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Johannes Liechtenauer/Michael Chidester LS 2025

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The Record[1] of the chivalric art of fighting, which was composed and created by Johannes Liechtenauer (God rest his soul), grand master of the art, begins here: first with the extended sword,[2] then with the lance and sword on horseback and with the retracted sword in the duel. Since the art belongs to princes, lords, knights, and soldiers, and they should learn and know it, he allowed this art to be written down. But because of frivolous fencing masters[3] who would trivialize the art, it's written in obscure and cryptic words (as you'll find written below) so that not just anyone will learn or understand it, and that way those masters can't make his art common or open among people who won't treat it with proper respect.

[4][5]

1 Young knight, learn first: have love for god,
 And honor women—that I laud.
2 So that your honor great may grow,
 Practice chivalry and know[6]
3 Arts that adorn you well in play
 And bring you fame in war some day.[7]
4 Gain wrestling's artful holds with might;
 With lance, spear, sword, and knife do fight,[8]




5 And wield them all with gallant hand,[9]
 So that against you none may stand.[10][11]


6 Cut here and there and close with this;
 Charge through and you will hit or miss.[12]
7 The wise ones hate and will disdain
 All those who praise themselves in vain;
8 So grasp when all is said and done:
 All art needs measure, moderation.[13]



9 If you would bring the art to light,
 See left advance and strike with right,
10 For you will find that left with right
 Is how you may most strongly fight.
11 Who chases after blow and bind,
 Will little joy in this art find.
12 Cut close to them; your will revealed,
 No changer comes to breach your shield;
13 Toward head and body, forth you race,
 The skirmish you should then embrace.
14 And always fight with all your strength,
 Your body tight at any length.
14a
HTKo

15 A simple rule you should not slight:
 Fence not from left when you are right.
16 If on your left is how you fight,
 You'll be quite clumsy on the right.
17 Before and After, these two things:
 The font from which all true art springs.
18 With Strong and Weak, you'll rule the bind;
 The word “Within” bear well in mind.
19 Learn onward in this art until
 You can defend and work with skill.
20 But if you easily get spooked,
 Then fencing is a poor pursuit.

21 Five strikes you must now learn to heed,
 Perform them with your right hand’s speed;
21a
HTKo

22 Those fencers skilled whose art we vow
 To reward well will show us how:



23 The wrathful one hates crook and cross;
 So cock your eye and parting cause.
24 A fool will parry all strikes, so
 Pursue, run down, and set the blow.
24a
HTKo

25 Change it through, pull your point back,
 Run through, slice off, or hands attack.
26 Then hang and wind, expose them more,
 Strike, catch, sweep, and push your point fore.

27 When from above they cut in near,
 The point of wrath makes danger clear.
28 If they should sense the threat and shove,
 Care not, just take it off above.
29 Or if they're strong, then more strength show
 And thrust—if seen, take it below.
30 Bear this in mind once in the fray:
 Cut, thrust, then Hard or Soft you lay,
31 “Within”, and then drive after more,
 But calmly—do not rush to war;


32 If at the war above they aim,
 Go down below and bring them shame.
33 Down every path that you may wind,
 Cut, thrust, and slice you'll learn to find;
34 You also must learn to assess
 Which one of them would serve you best,
35 So that, whenever steel meets steel,
 The masters you'll confound with zeal.

36 Know there are but four exposures;
 Clear your path and aim for closure,
37 In every threat, in each attack,
 Without regard for how they act.

38 If first they strike, revenge is sweet;
 Exploit these four exposures neat:
39 To strike above you should redouble;
 Transmute below to cause them trouble.
40 Now let me make this plain and clear:
 No one defends without some fear,
40a
HTKo

41 And if this truth one learns and knows,
 Then scarcely can they come to blows.

42 Throw a curve with crooked grace;
 Onto their hands your point will race.
43 Curve in to set aside down low,
 And step to hinder many blows.
44 Cut crookedly up toward the flat,
 Subvert the masters' strength with that.
45 When steel on steel above should spark,
 Stand fast and I will praise your art.
46 Curve not: cut short, your plan concealed,
 Then with it, changing through reveal.
47 Who crookedly leads you astray,
 The noble war will them dismay;
48 They'll truly have no way to know
 Where they'd be safe from any blow.



