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Johannes Liechtenauer/Michael Chidester D 2025

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This is Master Johannes Liechtenauer’s fighting on horseback[1]

1 Direct your lance with honor plain;
 Against you all will ride in vain.
2 If from the path you'd fall away,
 The end will see great disarray.
3 Strike here and there as you close in;
 Draw not your blade from scabbard then,
4 But pull them left and seize them right—
 You need not fence to win the fight.
5 Learn this to joust or fence with lance:
 Break calmly through in your advance.

6 If sudden shift the fight then shows
 And swords begin to trade their blows,
7 With yours in right hand strongly held,
 Cut toward the pouch behind their belt.[2]
8 Now learn to cover, strength displayed,
 And then whenever blade meets blade,[3]
9 Care not, but set upon your foe:
 Angle in from head to toe.[4]

10 Or if you'd harry and distress,
 Then hunt them long and grant no rest.
11 Whoever to defense will rise,
 Your turn of sword will hurt their eyes.
12 If they will yet defend at bay,
 Catch well the reins and don't delay.
13 Consider where they are exposed;
 Your knife, not pommel, finds them most.

14 Two sweeps now learn so you may stand
 Against all arms with empty hands.
15 And when to wrestling they would hasten,
 Learn to hold them like a basin.[5]
16 When underneath their very nose,
 Correctly grab as you fly close.
17 Whoever falls on you with might,
 When riding ’gainst you: hold them tight,
18 And let yourself hang toward the earth
 While gripping over—show your worth.
19 On either side, both left and right,
 Against them learn to ride and fight.

20 If you should choose to charge and ride
 Your horse onto the other side,
21 First cover strongly and suppress,
 Then set upon and cause distress.
22 When you defend, their sword catch wide
 And carry near, their handle tied.
23 Or wheel about to hunt again,
 Prepared to harry and restrain;
24 With every skill that hunters learn,
 Seek your advantage as you turn.
25 Should you ride forth without relent
 But end up left without intent,
26 Then worry not, but their sword find,
 And wrestle well: push hard and bind.

27 If someone hunts you on the right,
 Turn halfway ’round, prepare to fight.
28 With arms to catch and drive away,
 No harm can reach you in the fray.

29 Take sword away like it's a knife
 And learn the holds that cause them strife:
30 Apply the hold that has no name
 To turn the strong and bring them shame.
31 Spoil strikes and thrusts with this defense;
 Have your revenge—no need to fence.

32 If you would grab them as they ride,
 Don't fail to ride up alongside.
33 To show the sun and make them bow:
 Take first their left sleeve firmly now,
34 Then grab their head in front with skill,
 And press it upward hard until
35 They sink down low and show respect
 (And then might never stand erect).
36 If taking you down low's their aim,
 Then grab them high and bring them shame;
37 Press arm to head, their grip defeat—
 This often robs them of their seat.

38 But should you seek a measured course
 To catch and hold them on their horse,
39 Then with this wrestling they'll be found,[6]
 And without rope they will be bound.
40 Remember well the grab that leads,[7]
 To break through strength and work great deeds.

The dueling art of Master Johannes Liechtenauer (God rest his soul) with the retracted sword begins here:


41 When you dismount or are unhorsed,
 The fight on foot must take its course.
42 Take up your spear in steady hands
 And face your foe in proper stance;[8]
43 Its sharpened point will serve your needs,
 So boldly throw the thrust that leads,
44 Then leap and turn and set upon—
 If they defend, pull and you've won.[9]
45 If you would make the leading thrust,[10]
 Then pull and break through guards you must.
46 Now if your foe fears injury
 And backs away and wants to flee,
47 Then close with them and seek your chance
 To catch and hold as you advance.

48 And should you wrestle, learn to leap,
 Your foot behind their front leg sweep,
49 Or deftly lock the leg you catch
 Just like the closing of a latch.
50 From either hand, both left and right,
 Perform your art and end the fight.

