>9</small>
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| <p><small>9</small><br/><br/><small>10</small><br/><br/></p>
 
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| <p>If you wish to show art,<br/>&emsp;Take yourself left and right with cutting<br/>And left with right<br/>&emsp;Is what you strongly desire to fence</p>
<small>10</small>
 
&nbsp;</poem>
 
| <poem>If you would like to see skill,
 
:see that you go to the left then right with the cuts.
 
And left with right,
 
:if you want to fight strongly.</poem>
 
 
|}
 
|}
<p>{{red|Glosa}} This is the longsword's first lesson; that you shall learn to cut properly from both sides, so that you can fight strongly and correctly. When you want to cut from the right side, stand with your left foot forwards; and when you want to cut from the left side, stand with your right foot forwards. If you cut with an Oberhau from the right side, follow after the cut with your right foot. If you do not do this then the cut is poor and insincere, because your right side lingers behind. Then the cut becomes too short and cannot follow the correct arc down towards the other side, in front of the left foot.</p>
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<p>{{red|Note the gloss.}} This is the first lesson of the long sword: That you shall learn to make<ref>lit: cut the cuts</ref> the cuts properly from both sides, that is, if you otherwise wish to fence strongly and correctly. Understand it thusly: When you wish to cut from the right side, so see that your right foot stands forward. If you then cut the over-cut from the right side, so follow-after the cut with the right foot. If you do not do that, then the cut is false and incorrect, because your right foot remains there behind. Therefore the cut is too short and may not reach its correct path below to the correct other side in front of the left foot.</p>
 
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{{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 011v.png|2|lbl=-|p=1}} {{paget|Page:MS Dresd.C.487|012r|png|lbl=12r|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 012v.png|1|lbl=12v|p=1}}
 
{{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 011v.png|2|lbl=-|p=1}} {{paget|Page:MS Dresd.C.487|012r|png|lbl=12r|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 012v.png|1|lbl=12v|p=1}}
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| <p>Similarly the cut is incorrect if you strike from the left side and do not follow after the cut with the left foot. So mark well, from which side you strike, that the foot follows after the cut. In this manner you can perform all of your techniques correctly and with strength. And in the same way should all the other cuts be performed.</p>
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| <p>The same when you cut from the left side and [you] do not follow-after the cut with the left foot. Thus the cut is also false. Therefore note from whichever side you cut, that you follow-after with the same foot, so you may execute all your plays with strength and all other cuts shall be hewn thusly as well.</p>
 
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{{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 012v.png|2|lbl=-|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 013r.png|1|lbl=13r|p=1}}
 
{{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 012v.png|2|lbl=-|p=1}} {{section|Page:MS Dresd.C.487 013r.png|1|lbl=13r|p=1}}
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| <p>[4] {{red|b=1|A further lesson.}}</p>
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| <p>[4] {{red|b=1|Again, the text about a lesson}}</p>
 
{| class="zettel"
 
{| class="zettel"
| <poem><small>11</small>
+
| <p><small>11</small><br/><br/><small>12</small><br/><br/><small>13</small><br/><br/><small>14</small><br/><br/></p>
 
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| <p>Whoever goes after cuts,
<small>12</small>
+
They permit their art little joy
 
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Hew nearing whatever you wish
<small>13</small>
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No change comes in your shield
 
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To the head, to the body
<small>14</small>
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Do not omit the harassing-strikes<ref>D. ''Zeck'': Tick. R. ''Zeckruhr'': Insect bites</ref>
&nbsp;</poem>
+
With the entire body fence
| <poem>He who goes after the cut,
+
Whatever you desire to execute strongly<ref>Possibly: `strongly desire to execute`</ref></p>
:receives little joy from his skills.
 
Cut closely, then do what you want
 
:so he cannot to change-through your defence.
 
Strike to the head, to the body,
 
:do not refrain from swift strikes.
 
Fence with the whole body
 
:if you want do this with strength.</poem>
 
 
|}
 
|}
 
<p>{{red|Glosa}} When you come against him in Zufechten you shall not await his attack, and neither shall you wait to see what he is thinking about doing to you. All fencers who are hesitant and wait for the incoming attack, and do nothing other than to ward it away, they gain very little joy from this sort of practice because they are often beaten.</p>
 
<p>{{red|Glosa}} When you come against him in Zufechten you shall not await his attack, and neither shall you wait to see what he is thinking about doing to you. All fencers who are hesitant and wait for the incoming attack, and do nothing other than to ward it away, they gain very little joy from this sort of practice because they are often beaten.</p>

