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Fighting with the Longsword: Modern-day HEMA Practices
III.4.
Fencing as Tactical Training?
While not immediately evident, the fight books do not just communicate technical
training, but tactical training as well.
9
The pre-Renaissance witnesses mainly take a very
abstract approach to the tactics and strategies of combat, presenting allegorical concepts
linked to Aristotle or medieval bestiary sciences rather than explicit advice. On a
personal note, the authors have begun to question to what extent these concepts had a
broader application than just the one-on-one fencing situation, especially considering
the
medieval
philosophical
tenet
of
the
microcosm
or
the
social
advancement
dimensions of fighting skills.
10
Two cases in point are the Zettel and Fiore de’ Liberi’s “Seven Swords” illustration.
III.4.1.
The
Zettel
The Zettel is commonly attributed to Johannes Liechtenauer and famously recites the
five concepts stark / schwach (strong / weak), vor / nach (before / after), and indes –
translating indes entails interpreting the meaning.
11
The meaning of the five concepts is a hotly debated matter in HEMA circles and there
is no canonical interpretation. In our view, the concepts can be displayed as follows,
Stark
Vor
Indes
Nach
Schwach
so that indes is understood as standing between both of the conceptual pairs vor / nach
and stark / schwach. If they are understood as tactical concepts, vor / nach would refer to
the military tactical concept of initiative
12
– the person in the vor has the initiative, the
person in the nach does not; stark would refer to advance, schwach to give ground. It is
9
This seems to have been the view of the value of fencing as tactical military preparation in the
early 19
th
C: v. Bismark, p. 59.
10
See e.g. Gassmann, Honour and Fighting: Joachim Meyer’s 1570 Gründtliche Beschreibung der Kunst
des Fechtens, a sophisticated multi-weapon treatise, may be dedicated to his noble patron, but is
directed at the young burgher gentleman; the Vorrede an den Leser says that an individual who has
learnt the art of proper fencing: “may be thought able to direct others, and particularly the youth,
and thereby be of service” – Forgeng, The Art of Combat, p. 42.
11
“Vor und nach dy zway ding / Sind aller kunst ain vrsprinck / Swech vnd sterck / Inndes / Das wort do
mit mit merck / So magstu lernen / Mit kunst arbaitten vnd weren” in MS 1449 / Codex 44.A.8 of the
Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana (Pseudo-Peter von Danzig), f. 3v,
quoted after Peter von Danzig, pp. 6-8. See also Wiktenauer <http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Page:
Cod.44.A.8_003v.jpg> [queried 15 May 2017].
12
“Initiative” in the sense of having freedom of action and forcing the opponent to react, but
restricting the opponent’s options; Clausewitz, Book 6, Chapter 30: Verteidigung eines Kriegstheaters,
wenn keine Entscheidung gesucht wird (Defence of a theatre of war when no decision is sought).