The Windings
The conclusion of the long-sword Zettel ([LS 23]) contains the system's only explicit arithmetic: two hangings from each side, eight windings, and "each one of those windings I hold as threefold — so they are twenty and four; count them singly." This file lays the twenty-four out: what the eight windings are and how each is entered, what the three wounders (drei Wunder — hew, thrust, cut) are and how each is delivered from a winding, and — because the count is useless without its decision rule — when each is chosen. Attestation is marked throughout: the count and the selection doctrine are verse; the enumeration of the eight is the gloss tradition's (Ringeck, pseudo-Peter von Danzig, glossing [LS 23]); the full 24-cell matrix is our systematic application of the verse's instruction to "learn to find hew, thrust, cut in all windings" ([LS 4]). Companions: Technical grouping §5 (the tree in summary), Counter network §4 (the bind as a cycle), Glossary (winden, hengen, drei wunder).
The verse ([LS 23], our translation):
Whoever hangs rightly well
and brings winding with it,
and considers the eight windings
with rightful weighing —
and each one
of those windings I hold as threefold —
so they are twenty
and four; count them singly,
from both sides.
Learn eight windings with stepping,
and test the actions (gefert)
for no more than soft or hard.
Unpacked: 2 hangings ([LS 21]: "two hangings arise from one hand from the ground" — over and under) × 2 sides = four hangings; each reached by 2 windings = eight windings; each winding carrying the 3 wounders ([LS 4]: "in all winding learn to find hew, thrust, cut") = twenty-four. Three constraints ride along in the same breath, all verse: learn them with stepping (the wind is a body-turn, not a wrist-turn), singly (as distinct drilled actions, not a blur), and decide among them by no more than soft or hard — the entire sensory budget of the bind.
The windings are not free-floating techniques; they are rotations between the four point-forward stations of [LS 21] and [LS 11]:
| Hanging | Position | Point |
|---|---|---|
| Left Ochs | hilt by the left side of the head, upper hanging | hanging into his face from above |
| Right Ochs | hilt by the right side of the head, upper hanging | hanging into his face from above |
| Left Pflug | hilt by the left hip, lower hanging | rising into his face from below |
| Right Pflug | hilt by the right hip, lower hanging | rising into his face from below |
"From one hand from the ground" ([LS 21]): each side owns one over- and one under-hanging; between the four of them, hilt and point cover every line while the point never leaves him. The bind arrives in one of four basic situations — his blade meets yours high or low, on your left or right — and each situation opens onto exactly two windings. That 4 × 2 structure is the eight.
The verse gives the count; the enumeration below is the gloss tradition's (both Ringeck and pseudo-Danzig gloss [LS 23] with the same 4 × 2 architecture, differing only in walk-through detail). The recurring pair at every bind: a first wind that stays on his blade and turns into the same-side hanging, and a wind-through that passes your point across to the hanging on his other side when the first is pressed out.
| # | Bind situation | Winding | How it is done | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | high bind, your left | into left Ochs | stay on his blade; turn hilt up and forward, short edge against his blade, point winds into his face | Indes, the moment the bind speaks |
| 2 | high bind, your left | through to right Ochs | his pressure carries your point offline: let it dip under his blade and rise in the opposite hanging, other side of his sword | when he presses your first wind out |
| 3 | high bind, your right | into right Ochs | mirror of 1: hilt rises to the right, long edge bearing, point stays in his face | Indes, at the bind |
| 4 | high bind, your right | through to left Ochs | mirror of 2: under his blade, out the other side | when he presses out |
| 5 | low bind, your left | into left Pflug | hilt sinks to the left hip, blade closing his line, point climbing at his face from below | Indes, at the low bind |
| 6 | low bind, your left | through to right Pflug | point dips and passes beneath, rising on his other side | when he presses out |
| 7 | low bind, your right | into right Pflug | mirror of 5 | Indes, at the low bind |
| 8 | low bind, your right | through to left Pflug | mirror of 6 | when he presses out |
All eight share one mechanical law, stated in the verse as "with stepping" ([LS 23]): the winding is driven by the step and the body-turn; the hands only carry what the body does. And all eight share one purpose: to keep your point on him and your hilt between you while the bind is being decided — the winding is cover and threat in a single shape (the same one-time logic as Absetzen, [LS 15]).