Revision as of 01:35, 18 April 2015

Sigmund Schining ein Ringeck
Born date of birth unknown
Died before 1470
Occupation Fencing master
Nationality German
Patron Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria
Movement Society of Liechtenauer
Influences Johannes Liechtenauer
Influenced
Genres Fencing manual
Language Early New High German
Archetype(s) Hypothetical
Manuscript(s)
First printed
english edition
Tobler, 2001
Concordance by Michael Chidester
Translations

Sigmund Schining ein Ringeck (Sigmund ain Ringeck, Sigmund Amring, Sigmund Einring, Sigmund Schining) was a 14th or 15th century German fencing master. While the meaning of the surname "Schining" is uncertain, the suffix "ain Ringeck" may indicate that he came from the Rhineland region of south-eastern Germany. He is named in the text as Schirmaister to Albrecht, Count Palatine of Rhine and Duke of Bavaria. Other than this, the only thing that can be determined about his life is that his renown as a master was sufficient for Paulus Kal to include him on his memorial to the deceased masters of the Society of Liechtenauer in 1470.[1]

The identity of Ringeck's patron remains unclear, as four men named Albrecht held the title during the fifteenth century. If it is Albrecht I, who reigned from 1353 to 1404, this would signify that Ringeck was likely a direct associate or student of the grand master Johannes Liechtenauer. However, it may just as easily have been Albrecht III, who carried the title from 1438 to 1460, making Ringeck potentially a second-generation master carrying on the tradition.[2] Albrecht IV claimed the title in 1460 and thus also could have been Ringeck's patron; this seems somewhat less likely in light of Ringeck's apparent death within that same decade, meaning the master would have had to have penned his treatise in the final few years of his life. In its favor, however, is the fact that Albrecht IV lived until 1508 and so both the Dresden and Glasgow versions of the text were likely created during his reign.

Ringeck is often erroneously credited as the author of the MS Dresd.C.487. While Ringeck was the author of one of the core texts, a complete gloss of Liechtenauer's Recital on unarmored longsword fencing, and perhaps also the anonymous glosses of his armored and mounted fencing, the manuscript contains an assortment of treatises by several different masters in the tradition (not just Ringeck), and it is currently thought to have been composed in the early 16th century[3] (well after the master's lifetime). Regardless, the fact that he authored one of the few glosses of Liechtenauer's verse makes Ringeck one of the most important masters of the 15th century.

While it was not duplicated nearly as often as the more famous gloss of Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, Ringeck's work nevertheless seems to have had a lasting influence. Not only was it reproduced by Joachim Meÿer in his final manuscript (left unifinished at his death in 1571), but in 1539 Hans Medel von Salzburg took it upon himself to create an update and revision of Ringeck's Bloßfechten gloss, integrating his own commentary in many places.

Treatise

Additional Resources

  • Lindholm, David and Svard, Peter. Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1-58160-410-8
  • Lindholm, David and Svard, Peter. Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Arts of Combat: Sword-and-Buckler Fighting, Wrestling, and Fighting in Armor. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 2006. ISBN 978-1-58160-499-3
  • Tobler, Christian Henry. Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship. Highland Village, TX: Chivalry Bookshelf, 2001. ISBN 1-891448-07-2
  • Żabiński, Grzegorz. The Longsword Teachings of Master Liechtenauer. The Early Sixteenth Century Swordsmanship Comments in the "Goliath" Manuscript. Poland: Adam Marshall, 2010. ISBN 978-83-7611-662-4

References

  1. Paulus Kal. Untitled [manuscript]. Cgm 1507. Munich, Germany: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 1470.
  2. Christian Henry Tobler. "Chicken and Eggs: Which Master Came First?" In Saint George's Name: An Anthology of Medieval German Fighting Arts. Wheaton, IL: Freelance Academy Press, 2010.
  3. Werner J. Hoffmann. "Dresden, Landesbibl., Mscr. C 487". Handschriftencensus. Eine Bestandsaufnahme der handschriftlichen Überlieferung deutschsprachiger Texte des Mittelalters. August, 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  4. The phrase "and pictured" is omitted from the Dresden.
  5. Corrected from »am«.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Line is omitted from the Dresden.
  7. ringe adv. easy, light, carefree manner
  8. darhauen: To chop down, to fell
  9. lit: cut the cuts
  10. D. Zeck: Tick. R. Zeckruhr: Insect bites
  11. Possibly: `strongly desire to execute`
  12. "Komp" added below the line in a different hand.
  13. Corrected from »seiner«.
  14. Corrected from »dem«.
  15. Corrected from »dim«.
  16. Corrected from »rechtem«.
  17. Corrected from »sinem«.
  18. The word »es« is almost illegible.
  19. Corrected from »ausgerattñ«.
  20. Corrected from »dem«.
  21. Corrected from »dim«.
  22. Corrected from »dinem«.