Pseudo-Hans Döbringer/Christian Trosclair In 2022

Here begins Master Liechtenauer's Art of Fencing with the Sword on Foot and on Horse, Bare and in Harness.

And before all material matters and views, you shall note and know that there is but one art of the sword and it was identified and worked out for possibly many hundred years. And this is the foundation and core of all of the arts of fencing.

And this is what Master Liechtenauer had acquired and formulated quite completely and correctly.

Not that he identified and worked it out himself, as was written before, rather he had traveled through many lands and through that sought out the legitimate and truthful art for the sake that he would truly experience and learn it.

And this art is earnest, complete and legitimate and it moves in the nearest and shortest way, simple and straight; just as if you had wanted to cut or thrust your opponent and you had bound a thread or cord to the point or edge of your sword and guided or pulled that very point or edge to the opponent's opening, then you would have cut or thrust according to the nearest and shortest and most decisive of all, as you would prefer to just deliver that.

This is because the legitimate fencing just mentioned will not have elegant and grandiose parries, nor wide, indirect fencing. With those, people choose to dither and delay themselves. As one finds according to many ungrounded masters that say they have uncovered and worked out some new art and understand the art of fencing better and more greatly, day by day.

But I would like to see one person that could conceive and perform just one application or one cut that does not come from Liechtenauer's art. They will often just only mix-up and pervert an application. In this, they give it a new name, each according to their own head. And they conceive of wide, indirect fencing and parrying, often doing two or three cuts in place of a single cut, just because they wish renown. They will be praised by the ignorant for their elegant parries and wide, indirect fencing as they fiendishly pose themselves and deliver wide and long cuts, tediously and cumbersomely. With those, they quite severely delay themselves and miss their targets and also provide solid openings with these because they have no measuredness in their fencing.

And anyway, this does not belong in earnest fencing, Though in particular I admit that through exercises and drills in school-fencing it might possibly be good for something.

But earnest fencing will proceed swiftly, simply and completely direct without any dithering nor delay as if a string or something like it determined the measure and trajectory.

When you want to cut or thrust whoever stands there before you, then truly no cut nor thrust backwards or to the side, nor any wide fencing nor multiple cuts helps you to possibly end it with them. With these, you dither and delay yourself so that you lose the chance to do so.

Rather, one must initiate their cut straight and directly to the person, to the head or to the body according to what is closest and surest only at the moment you are able to take and to get to them swiftly and quickly and preferably with one strike. For with four or six, you choose to dither and as a result the opponent approaches effortlessly.

This is because the Vorschlag is one great advantage of this fencing as you will hear hereafter in this text.

Therein Liechtenauer identifies just five cuts with other plays that are utilized in earnest fencing and teaches it according to the correct art, conducted straight and direct toward the closest and surest as simply as it can only derive and abandons all of the drumwork and newly invented cuts carried out by the ungrounded masters, which even still fundamentally derives from his art.

Also note this and know that one cannot speak or explain or write about fencing quite as simply and clearly as one can easily indicate and inform it by hand.

Therefore act on your judgement and extract the best of it and therein, exercise the bulk of that yourself in play which you think is the best in earnest.

Because practice is better than empty art. That is to say, practice is fully sufficient without art but art is not fully sufficient without practice.

Also know that a good fencer shall, ahead of all confrontations, command and clasp their sword certainly and surely with both hands between the hilt and the pommel. Because in this manner, they hold the sword much surer than when they grasp it by the pommel with one hand and it also strikes much harder and surer like this, when the pommel overturns itself and swings itself in accordance with the strike. For that strike arrives much harder than when one grasps the sword by the pommel. If someone yanks back their strike in this way by their pommel, they cannot possibly arrive so completely and so strongly, because the sword is just like a scale.

For if a sword is large and heavy, so must the pommel also be accordingly heavy, just like a scale.

Also know that when you fence with someone, so shall you fully pay attention to your steps and be sure in them just as if you shall stand upright upon a scale, stepping backwards or forwards according to necessity, suitably and appropriately, swiftly and quickly.

