Ringen (Medieval German Wrestling)
German wrestling of the 14th to 16th centuries, as important in the fight books as the sword. The sources divide the friendly mode from the serious one, where locks and strikes are allowed.
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About Ringen (Medieval German Wrestling)
Ringen is German wrestling of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, and in the fight books of the period it takes up as much space as the sword. That surprises a modern reader, but it follows from the nature of the fighting: once two armed men closed, the sword stopped being usable and grip, lock and throw decided the matter. Ringen was therefore not an accessory but the core. The sources distinguish two modes. Geselliges Ringen is friendly wrestling for practice and sport, where the throw is the point. Kampfringen is the serious mode, in which joint locks, pressure to eyes and throat, and strikes are permitted — what today belongs to self-defence rather than sport. The master the manuscripts cite most often is Ott Jud, a wrestler in the service of the Austrian dukes, whose teaching is copied into dozens of codices; he left no book of his own. Ringen forms part of the Liechtenauer tradition and appears in Talhoffer, Ringeck and others. Today it is reconstructed within HEMA and is often the first thing learned there, since it needs neither weapon nor equipment. Besides the manuscripts there is a printed book: in 1539 Fabian von Auerswald published a wrestling manual with woodcuts from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the few wrestling texts to appear in print.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.