51 Should it come to pass that here
 The sword is drawn against the spear,
52 Observe the way they thrust, then leap
 And catch and wrestle as you sweep.
53 What they extend, your left hand beats;
 Leap surely in, catch what you meet.
54 Should they again fear harm and pull
 Back from your catch and your control,
55 Then you will find them all exposed,
 Your point harassing unopposed.
56 And leather, gauntlets, and the eyes:
 Toward these exposures you should rise.
57 Forbidden arts of wrestling learn
 And bring them forth in battle's churn;
58 Find ways to lock and take control,
 Surmount the strong to reach your goal.
59 In every lesson that you learn,
 Your point toward the exposure turn.

60 When each from scabbard draws their sword
 And both face off with one accord,
61 Then you should strengthen in the fight
 And bear in mind to cover right.
62 Before and After: these two things[11]
 Learn well to gauge with backward spring.
63 Pursue whenever steel meets steel,
 And you’ll confound the strong with zeal.[12]
64 If they defend, pull back and thrust;
 If they defend, rush in you must.
65 If they should fight you long and wide,
 Then artfully their fate decide.[13]
66 If they attack you fierce and strong,
 Defeat them when you shoot in long.
67 The other point can guard and smite,
 So meet their sword and don't take fright.
68 With either hand, both left and right,
 Turn then your point to piece their sight.
69 With strikes, your forward foot defend,
 That you may fight on to the end.
  1. ↑ Unlike the fencing verses, the dueling teaching has little overt structure. There are no section titles assigned apart from on one (or the two) segments of wrestling in the dismounted dueling, and it certainly doesn't follow any Classical rhetorical structures. Apart from a few textual borrowings (see the footnotes), this section has so little in common with the fencing verses that it's hard to believe they have the same author (the writing style is also different in ways that are hard to describe). This could be further evidence of Liechtenauer's role as a compiler and editor rather than an author in the modern sense.
  2. ↑ A Taschen is a belt pouch worn on the side toward the back; Stephen Cheney likens it to a “fanny pack”.
  3. ↑ ‘ohne fahr=without danger’ (rendered here as “care not” to match earlier uses) appears in both this line and the next one, so I omitted it here to avoid the redundancy. A final instruction to cause distress seems to have been added purely to complete Liechtenauer's rhyme scheme and syllable count, but is omitted due to hitting my syllable cap.
  4. ↑ Literally “from stirrup to hair”; Grimm indicates that ‘from soles to hair’ was an expression equivalent to ‘from head to toe’, so I assume this is similar.
  5. ↑ A Schaff is a large bucket, basket, or wash basin, and the name may arise from the method of carrying it by the handles (Thanks to Dierk Hagedorn for pointing this out to me.). Other translators have read it as ‘Schaf=sheep’, perhaps making a reference to holding sheep still for shearing. Paulus Hector Mayr reads it as Schopf and his Latinist renders it juba, meaning “horse mane” or “helmet crest”.
  6. ↑ Literally ‘fuhren=to lead or guide’ rather than “found, though this verb is missing from the Rome ms. (breaking the rhyme scheme)
  7. ↑ Vorgriffen is usually read as ‘vor=before’ + ‘griffen=grabbing’, but Jessica Finley has pointed out that, just as angriffen means both “grab” + “on” and “attack”, vorgriffen could also mean “attack before” and perhaps even be related to the ‘Vorschlag=leading strike’ that is the centerpiece of the author of 3227a's gloss of the common lesson. For this reason, and because the term isn’t otherwise clearly defined, I’ve translated it similarly to that text. Only the Pseudo-Peter von Danzig gloss clearly associates this verse with Before and After.
  8. ↑ Sigmund ain Ringeck groups this couplet together with the previous one as a quatrain, but Pseudo-Peter von Danzig glosses them separately.
  9. ↑ Sigmund ain Ringeck groups this couplet together with the previous one as a quatrain, but Pseudo-Peter von Danzig glosses them separately.
  10. ↑ This Vorstich also tends to be glossed in a way reminiscent of the description of the ‘Vorschlag=leading strike’ that is the centerpiece of the author of 3227a's gloss of the common lesson, so I've again translated it similarly.
  11. ↑ This line is the same as the first line of fencing couplet 17, in the common lesson.
  12. ↑ This couplet is very close to fencing couplet 35, in the section on the cut of wrath, and 90, in the section on overrunning.
  13. ↑ This couplet is skipped in the Pseudo-Peter von Danzig gloss.
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