Ringeck Danzig Lew: Long Sword

by Stephen Cheney

In the 15th century, an anonymous author wrote a commentary on the fencing art of Johannes Liechtenauer. This commentary would spawn three distinct yet similar lineages of the tradition, which we now refer to as the Ringeck, Danzig, and Lew branches. In the modern practice of historical longsword fencing, these three texts are among the most widely practiced and studied historical sources. This book includes translations of these three branches side by side. It is intended to be useful for all students of the art, from the beginner trying to delve into the sources for the first time, to the advanced practitioner interested in comparing the nuances of each branch.

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 22, 2020

Reviews

[Thomas Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite historical fencing reads I've come across so far ~

The idea of having the three glosses side by side give great insight into what the authors thought were core ideas to the techniques or concepts and what they thought were superfluous details. Its also incredibly useful in that if you might find one gloss tricky to understand, you can cross reference the other two to get a better ieda of what you're reading.

The translator also adds a lot of contextual information in footnotes and sections regarding the etymology of certain words and the translations made, as well as a useful glossary of all technical terms. Great source, would recommend to any KdF fencer looking to get more familliar with the sources, or anyone otherwise interested.

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource to gain an understanding of the Liechtenauer tradition through the main branches of the school. The organization has me regularly reaching for it when working through techniques

[Vitemn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text refuses to translate Indes but translates the names of many other techniques/concepts which, having multiple possible translations, often becomes confusing unless you're constantly going back to the glossary.

I'm of the opinion that at the very least, the Meisterhauen should remain untranslated as well, as their multiple meanings in English betray the complete concept behind them, just as translating Indes does. Also, the edition's printing and paper are not great, especially taking into account the price (sorry, I'm a thirdworlder, so this book costs the equivalent of a full day of work, and its not hard to find hardcovers with better printing at half the price). Finally, footnotes at the end of the chapter instead of, you know, at the foot of the page is a crime I can't forgive.

But all in all, these are minor inconveniences; the translation works and reading this book helped in sharping my understanding a lot of concepts I've been working on for years at this point. Hopefully future editions will improve upon this one.

[Cecelia Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful. Great intro for beginners getting into reading manuscripts and the challenges/quirks associated. I liked the choice to leave out images, since we all know those can just add to the confusion.