Christian worked very hard to isolate the fundamentals of european sword combat and I like what he has done. It is important to study what masters such as Meyer and Fiore have done. However, what is always absent (understandably) is that Meyer often teaches through sequences. Even Fiore does to a point. What Christian does in detail is to try and offer AN INTERPRETATION on individual moves and what they can and cannot do. I found it infinately far better and useful in comparison to say Clement's publications which I feel are system based and not necessarily historical based.

Christian will also be putting on a day presentation on the material Sat July 20th at Higgins.

Is this book the end all? No.
But I think it's a logical and organized effort and working through fundamentals that the masters would have taught directly, (hey, they wanted to get paid) and not in their written materials.

Buy the book: It's worth twice the price.

--------------------

First, thank you both for your very kind words. As Hugh correctly points out, it is an interpretation. Heck, there are points where I've changed my mind to some extent or another. For one thing, I've been working with the von Danzig manuscript, which is much clearer (to my feeble modern mind) in many ways than Ringeck is. So that is influencing my interpretation as I go.

Now as far as fundamentals are concerned, you may be interested to know that there will be a companion longsword study guide coming out in the not-too-distant future, as well as a longsword video. Both of these will reflect what I've learned from Ringeck and von Danzig. They will feature the series of guard-based drills that I've evolved for my students - some of which I taught at my Livermore longsword module in June.

The von Danzig manuscript itself will be the subject of Secrets Volume II. This is a really a tremendous compendium, featuring anonymous commentaries for Liechtenauer's longsword, armoured combat, and mounted combat, as well as the works of Masters Huntfeltz, Lignitzer, Ott, and Peter von Danzig's own commentaries on the armoured material. The thing's a treasure trove, and has dagger (!) and lots of armoured combat. In fact, we're shooting some photos for it this Sunday.

For the longsword material in that book, I'll only be interpreting those techniques that do not directly overlap those in Ringeck.

So, there's more fun stuff in the pipeline. Thanks again for your compliments, critiques, and continuing support!

Best regards,

--------------------

quote:

---

and mounted combat,

---

How much? What kind, swords only, jousting with lances or perhaps group movements and formations? Sounds interesting, tell us more!!!

--------------------

quote:

---

Originally posted by Seigneur de Leon:
How much? What kind, swords only, jousting with lances or perhaps group movements and formations? Sounds interesting, tell us more!!!

---

There are two sections of mounted combat in the von Danzig manuscript. The first is a commentary on Liechtenauer's verse for fighting on horse - this contains material for what would seem to be a judicial duel that begins mounted. The techniques include lance vs. lance (including techniques for setting aside an incoming lance, while hitting with your own), sword vs. sword, and mounted wrestling. There's lots of disarms, entrapments, throws from the saddle, etc. There's even some half-sword methods for use against the lance. This material is much more complete than the mounted combat commentary that appears in Ringeck. I'm investigating possibilities for showing more than just the guard positions (all I was able to pull off in book 1) in this book.

The second section is by Master Martin Huntfeltz, and as he is clearly within the 'Liechtenauer Tradition', there's no surprise that a considerable number of his techniques overlap with that in the Liechtenauer stuff. However, he does have some of that wacky stuff with the arbalest that we see in Talhoffer, where the spent crossbow is used as a shield. This is also one of the most challenging parts of the manuscript, as Master Huntfeltz introduces his own cryptic, Liechtenauer-esque, verse. It's strangely interspersed with his more explanatory text, so it's a tough read.

This tradition is strongly aimed at the judicial duel, so unfortunately, we see no jousting proper - although undoubtedly, the 'setting aside' actions could be applied, with very considerable practice, to such a situation. There's also no group fighting methods either - it's all single combat. The only manuscript in the tradition that I'm aware of that includes group encounters (and these are only on foot, as far as I currently know) is the 1389 manuscript of Hanko Döbringer, the earliest record we have of Johannes Liechtenauer's method.

Hope this helps,

--------------------

--------------------

quote:

---

Originally posted by Friedrich:
Hugh, I would be curious to learn what you disagree with. (Perhaps privately.) I speak with Christian from time to time (and I will be at his presentation) and it would make for a good primer before I attend. All in all (in my opinion), he worked hard in putting together a solid, no-nonsense guide. Now we have to wait for the 2nd edition!

---

I don't mind discussing some of my differing interpretations, as long as it's understood that I don't dismiss Christian's interpretations out of hand, I just see things differently.

One good example about which I'm pretty sure is the technique under the krumphau where you strike into his blade with the krumphau and then Ringeck says to cut into him with your short edge.

Christian interprets this to mean to swing your sword around and cut him with a zwerchau from your right side, but I think the version shown by Talhoffer in which you simply raise your blade from the krumphau and cut him with an unterhau using the short edge is faster and has the added advantage of keeping your sword on the same side of your body as his sword in case you need to do something else.

There are others, but I don't intend to sit here and do a line-by-line critique of all of Christian's interpretations, and besides, I think most of what he has is spot on.

--------------------