And your fencing shall completely proceed with good spirit and good demeanor or sense and without any fear as you will hear about hereafter.

You shall also have measuredness in your applications accordingly as it necessitates itself and you shall not step too wide, so that you may better adjust yourself to another's steps, done backwards or forwards according to that as it will necessitate itself.

Also the situation often necessitates two short steps for one long.

And often the situation necessitates that one must execute a little rush in with short steps and often that one must do it a good step or a spring.

And whatever you wish to sensibly conduct in play or in earnest, you should make that out of place and disordered in the eyes of the opponent so that they do not identify what you intend to conduct against them.

And then as soon as you arrive at the opponent and have their measure so that you think you will take and get to the opponent well in this, Then you shall boldly storm toward the opponent and swiftly and quickly descend upon their head or body. Hit or miss, you will have always won the Vorschlag which does not allow the opponent to come into action with anything as you will better hear hereafter in the common lore, etc.

One shall also always prefer to target the upper openings rather than the lower and go in over their hilt with cuts or with thrusts, boldly and quickly, because you meet with the opponent much better and further over the hilt than under it. And one is also much surer of all fencing in this way and one of the upper strikes is much better than one of the lowers. But if it so happens that you are nearer to the lower, then you must target that, as this often occurs.

Also know that you shall always come up on the right side of the opponent in your applications. Because you can better take the opponent in all confrontations of fencing or wrestling than directly in front of them.

And whoever both knows and delivers this play well, they are not a bad fencer.

Also know when you wish to fence earnestly, stick to a polished play, whichever one you wish that is completely natural right then and take it to the opponent earnestly and keep it in your mind and being, when you wish to do it, just as if you would say: "This I mean to truly conduct" and this shall and must have success with the help of God.

In this way, it cannot fail you at all. You do what you should whenever you boldly storm in and let fly with the Vorschlag, as one will often hear hereafter.

In all fencing
 Requisite is: the help of God of righteousness,
A straight and healthy body,
 A soundly manufactured sword, especially,
The Before, The After, Weak, Strong
 Indes, the word with which to distinguish by.
Cuts, thrusts, slices, pressing,
 Position, defending, shoves, feeling, disengaging,
Winding and hanging,
 Checks, sweeps, springs, grabbing, wrangling,
Speed, audacity,
 Prudence, astuteness and ingenuity
Acumen, premeditation, ability
 Measure, obscuration,
Practice and good spirit,
 Mobility, flexibility, good steps.
In these seven couplets
 The fundamental principles
And concerns
 And the entire matter
Of all of the art of fencing are labelled for you.
 You shall consider these correctly
As you will in fact
 And in detail hereafter
Hear and read
 Of each according to their ways.
Fencer, take heed of this
 So they will completely introduce to you both the art
Of the entire sword
 And good robust manly applications.

Motion, that beautiful word,
 Is the heart and crown of fencing
The entire matter
 Of fencing with all the concerns
And the sound components
 Of the fundamentals. These movements
Are labelled by name
 And will be introduced to you better hereafter.
However you then fence,
 You are to be subsequently well versed with it
And are to stay in motion
 And do not pause the moment you
Begin to fence
 Then you execute with authority
Continuously and decisively
 Boldly one after the other
In one fluid motion
 Without pause, without gaps
So that the opponent cannot come
 To strikes. Of this you take advantage
And the opponent harm.
 Because they cannot come away
From you unstruck.
 Just do this according to this advice
And according to this teaching
 That is written now
For I say to you truthfully,
 The opponent does not defend themselves without danger.
If you understand this
 They cannot come to blows with anything.

Here note that constant motion according to this art and lore arrests the opponent in the beginning, middle and end of all fencing. In this way you complete the beginning, middle and ending in one fluid motion without pause and without the hindrance of your adversary and you do not allow the opponent to come to blows with anything.

Because of this, the two words, The Before, The After, that is the Vorschlag and the Nachschlag, arise. Continuously and at one time as if left without any middle.