Fighting with the German Longsword

With his first book, Christian Henry Tobler offered students of historical swordsmanship a first English-language look at the renowned German school through the translated and interpreted commentaries of Sigmund Ringeck and the verse Zettel of Johannes Liechtenauer. Since the book's release in 2002, Mr. Tobler has expanded his knowledgeof the Liechtenauer system and encapsulated its teachings through the use of the main Liechtenauer sources and through practical teaching in his Selohaar Fechtschule and in seminars around the United States. Fighting With the German Longsword is a brilliant book, distilling the foundational concepts that underly the German system and presenting them in a logical order complete with drills and photographic support. Now, the students of German swordsmanship can build their skills in a well-organized and sensible progression of skills. As such, the book will prove useful to anyone interested in historical swordsmanship. Fighting draws from the corpus of German manuscripts, including those of Hanko Döbringer, Sigmund Ringeck, Hans Talhoffer, Paulus Kals, the von Danzig fechtbuch, Jud Lew, Hans von Speyer, and Joachim Meyer. Most of the work is based on Mr. Tobler's original translations, tempered by his experience with the system as a whole. No look at the historical techniques would be complete without close quarters work, and Mr. Tobler is to be particularly congratulated for his distillation of the principles of the Drei Ringen or Three Wrestlings. Using this simple system, the fundamentals of the close quarters Krieg may be easily integrated. The author then extends these principles to the wrestling at the sword, in and out of armour. The sections on spear and halfswording step the combatant through an application of the principles in such a way that they can be applied to any martial system, including the study of historical swordsmanship for its own sake, for use in armoured tournaments, for stage, and for SCA/Reenactment purposes. On its own or as a companion to Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship, this book will become an essential part of any library on historical sword techniques. Mr. Tobler has been a student of swordsmanship for more than twenty years, developing martial skills as a part of a wider “chivalric curriculum” for the Order of Selohaar. Since 1999 he has been a structural pillar within the historical swordsmanship community, championing the German system, especially in North America. His abilities are lauded worldwide, and he is an acknowledged expert on the German system of Johannes Liechtenauer.