I.33
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:58 pm
I continue to work on I.33. Here is a partial working interpretation of the 1st Sequence of Instruction: 1st Ward (UnderArm) vs. Half-Shield.
The combat starts with both combatants Out Of Distance (which means that neither can hit the other, even if they take a step) and in a nebulous and undefined position. For the sake of argument we will assume that both combatants are right-handed and have drawn their weapons. It seems reasonable to assume that both combatants are left foot advanced (left foot closer to their opponent than their right) since this is a natural position to be in. The priest seizes the initiative by acting first and assuming the 1st Ward, Underarm (top left in the illustration).
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p01.jpg[/img]
He advances his right foot to the very edge of Wide Distance (where either combatant can take a step and hit the opponent) and drops his sword beneath his left arm. His left arm holds the buckler so that it is between the priest and his opponent (the scholar).
The goal of the priest is to advance his right foot (a mini-lunge) forward and to the left (creating a new center line) and strike at the scholar (ascending cut moving from left to right). This is a strong action, but it is slow. Tempo, the time it takes to complete an single action, comes into play. The priest's action is slow, but because he has initiated the action he has a small jump on the scholar.
The scholar is now in the position of playing catch-up. Rather than adopting a withdrawn ward (like the 1st Ward) and then acting from there, he must trade strength for speed. He goes directly to an advanced ward, the Half-Shield by advancing his right foot or withdrawing his left foot (I'm not entirely certain which, both are possible but advancing the right foot is more likely). This produces the situation in the top half of the illustration below. The priest, in 1st Ward, on the left and the scholar, in Half-Shield, on the right.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p03.jpg[/img]
The scholar has now caught up to the priest in terms of tempo because the action he executed takes less time to complete than the action the priest is initiating. In fact, the scholar may even be a little ahead. If he is sufficiently ahead he may simply continue his cut and hit the priest in the head. This is illustrated in the image below.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p22.jpg[/img]
But the priest is not going to sit in the 1st Ward and wait for the scholar to hit him. He has initiated an action, the rising left to right cut, and now he is going to alter the intent of his action. Rather than cutting directly, he is going to bind the sword of the scholar. This is called falling under the sword and is illustrated in the bottom half of the 2nd image. If the scholar simply goes to Half-Shield and waits, then the priest will execute a thrust to the face. He will do this by rolling his hand clockwise. There are four hand positions. With your right arm extended in front of you, hand flat and palm facing to your right (extended thumb pointing at the ground) your hand is in the first position. Rotating 90 degrees clockwise so that the plam faces down (extended thumb pointing to your left) your hand is in the second position. Rotating your hand 90 degrees clockwise so that the palm faces to your left (extended thumb pointing straight up) your hand is in the third position. Rotating your hand 90 degrees clockwise, once again, so that the palm faces up (extended thumb pointing to your right) places your hand in the fourth position. In the current situation the priest's hand is in the third position. He simply rolls his hand into the fourth position while passing forward and to the left with his left foot. This drops the point of his weapon into the scholar's face and the step drives the point home. The priest's buckler protects his sword hand and arm from a quick defensive cut by the scholar.
The scholar, however, is unlikely to freeze in half-shield or to be so far behind in tempo that this attack will be delivered unopposed. He again can trade strength for speed. He was in the process of delivering a cut to the priest's head and will be strongly tempted to simply continue this action. Unless he is very fast, and very far ahead in terms of tempo, this action will fail. The priest can defend against this cut, while simultaneously attacking, by executing a stichshlach (a thrust strike). With his hand in third position the priest passes forward with his left foot. He uses the rigid nature of his extended shield arm to press the scholar's sword to the priest's right. This prevents the scholar from striking the priest and it clears the centerline for the priest's simultaneous thrust into the scholar's face. The manual, therefore, cautions the student not to pursue this course of action (though it notes that many opponents will). The manual instead instructs the student to use a shield-strike as illustrated in the image below. Note that I.33 shows the shield-strike being done a some distance. But the Manesse Codex and the Jorg Wilhalm document (documents separated in time by over 200 years) show the shield strike being done at a much closer distance.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p04.jpg[/img]
From the position at the top of the second image (1st Ward vs. Half-Shield) we get to this position because the priest is swinging at the scholar and the scholar defends himself but realizes that he can't get a cut in before the priest strikes him. Therefore the scholar chooses to overbind the priest's sword. In effect, he strikes the priest's sword rather than the priest. This disrupts the priest's attack and lets the scholar bring his other tool (the buckler) into play. The scholar's strike against the priest's blade, for those of you familiar with SCA rattan combat, is a basic teardrop return. The scholar strikes the blade with his hand in third position, he lets his hand rotate clockwise to 4th position as the sword tip points to his right and then back into third position as the scholar cuts the priest. WHILE THIS IS HAPPENING the scholar passes forward with his left foot, using the power of his extended left arm, to press his buckler against the buckler, or buckler arm, of the priest. This action, illustrated at the bottom of the image above, pins the priest's arms against his body and prevents any opposition to the scholar's attack.
