Close-Quarters Maneuvers
See also Winding Through.
Half-Sword:
Other examples: Wallerstein 9r ff.; Talhoffer 1467: 37 and passim; Mair (Vienna) 57r ff.; Meyer 48v.1, 52v.1, 61r.3, 63v.3, and Images C:b, E:c, E:d, H:c, N:c, O:a, O:d
This technique involves releasing the L hand from the pommel and grasping the blade. It derives from the use of the longsword in armor, and is particularly useful in close-quarters grappling.
Both Egenolph and Mair have full sequences that begin from the half-sword position.
Traditionally, one would have expected this to have happened only in armor, but in Egenolph, the context suggests unarmored practice [10r, 13r-v], and in Mair, the illustrations show unarmored combatants [57r ff.]. Both texts call these sequence Kampfstücke (“battle devices”). This material probably reflects a martial-arts derivative of the techniques of armored combat.
Catching Over:
To snag the pommel over the opponent’s arm or sword.
Note that the term can also refer to Gripping Over (q.v.).
Running In:
This may mean the same thing as einlauffen, although several of the
Ringeck and Starhemberg instances clearly call for the combatant to close by ducking his head under—i.e. “through”—the opponent’s arm. Starhemberg 22v and 37r seem to imply that the opponent’s arms need to be high to permit running through; if his arms are low, one should execute arm-grappling [Starhemberg 37r]. Starhemberg 32v equates running through with body-grappling.
On wrestling with longsword in general, see Ringeck 42r ff.; Starhemberg 22v; Wallerstein 8v ff., 21r; Solothurn p. 37 ff.; Egenolph 11v ff., 13r; Mair (Vienna) 13v ff., 44v ff., 64v ff.; Meyer 61r ff. To close with an opponent in order to grapple or wrestle.
