Guide Book question

[Bryce Johns]

I'm looking at some guidebooks to get, (as a student I have a very small budget).

I have briefly read "Medieval Swordsmanship" by John Clements before and liked it a lot, but I was looking around online and saw "Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword" By David Lindholm & Peter Svärd which also looks fairly good.

I can only afford one, any suggestions as to which book or others I should get as a newbie to get started? Good Illustrations are pretty important for me.



(Sorry Mods if this is redundant, but this is a question I want answered and no one has replied to my previous thread which had more less pressing questions on it .)

[Sal Bertucci]

Well they are both a bit dated, but in some ways that works in your favor. (i.e. you can get them for cheap)

I got each for less than $20 including shipping (closer to $10 I think, but I was able to wait around on Ebay before striking)

Medieval Swordsmanship is a very good "foot in the door" book. That being said, if you actually want to practice RMA I would go with Ringeck b/c it is an actual translation, and gives you more techniques to work with.

[Clint_Schaaf]

I'm a newbie as well and I've just bought and read through lindholm and Svärd. My only issue is they spend a lot of time explaining exceptions to the techniques and even have some pictured showing alternate way of doing techniques instead of the technique it's self. For an experienced longsword practitioner this isn't a big deal, but for an amateur like me it gets confusing. I've been reading this book along with Tobbler's 'Secrets of Medieval German Swordsmanship' and they work together very well. I know you don't have that budget, but there are a lot of online resources to compare Lindholm and Svärd to. I've spent a bit of time just browsing the arma forum public archives. They've answered most of my questions before I've even asked!

[william_cain_iii]

I recommend the following combination, personally:

Lindholm's Knightly Art of the Longsword as a copy of Ringeck. It has pictures that can show you the broad basics of what the moves should look like.

As a companion, pick up In Saint George's Name by Christian Tobler. This is a translation of the 'Von Danzig' manuscript (misnamed, but it's the common term), including the german text. No pictures, but plenty of material to read.

Von Danzig is very close to Ringeck, but organized differently enough to allow your mind to work a bit differently with it. Combining the study of both of them will help put you on a very good path to understanding the Zedel.

Cheers