Mounted & dismounted dueling

This is Master Johannes Liechtenauer's mounted fencing (ross vechten).

Nuremberg (3227a): "Here now begins the fencing on horseback in armor, with spear and sword."

Direct your spear (dein sper bericht):
against [his] riding, bring it to naught.
If it should fall [fail],
snap your end loose at him (dein end ÿm ab schnalle).

Hew in; do not twitch (zucke);
from the sheath, move up to him on the left.
Grip his right:
so you catch him without fencing.

The lance-thrust fencing (das gleffen stechen) —
learn to break it with composure, without the rush (an hurt).

Nuremberg (3227a), the long mounted text — the couplets the other witnesses no longer carry:

And before all, know
that your horse's girth be sure.
You shall mark well:
husband the little lance (glefney) with strength.
If you would charge in,
grasp the bridle long, with sense.
Then sweep
the lance crosswise over one side;
mark the side
on which you mean to contend with art.
…Ride with sense,
if you aim to win the setting-aside (abesetzen).
If you would set aside
and break his art and hinder it:
the lance in front —
pull down under it, and take it [his lance] without anger.
Set on high;
swing; pass through, if you would hurt him.
Grip his right:
so you catch him without fencing.
Seize his weapon;
turn yourself about with the horse.
You may also wrestle,
once you have wrapped him up.
But if you would flee,
set your horse to swinging away;
thereafter set aside —
with winding hurt him sorely —
or turn yourself about
so that you sit within the curve.

Notes:

• "Dein end ÿm ab schnalle" is an old crux: "snap your end loose at him" — most naturally, when the lance fails, release/discharge its remainder at him and go to the sword (which the next couplet draws "from the sheath"). The Zettel's economy: every failed weapon pays for the next one's tempo.
• "Grip his right, so you catch him without fencing (ane fechten)" is the signature sentence of the mounted art: the arm-catch ends the fight without an exchange. The figures gloss it directly ([F 2], [F 11]).
• 3227a's fuller text reads like the working original: horse-craft (girth, bridle, choosing the side), the lance-versus-lance setting-aside, and the retreat-turns are all absent from the Rome-type abridgement.

If it so changes
that sword is handled against sword:
grasp the strong rightly;
seek the Taschenhau (pouch-hew) and mark it.
Learn to schütt strongly:
all meetings, without danger, press him with it.
Set on (an setz) without danger;
whoever sweeps (straifft), hang to his hair.
If you would, unhurried,
chase long — that sorely vexes.
Whoever wards it,
then wind: the eye is injured.
If he wards it further,
catch the bridle, and do not let off.
Consider the openings;
seek the opening: knife — do not wait for pommel-blows (messer nicht wartt klöss).
Learn two strokes
with the empty hand against the weapon.

Notes:

• The Schütten — the shaking/shielding sweep of the blade that "precedes all meetings" ([F 7], [F 22]) — is the mounted parry-of-all-work; from it come the Ansetzen (planting the point), the wind to the eye, and the bridle-seizure, in exactly that escalation.
• The Taschenhau ("pouch-hew") is aimed where the armor sags — the gloss tradition puts it on the left arm/hip region where pouch and strap ride.
• "Messer nicht wartt klöss": seek the dagger-opening rather than waiting on pommel-strikes; the mounted fight rewards the point and the grip, not percussion.

The sheep-grip (schaff grif) wards
whoever turns to wrestle with you,
as under the eyes.
Attack him rightly with flying [motion].
Whoever falls upon you:
riding-against fells him.
Hanging to the earth,
over-grip him rightly with gestures.
On both sides
teach yourself all counter-riding (wider reitten).

Nuremberg (3227a) rounds the paragraph with its own summary line: "The sheep-grip, with praise, wards all grips under the eyes" — which the figure-list quotes verbatim ([F 15]).

Note: the defensive core of mounted wrestling: one master-grip that shuts down grapple attempts "under the eyes" (face to face), the counter-charge as thrower, and the low over-grip when he hangs off the saddle.

If you will ride:
horse-runs to the other side.
Schütt the strong;
set on — press him with it.
If he wards that:
wide, catch the sword; carry it hard after the hand.
Or turn about,
unhurried, to chase the weapon.
With all arts
chase him, as favor allows.
If you over-chase
and, against your will, chase on the left:
grope for his sword,
and wrestle; shove firmly.

Note: the chase (jagen) doctrine: the right side is the fencing side — chase to his right hand ([F 3], [F 20]); if the pass puts you on his left (the wrong side), do not fence — hunt his sword-arm and wrestle ([F 19] gives the same remedy: fall on his pommel, shove under the eyes).

If one chases [you] on the right:
halt, turn about, await fencing.
With arm-catching
no harm can come near you.

Nuremberg (3227a) adds: "Turn about a second time, as the horses now spring past" — the couplet the figure-list preserves as [F 16].

Note: the defense against the chase is a held turn into the arm-catch — again "without fencing." The 3227a addition covers the double pass.

The knife-taking (messer nemen):
learn to keep [them], without shame.
The unnamed [grip] (der vngenant):
the strong are turned over by it.
Their striking, their thrusting
spoils without any fighting.

