 The group
Hammaborg originates from a training group that was founded in
Hamburg in 1999 and dedicates
itself to reconstructing
and training historical European
martial arts. The sources we
work with are transcriptions
and facsimiles of German manuscripts
from the 14th and 15th century: MS I.33 for instance, the oldest
known fechtbuch (fightbook)
of the world, as well as several
manuscripts in the tradition
of Johannes Liechtenauer, a master
of martial arts in the late 14th century.
Unfortunately, no comparable sources exist for the reconstruction of early medieval fighting techniques. Nevertheless we endeavour to draw conclusions about armoured single combat—particularly concerning fighting with the large Viking round shield. For this purpose we compare contemporary iconography and fighting-related literature from later times and complement this with practical experiments with replicas of early medieval arms and armour.
Historical European martial arts are being explored and reconstructed
from about the middle of the
1990s on the basis of
historical sources. Hammaborg
is part of an international network
of historical fencing groups
and a member of HEMAC
(Historical European Martial
Arts Coalition). HEMAC is an
international association of
Europe's leading explorers and
instructors.
A Falchion / Langes Messer Fencing Treatise by Johannes Lecküchner (1482)
Lecküchner's Langes Messer treatise is freely available as a PDF document for training and research purposes (646 pages, 47 MB). It contains:
- Part 1 – An introductory section about Lecküchner's Messer fencing, weapons and the author's approach on the manuscripts.
- Part 2 – The main part of the document features
- all illustrations from codex Cgm 582,
- transcription of the text,
- English translation of the text,
- plus a transcription and translation of differing contents in Lecküchner's Heidelberg codex Cpg 430 as footnotes.
- Part 3 – A concordance table of the manuscripts Cgm 582, Cpg 430 and Cod.I.6.4o.3 (Jude Lew), list of figures and bibliography.
About the author
Dr Grzegorz ?abi?ski (Upper Silesia, PL), historian and archaeologist. Apart from medieval and early Renaissance martial arts, his research interests also include weaponry studies and archaeometallurgy. He is currently employed at the Institute of History of Jan D?ugosz Academy in Cz?stochowa, PL.
Co-authors
Russ Mitchell (Texas) is a historian and experimental archaeologist specializing in medieval arms and armor. He holds teaching ranks in several martial arts and has a special focus on Central and Eastern-European weaponry.
Falko Fritz is a historical fencer from Hamburg. Since 2009 he holds the weekly training for Langes Messer at Hammaborg – historischer Schwertkampf e.V.
Reviewer
Gerhard Gohr is instructor for Langes Messer at Der Fechtsaal, Krefeld, and an experienced interpreter of Lecküchner's techniques.
The translation in the PDF document is independent from the partial translation by Falko Fritz found online on this website.
 Download
More publications
|
|
