Sigmund Ringeck's books

[John Bentley]

There are two books in print about Sigmund Ringeck's commentaries on Liechtenauer: Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship edited by Tobler, and Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword byLindholm.

I know Lindholm is a practicing member of ARMA, so would his book be better for a beginner (such as myself) who wishes to use it for a teaching guide? I can only afford one of the books.

Edited to add:
I see from the description at Barnes and Noble that Lindholm's book is only about the Longsword, whereas the Tobler book contains buckler, wrestling, half-swording, etc. Still, I am a beginner, so I'm tempted to buy Lindholm's book simply because it is written from the perspective of somebody who is actually trying to use Ringeck's commentaries.

Comments anyone?

[Matthew_Anderson]

I have Tobler's book and it's good, I've gotten a lot of use out of it. I like Lindholm's better for the longsword material however, I especially like the illustrations with the arrows that indicate direction of movement and foot placement, etc. It has helped clear up several things for me. I guess if I could only have one or the other, I'd pick Lindholm's.

[JohnGallego]

Both are great books. Personally I'd recommend Toblers second book, "Fighting with the German Longsword" it is most definately geared toward the beginner. After you tackle that try Lindholm's book to see some fo the stuff Tobler only touched on.

[Jake_Norwood]

I'll agree with the comments above. Tobler's second book is a significant improvement on his first, which still has it's uses. Most everything of real value, however, in the first book appears again in the second--and most of it improved considerably.

Lindholm's book is better for longsword, especially if you are trying to get a hang on a lot of the German terminology (the Original text is included, unlike Tobler's). Also, the drawings are easier to learn from than the photos in Tobler's book.

Not to say that there aren't drawback's to Lindholm's as well.

I will note that the non-longsword sections in Tobler are rather short, and not horribly useful unless you allready have a good grounding in the art that they describe (and then they're still not that useful).

Jake

[G.MatthewWebb]

I likewise agree with getting Tobler's Fighting with the German Longsword and Lindholm's Ringeck book. Buy both if you can, and if you can't then I'd recommend Fighting with the German Longsword because it is designed to be an instructional book and has lots of simple drills to do. I agree with Matt Anderson that the drawings in Lindholm's book are far easier to follow than the sometimes awful photos in Tobler's first book (his second book, Fighting with the German Longsword has much improved photos illustrating the moves and drills). Jake is right that the non-longsword sections in Tobler's first book are probably much less useful, especially to a beginner. Additionally, the absence of a German text in Tobler's first book is a fatal mistake for a book purporting to have scholarly aspirations (and at an academic book price!). To study German longsword and not to learn the German-language vocabulary could be a mortal blow to your attempts to research and achieve understanding and skill in the art.

Matthew Webb
Oklahoma City, OK
USA

[G.MatthewWebb]

Post deleted by Shane Smith as it was an accidental double-post.

[Jeffrey Hull]

I agree with all previous aclaim for the book *Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword* by David Lindholm.

I would get it for what I would say tends to be superior interpretation of technique; the arrangement of English translation beside German transcription; historical background; nice foreword (by John Clements); useful and interesting appendices about armoured fencing, sword-sharpening (by Peter Johnsson), and practice-cutting; footwork diagrams; and glossary. I find myself agreeing with about 90% of what DL has to say, and I know that I learned a lot.

One thing to consider as well: if you get DL's book and learn all of Ringeck's longsword stuff for starters, you can soon also get DL's rendering of the rest of Ringeck's teaching, since DL has a companion volume covering that other stuff in the works for upcoming publication.

JH

[Kevin Peterson]

My recommendation to you is buy the one book now that you will learn the most from. Both have great qualities and I have learned alot from both, however each reads differently. The Lindholm book has arrows showing movement of blade as well as feet. This can be useful in trying to figure out how they went from point A to point B. The Tobler book uses pictures to show you the positions that are worked through. This means that you need to visualize what happened between the pictures. That is not a problem for me but I know some people that just struggle with it. If you can't visualize the action between still photos, I recommend the Lindholm book, If you have no problem with visualization, I recommend the Tobler book. What good is the information if you cannot process it, right? By the way, I picked up my copies of both books off of Ebay. There are people that sell books in quantities and you can pick up new books cheap. I paid about half of what they retail for and bothwere new and came sealed. Just a thought, maybe that would save you enough money to get them both.