Note: disarm doctrine: take his dagger and keep it ([F 27]); the "unnamed grip" — the tradition keeps its secret even in name ([F 25]) — inverts strong men; and with weapon-hand controlled, "striking and thrusting spoil without any fighting": the third occurrence of the section's motto.

If you would grapple,
you should not leave off riding alongside.
The sun-showing (das sunnen zaigen);
drive the left sleeve, if you would bow him.
Touch the forehead;
press hard against the nape,
so that he sways
and seldom straightens up again.
Whoever aims that at you,
over-grip him: he will be shamed.
Press arm to head:
that grip often robs the saddle.
But if you would restrain yourself
and lightly leave off the catching:
with wrestling then
lead him away captive, without a rope.
Mark the fore-grip (vorgriff):
it breaks his strength from then on.

Notes:

• Sun-showing: crank his face skyward (forehead-and-nape lever) — where the face goes, the spine follows, out of the saddle. The counter is the over-grip with arm pressed to head; the counter's counter is prevention: the fore-grip, whoever grips first meaningfully, wins (Tactical grouping §1 — Vor applied to wrestling).
• "Lead him away captive, without a rope" — the duel's merciful exit and the clearest reminder that Roßfechten is also battlefield capture-craft (prisoners had ransom value).

Here begins Master Johannes Liechtenauer's art — God be gracious to him — with the shortened sword for the judicial duel (zu kampff).

Whoever dismounts (wer absynt):
fencing on foot begins.
Let him order his spear:
two stances (zway sten) at the onset rightly ward.
Spear and point —
thrust the fore-thrust (vorstich) without fear.
Spring, wind, set on rightly;
if he wards, twitch: that defeats him.
If you would fore-thrust,
learn to break the ward with twitching.
Mark: if he wants to draw
from the sheath, and means to fly,
then you should close on him;
wisely await the catching.

Note: the armored duel inherits the whole unarmored grammar at one remove: Vorstich = Vorschlag (the first strike doctrine), Zucken against the successful ward ([LS 17]), Ansetzen as the finish. "Two stances at the onset" — the gloss tradition reads two spear-guards, one for throwing, one for thrusting.

These are the wrestlings of the duel (dye ringen zu champff).

If you would wrestle,
learn to spring rightly behind the leg;
shoot the bar forth (rigel für schiessen),
to lock the fore-leg with art;
from both hands,
if you would end with art.

Salzburg (1491) heads the row: "The Zettel teaches wrestling for the duel on foot" — in that codex (and Vienna Ⅱ and Rostock) the foot-combat rows [D 10]-[D 13] circulate alone, without the mounted verses.

Note: the leg-lock pair: spring behind his leg (outside hook/throw) or shoot the "bar" — your leg or arm thrust as a bolt — across his fore-leg; "from both hands" = trained on both sides, like everything in the system ([LS 15], [LS 16], [LS 23]).

If it comes about
that sword is drawn (gezuckt) against spear:
mark the thrust truly;
spring, catch; hasten to him with wrestling.
Left, long, strike from the hand;
spring wisely, and then catch.
If he will twitch [draw]
from the sheath: catch, and press him,
so that the opening
be galled by the sword's point.
Leather and gauntlet;
under the eyes rightly seek the openings.

Note: the armored target-list appears twice in the duel ([D 3] mounted, here on foot) and once in the figures ([F 12]): leather (the straps and unplated gaps), gauntlet (palm/wrist), under the eyes (the visor slot). Fifteenth-century harness dictates the fencing: the point goes only where iron is not.

Forbidden wrestlings (verpotne ringen) —
learn wisely to bring them,
to lock, [and] apply them:
overcome the strong with them.
In every teaching
turn your point against the openings.

Note: "forbidden" = barred from the friendly school and the public Fechtschule (joint-breaks, dislocations, murder-throws), reserved for the earnest duel. That the Zettel says learn them wisely — not shun them — marks the Kampffechten's register: this is fencing for the judicial combat where the loser could be dragged to the scaffold. The closing couplet re-anchors even the wrestling to the point-against-openings principle.

Where one sees sword
drawn from the sheaths by both,
then one shall strengthen (stercken) —
mark the Schütten rightly and evenly.
Vor and Nach, the two things:
test wisely; learn to spring off with them.
Follow all meetings (volg allen treffen),
if you would fool the strong.
If he wards: twitch;
thrust; if he wards: rush in to him.
If he fences long,
you are artfully provided-for.
If he grips at strength,
the shooting (das schiessen) defeats him.
With his striking point
he protects himself — hit without fear.
With both hands
learn to turn the point to the eyes.
The fore-set foot
you must guard with blows.

Notes:

• The final row is a compressed retelling of the whole art in armored register: Vor/Nach return by name from [LS 1]; Zucken from [LS 17]; "if he fences long" answers reach with the half-sword's leverage; "the shooting" (driving the point home by sliding the blade through the leading hand) beats strength exactly as the Zettel always beats strength — by geometry.
• The last two couplets are the armored duel's two standing targets: the eyes (visor) and the fore-set foot — the highest and lowest openings, guarded and attacked to the end.
• 3227a closes the row "with both hands learn to bring the point to the eyes," and the Rome "…turn the point": the difference between the two oldest readings is one verb, and no doctrine hangs on it — a fair emblem of this section's stable transmission.