Again, this action does not happen in a vacuum. While the scholar is attempting to do a shield-strike, the priest is attempting to do something else that will prevent a successful shield-strike. The priest has, according to the manual, three options: tread-through, grapple, and sword-change.
Treading-trough (durchtreten) is a nebulous technique. It is explicitly illustrated once in the manual that illustration is in a different context. Wagner and Hand explain this technique in the following way:
The priest brings his sword down and back to his right, moving counterclockwise in relation to the scholar, and then cutting into the head of the scholar.
I think it should be done in this manner:
The priest rotates his hand in a clockwise fashion into the 4th position, pointing the tip of his blade at his opponent’s torso. He then passes forward with his left foot and drives the blade into the body of the scholar. This action can be seen in Talhoffer, as in the color image below. In the image immediately below that we see the I.33 version of the action, done at a greater distance, which threatens first the arms and then thrusts the opponent in the face. Note in this image the scholar and the priest have switched roles.
[img]http://img.kb.dk/ha/manus/th290/kamp0253.jpg[/img]
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p42.jpg[/img]
The manuscript seems to indicate that a grapple can be made with either the left arm or the right arm. In the manuscript, the word left is lined through and the word right was added in the margin. The manuscript illustrates both a left arm and a right arm grapple from roughly this situation. The left arm grapple is illustrated in the image immediately below. The priest executes his grapple by passing forward deeply with his left foot and hooking the scholar's sword arm with his buckler arm.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p08.jpg[/img]
The right arm grapple is simplicity itself. The priest simply lunges deep towards the scholar with his right foot (an accressere) and folds his right elbow over the arms of the scholar. The blade naturally follows. The only counter left to the scholar is dropping his weapons in order to escape the grip. Of course, if the priest fails to grapple BOTH of the scholar's arms, he's in a world of hurt. This grapple can be seen at the top of the image below.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p36.jpg[/img]
The sword-change is the third option. I don’t have a firm opinion on how this is done. The essence of the action is to change the nature of the bind. The priest acts to move from being underbound on the left to being overbound on the left. Wagner and Hand describe this action in a very convincing manner. It is essentially their version of the durchtreten but, instead of cutting the scholar’s head, the blade continues around until it intercepts the oncoming attack of the scholar and deflects it down and to the left.
The combat starts with both combatants Out Of Distance (which means that neither can hit the other, even if they take a step) and in a nebulous and undefined position. For the sake of argument we will assume that both combatants are right-handed and have drawn their weapons. It seems reasonable to assume that both combatants are left foot advanced (left foot closer to their opponent than their right) since this is a natural position to be in. The priest seizes the initiative by acting first and assuming the 1st Ward, Underarm (top left in the illustration).
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p01.jpg[/img]
He advances his right foot to the very edge of Wide Distance (where either combatant can take a step and hit the opponent) and drops his sword beneath his left arm. His left arm holds the buckler so that it is between the priest and his opponent (the scholar).
The goal of the priest is to advance his right foot (a mini-lunge) forward and to the left (creating a new center line) and strike at the scholar (ascending cut moving from left to right). This is a strong action, but it is slow. Tempo, the time it takes to complete an single action, comes into play. The priest's action is slow, but because he has initiated the action he has a small jump on the scholar.
The scholar is now in the position of playing catch-up. Rather than adopting a withdrawn ward (like the 1st Ward) and then acting from there, he must trade strength for speed. He goes directly to an advanced ward, the Half-Shield by advancing his right foot or withdrawing his left foot (I'm not entirely certain which, both are possible but advancing the right foot is more likely). This produces the situation in the top half of the illustration below. The priest, in 1st Ward, on the left and the scholar, in Half-Shield, on the right.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p03.jpg[/img]
The scholar has now caught up to the priest in terms of tempo because the action he executed takes less time to complete than the action the priest is initiating. In fact, the scholar may even be a little ahead. If he is sufficiently ahead he may simply continue his cut and hit the priest in the head. This is illustrated in the image below.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p22.jpg[/img]
But the priest is not going to sit in the 1st Ward and wait for the scholar to hit him. He has initiated an action, the rising left to right cut, and now he is going to alter the intent of his action. Rather than cutting directly, he is going to bind the sword of the scholar. This is called falling under the sword and is illustrated in the bottom half of the 2nd image. If the scholar simply goes to Half-Shield and waits, then the priest will execute a thrust to the face. He will do this by rolling his hand clockwise. There are four hand positions. With your right arm extended in front of you, hand flat and palm facing to your right (extended thumb pointing at the ground) your hand is in the first position. Rotating 90 degrees clockwise so that the plam faces down (extended thumb pointing to your left) your hand is in the second position. Rotating your hand 90 degrees clockwise so that the palm faces to your left (extended thumb pointing straight up) your hand is in the third position. Rotating your hand 90 degrees clockwise, once again, so that the palm faces up (extended thumb pointing to your right) places your hand in the fourth position. In the current situation the priest's hand is in the third position. He simply rolls his hand into the fourth position while passing forward and to the left with his left foot. This drops the point of his weapon into the scholar's face and the step drives the point home. The priest's buckler protects his sword hand and arm from a quick defensive cut by the scholar.