49 The cross takes what from sky comes down,
 Rewarding all with glory's crown.
50 The cross in Strength performed its deed,
 Your work remains, take careful heed.
51 When to the plow you drive across,
 Yoke it hard then to the ox.
52 Cross yourself and take a leap,
 And threaten heads while yours you keep.
53 Mislead by missing skillfully;
 Go low and harry willfully.
54 Inversion forces and constrains;
 Run through and wrestling holds you'll gain:
55 Their elbow take; be sure, then leap;
 Done right, their balance you will reap.
56 Now then, miss twice, and when you hit,
 Just make a classic slice with it.
57 The second time you miss, I say
 To step in left, and don't delay.

58 When buffalo will cut or thrust,
 The cockeye breaks and enters thus.
59 If, with the changer, threat they lay,
 The cockeye robs them anyway.
60 If you see that they're shorting you,
 Take your revenge by changing through.
61 Down to their point you cock your eye,
 But, fearless, take their neck up high.
62 Or cock your eye up to their part,
 If you would spoil their hands with art.
62a
HTKo

63 Cut from your part to seek your prize
 And threaten them under the eyes.
64 Then turn and take it down below,
 And threats against their heart bestow.
65 Whatever from your part descends,
 Their lofty crown can well defend.
66 Slice through their crown, refuse to kneel,
 Its glory broken by your steel.
67 With sweeping cuts press your attack;
 Slice through and then pull yourself back.

68 In four lairs only should you lie;
 Hold there and vulgar guards decry.
69 The ox that plows, the foolish one,
 And from the day you should not shun.

70 Now four displacements learn with care,
 Which also flush them from their lair.
71 Be mindful of displacement's game,
 It guards you well or brings you shame.
72 Should you become displaced at last,
 However this has come to pass,
73 Then listen now to what I say:
 Wrench off, cut in, and don't delay.
74 Set on to four extremities,
 Learn to remain and end with ease.

75 Learn to pursue, then learn it twice;
 Or into their defenses slice.
76 When they're outside, there take them on
 In two forms; start what work you want.
77 Then gauge each threat with hand and blade:
 If pushing Hard or Softly laid;
78 For this you must learn how to feel;
 The word “Within” cuts deep as steel.
79 Pursue again, and if you hit,
 Then make the same old slice with it.

80 If down below your sword they aim,
 Flow over them and bring them shame.
81 When steel on steel above should spark,
 Stay strong and I will praise your art.
82 Work onward then with skill and ardor,
 Or press them hard and press them harder.

83 Learn how to set aside, and thus,
 With art you'll hinder cut and thrust.
84 Whoever tries to stab at you,
 Your point meets theirs and breaks on through.
85 From either side, both left and right,
 Your swords will meet if forth you stride.

86 Learn to change through, your sword untied,
 Then thrust sharply from either side.
87 Whomever tries to bind on you
 You'll swiftly find by changing through.

88 Now step in close, engage the bind,
 Then pull, and what you seek you'll find.
89 Pull back; if sword you meet, pull more;
 Devise a work that hurts them sore.
90 Pull back whenever steel meets steel
 And masters you’ll confound with zeal.

91 Hold pommel high, let blade hang down,
 Run through and wrestling abounds.
92 When strength would press and oppress you,
 Remember this: just run on through.

93 Whenever hardness blocks your plays,
 Slice off from underneath both ways.
94 There are four slices you must know:
 Two falling high, two rising low.

95 Turn every slice to serve your end,
 Their hands to press and arms to bend.
95a

95b

95c

96 Two hangers rise upon command,
 Up from the earth, out of your hand.
97 In every threat, in each foray,
 Cut, thrust, then Hard or Soft you lay.

