Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword

by David Lindholm

Author David Lindholm has translated Ringeck's text and added extensive interpretations and comments. Illustrator and sword aficionado Peter Svard has created hundreds of instructive drawings capturing every nuance of the medieval swordsman's art.

Genres: Martial Arts, History, War

248 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[James Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros: Original Text, English Translation, A Modern Interpretation
Cons: Starting to show its age, but only barely

I started studying Renaissance martial arts just before this book came out. It really helped me get acquainted with the style and substance of the German combat manuals. It's fairly "newbie friendly".

As I progressed, I came to disagree with some of the interpretations, but that's what they are: modern interpretations the best the authors could do at the time. Cutting-edge research has moved on somewhat, but nevertheless this volume remains a solid reference.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

On a par with Christian Henry Tobler's Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship, this work has the added benefit of footwork diagrams, and the consequences of each attack shown in the illustrations, leaving no doubt that this was a lethally effective martial art. Having been published after Mr. Tobler's first book, the research here is slightly more up-to-date.

[Drew Lackovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a couple medieval sword work manuals now, and while this book provides very good practice attacks/parries, it lacks in a number of important basics -- footwork, and solo drills. Granted, this book is a more or less direct translation of the original 15th century text, which had none of these things, but for my situation -- practicing alone, the teachings of this book aren't really all that useful since I don't have a partner to practice with. To be fair, the drawings and descriptions are fairly straight forward--some of the directional arrows are confusing, but I think a lot of that would come out in practicing the maneuvers with another person.