"Break each particular into three wounders" ([LS 23]); "in all winding learn to find hew, thrust, cut… also you shall, together with it, test hew, thrust, or cut in every meeting" ([LS 4]). From any of the eight stations, three weapons are available, and the bind-pressure chooses among them:
- Stich — the thrust. The winding's native wound: the point is already on him, so the thrust is completed simply by driving the wind home along the closed line. When: he is soft on the blade, or the wind has shut his line — nothing stands between point and face. The named exemplar in the verse is Mutieren ([LS 6]): the thrust-wounder of a hard upper bind, redirected — wind over his blade and send the point to the lower opening on the other side.
- Haw — the hew. The edge turned loose from the winding: the blade leaves contact for one tempo and strikes behind or around his parry. When: he is hard and high — his pressure holds your blade but exposes the quarter behind his own sword. The named exemplar is Duplieren ([LS 6]): the doubled strike thrown behind his blade to the upper opening without leaving the bind's cover.
- Schnitt — the cut. The edge laid on his wrists or forearms and pressed or drawn ([LS 19]: "four are the cuts: two below, two above"; [LS 20]: the conversion over the wrists). When: he drives up or through — crowding in, lifting to strike around, running in to wrestle. The cut needs no distance and no tempo, only contact: it is the brake of the system, and "the hard ones" are its named prey.
The selection rule is the binary of [LS 1] and [LS 13] and nothing more: soft → thrust; hard above → hew behind his blade; hard driving in → cut. "Test the actions for no more than soft or hard" — the verse forbids a richer decision procedure on purpose, because only this one is faster than his commitment.
"Count them singly" (zel sÿ antzigk, [LS 23]) — the verse asks that each combination be known as its own action. The matrix below is our systematic application (the verse mandates the grid; no gloss writes out all 24 cells):
| Winding | Stich (soft) | Haw (hard, high) | Schnitt (hard, driving in) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · left Ochs | thrust over his blade to the upper opening | double behind his blade to the head | over-cut onto his wrists |
| 2 · through to right Ochs | thrust to the far upper opening | strike around to the far side of his head | over-cut, far side |
| 3 · right Ochs | thrust over his blade, upper opening | double behind his blade | over-cut onto the wrists |
| 4 · through to left Ochs | thrust to the far upper opening | strike around, far side | over-cut, far side |
| 5 · left Pflug | rising thrust to the lower opening | snap the edge up to his arms as he lifts | under-cut into his forearms |
| 6 · through to right Pflug | rising thrust, far lower opening | edge up on the far side | under-cut, far side |
| 7 · right Pflug | rising thrust, lower opening | snap the edge up to the arms | under-cut into the forearms |
| 8 · through to left Pflug | rising thrust, far lower opening | edge up, far side | under-cut, far side |
Read down a column and the mirror-structure is obvious — which is the point. The 24 are not 24 arbitrary techniques to memorize; they are one decision (soft/hard/driving) executed from eight addresses. Mutieren is cell 1/3-Stich carried to the other opening; Duplieren is cell 1/3-Haw; the Hendtrucken conversion ([LS 20]) is what every Schnitt cell becomes when it lands. The system's named pieces are the matrix's best cells with names on them.
- Enter only from the bind. Winding is bind-play: it begins where blades meet and the hangings can be reached ([LS 21]). At distance the five hews rule; the windings are what the hews become on contact (the Zornhau paragraph narrates exactly this transition: threat → he binds → "be strong in return; wind, thrust," [LS 4]).
- Not hastily. "Let your Krieg not be hasty" ([LS 4]): winding without feeling is punished on the opposite line — "what the Krieg aims at above, below it is shamed." The wind follows the pressure-reading, never precedes it.
- The holding pattern is legitimate. The Sprechfenster ([LS 22]) is the wind refused on purpose: stay in long point on the bind and let his first motion choose the cell for you.
- The exits exist. Zucken ([LS 17]) leaves the winding game entirely when he over-honors the bind; Durchlaufen ([LS 18]) abandons it into wrestling when he crowds past cutting range. The matrix is an arena, not a cage.
- Both sides, with stepping ([LS 23]): the drill instruction is in the verse itself — eight addresses, three wounders, left and right, feet moving. That is the curriculum the Zettel's conclusion sets, and it is why the tradition could call this one poem a complete art.