98 Spread windows wide that speech may flow;
 Stand cheerful and hear their case so;
99 But snap the windows shut upon
 Whoever tries to cut and run.
100 Now let me make this plain and clear:
 No one defends without some fear,
101 And if this truth one learns and knows,
 Then scarcely can they come to blows.



102 If you lead well and break through right,
 To this end you may guide the fight,
103 And breaking in with flashing steel,
 Three wonders of the sword reveal.
104 Hang your point in straight and true,
 And wind your sword to follow through.
105 Now eight winds note with thoughtful mind,
 And weigh the paths that each may find:
106 In each and every wind of sword,
 Three wonders wait to be explored.
107 They thus expand to twenty-four
 Count one by one, you won't need more.
108 From either side, both left and right,
 Learn these eight winds when forth you'd stride.
109 Then gauge each threat with hand and blade:
 But pushing Hard or Softly laid.
  1. ↑ Zettel is a tricky word to translate. The closest English cognate is “schedule” (both come from the Latin schedula), but only in the more obscure legal sense of a formal list, not the familiar sense of a timetable. It’s commonly used in modern German to denote a short list or a scrap of paper that could hold a list (like a receipt). Zettel is translated as “record” here, but other common translations include “didactic poem/mark-verses”, “epitome”, “notes”, and “recital”. I will italicize it as the title of a written work.
  2. ↑ The literal translation here would be “long sword”, but since it isn’t the sword that’s long and instead it’s holding the sword with both hands on the grip that ‘lengthens’ it, “extended sword” seems clearer. Compare “retracted sword” in the dueling lessons, which refers to placing the left hand on the blade. An alternative view might be that the amount of blade extending in front of the hands is long in the langen Schwert grip and short in the kurtzen Kchwert grip.
  3. ↑ A Schirmmeister is a fencing teacher, using the late medieval term for fencing (schirmen rather than fechten). A Schirrmeister is an aristocrat’s stablemaster, or a logistics officer in a military setting in charge of animals and anything pulled by animals (wagons, cannon, etc.). ‘Schirmeister’ could be a spelling of either one; Hans Medel reads it as the former. The Leichmeistere ridiculed by the author of ms. 3227a in their introduction, often translated as “dance masters” or “play masters”, might be a shortening of this phrase (leichtfertigen schirmaister).
  4. ↑ The individual section headings will be omitted in this translation since they don't seem to be part of Liechtenauer's original Record—or at least, the scribes seem to have treated them as non-authoritative and felt free to expand, contract, modify, or omit them entirely. I also think they distract from the flow of the Record, and would omit them for that reason alone.
  5. ↑ This preface to the Record is quoted by the glossators but rarely glossed by them (see the notes below for exceptions).
  6. ↑ 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 and the version appearing in H. Beringer and Hans Folz only includes the second line. This may be evidence of combining two early proto-Records, each of which mentioned loving god in the first couplet and honoring women as the first line of the second couplet. See his 2020 blog post for more details.
  7. ↑ In the same blog post, Jens P. Kleinau points out that the mention of Ehre (rendered “fame" in this line) may be a later addition to the text, since some versions have sehre instead of zu Ehre, which makes the phrase and meter smoother, and the idea of warfare as an avenue of increasing one's honor is mostly absent from contemporary literature. Hofieren is to serve, often in a feudal or courtly sense, so the alternate rhymed version would be “And serve you well in war some day”.
  8. ↑ “Knife” is a translation of Messer, which is a term that we often associate with the iconic German longknife taught by Johannes Lecküchner among others, but which is usually interpreted as the dagger in glosses of Liechtenauer's personal teachings.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ Bederben and verderben could be read as synonyms in Early New High German, both meaning “to destroy”, but that doesn't make sense in context so we tend to read bederben in its Middle High German definition of “to use”.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ This line is only glossed by the author of ms. 3227a.
  13. ↑ These two terms are translated in all kinds of ways, from the abstract (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 line is sort of glossed in sword section of the Augsburg Group manuscripts.
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