Half-sword ( English Half-Sword , German Halbschwert , ital. Mezza spada ) - a technique used in the XIV-XVI centuries during sword fights against an opponent dressed in full armor . Otherwise called a shortened sword , or shortening of the sword ( it. Kurzen Schwert ). It consists in intercepting the blade of his sword with his left hand (with the right hand, in case the left hand holds the sword), which allowed inflicting more accurate piercing blows, mainly aimed at the gaps between the plates of the armor, which was one of the few ways to defeat the enemy with similar protection. In addition, the retention of the blade did not allow the tip to slide off the surface of the armor. The left hand did not fix the blade rigidly, but only set the direction of the blow to the sword, which slid across the palm like a billiard cue [1] .
The first mentions of such a technique go back to Johannes Lichtenauer who lived in the XIV century recognized founder of the German fencing school [2] . Later he was described in many fencing treatises (Wallerstein Codex, Gladiatoria and others). In order to avoid cuts in the palm of your hand, it was recommended to sharpen the blade to perform this technique only partially, in the area adjacent to the tip. The rest of the blade is not only not sharpened, but sometimes even blunt on purpose. For example, according to the Italian treatise De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi (1482-1487), it was recommended not to sharpen the sword at a distance of four fingers from the handle (obviously, it means the length, not the thickness of the fingers, which gives about 30 cm) [1] . To some extent, defended the hand and gauntlet. Although it was not metallic from the side of the palm, the edges of the outer metal part could protect the hand from direct contact with the blade. Additional protection was given by a leather glove fixed inside the actual patch. It can also be noted that, according to the treatises of that time, the fighters very actively grasped the enemy’s blade in order to change the direction of the blow, and sometimes took their own sword with both hands on the blade, striking with the pommel and the cross [2] .
Links
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Thomas Labible. Sword. Large illustrated encyclopedia = Das Schwert. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. - M .: Omega, 2011. - p. 98. - 232 p. - ISBN 978-3-938711-05-7 .
- ↑ 1 2 Thomas Labible. Sword. Large illustrated encyclopedia = Das Schwert. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. - M .: Omega, 2011. - p. 40. - 232 p. - ISBN 978-3-938711-05-7 .