The scholar, however, is unlikely to freeze in half-shield or to be so far behind in tempo that this attack will be delivered unopposed. He again can trade strength for speed. He was in the process of delivering a cut to the priest's head and will be strongly tempted to simply continue this action. Unless he is very fast, and very far ahead in terms of tempo, this action will fail. The priest can defend against this cut, while simultaneously attacking, by executing a stichshlach (a thrust strike). With his hand in third position the priest passes forward with his left foot. He uses the rigid nature of his extended shield arm to press the scholar's sword to the priest's right. This prevents the scholar from striking the priest and it clears the centerline for the priest's simultaneous thrust into the scholar's face. The manual, therefore, cautions the student not to pursue this course of action (though it notes that many opponents will). The manual instead instructs the student to use a shield-strike as illustrated in the image below. Note that I.33 shows the shield-strike being done a some distance. But the Manesse Codex and the Jorg Wilhalm document (documents separated in time by over 200 years) show the shield strike being done at a much closer distance.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p04.jpg[/img]
From the position at the top of the second image (1st Ward vs. Half-Shield) we get to this position because the priest is swinging at the scholar and the scholar defends himself but realizes that he can't get a cut in before the priest strikes him. Therefore the scholar chooses to overbind the priest's sword. In effect, he strikes the priest's sword rather than the priest. This disrupts the priest's attack and lets the scholar bring his other tool (the buckler) into play. The scholar's strike against the priest's blade, for those of you familiar with SCA rattan combat, is a basic teardrop return. The scholar strikes the blade with his hand in third position, he lets his hand rotate clockwise to 4th position as the sword tip points to his right and then back into third position as the scholar cuts the priest. WHILE THIS IS HAPPENING the scholar passes forward with his left foot, using the power of his extended left arm, to press his buckler against the buckler, or buckler arm, of the priest. This action, illustrated at the bottom of the image above, pins the priest's arms against his body and prevents any opposition to the scholar's attack.
Again, this action does not happen in a vacuum. While the scholar is attempting to do a shield-strike, the priest is attempting to do something else that will prevent a successful shield-strike. The priest has, according to the manual, three options: tread-through, grapple, and sword-change.
Treading-trough (durchtreten) is a nebulous technique. It is explicitly illustrated once in the manual that illustration is in a different context. Wagner and Hand explain this technique in the following way:
The priest brings his sword down and back to his right, moving counterclockwise in relation to the scholar, and then cutting into the head of the scholar.
I think it should be done in this manner:
The priest rotates his hand in a clockwise fashion into the 4th position, pointing the tip of his blade at his opponent’s torso. He then passes forward with his left foot and drives the blade into the body of the scholar. This action can be seen in Talhoffer, as in the color image below. In the image immediately below that we see the I.33 version of the action, done at a greater distance, which threatens first the arms and then thrusts the opponent in the face. Note in this image the scholar and the priest have switched roles.
[img]http://img.kb.dk/ha/manus/th290/kamp0253.jpg[/img]
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p42.jpg[/img]
The manuscript seems to indicate that a grapple can be made with either the left arm or the right arm. In the manuscript, the word left is lined through and the word right was added in the margin. The manuscript illustrates both a left arm and a right arm grapple from roughly this situation. The left arm grapple is illustrated in the image immediately below. The priest executes his grapple by passing forward deeply with his left foot and hooking the scholar's sword arm with his buckler arm.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p08.jpg[/img]
The right arm grapple is simplicity itself. The priest simply lunges deep towards the scholar with his right foot (an accressere) and folds his right elbow over the arms of the scholar. The blade naturally follows. The only counter left to the scholar is dropping his weapons in order to escape the grip. Of course, if the priest fails to grapple BOTH of the scholar's arms, he's in a world of hurt. This grapple can be seen at the top of the image below.
[img]http://freywild.ch/i33/i33_pix/p36.jpg[/img]
The sword-change is the third option. I don’t have a firm opinion on how this is done. The essence of the action is to change the nature of the bind. The priest acts to move from being underbound on the left to being overbound on the left. Wagner and Hand describe this action in a very convincing manner. It is essentially their version of the durchtreten but, instead of cutting the scholar’s head, the blade continues around until it intercepts the oncoming attack of the scholar and deflects it down and to the left.