n the waning years of the 15th century, Peter Falkner was a long-time member and sometime captain of the famed Marxbruder fencing guild, and it was during this tenure that he set about creating an illustrated fight book of his own. Colorful, painted figures and short captions depict combat with a wide variety of weapons: the longsword, dagger, staff, poleaxe, halberd, dueling shield and mounted combat. Smaller, and less elaborate, Falkner’s work has never gotten the attention that has been received by the similar books of Hans Talhoffer or Paulus Kal.
This is unfortunate, because in many areas Falkner provides superior instruction, or unique commentary. Where his work excels, however, is in its extensive treatment of the falchion-like messer, clearly following in the tradition of Han Lecküchner, and his adaptations of those techniques back into the core weapon of the Liechtenauer tradtition – the longsword. In many ways, this makes Falkner a “missing link”, showing us how the two great traditions of late Medieval Germany, those of Lecküchner and Liechtenauer interwove and informed one another within the actual fencing guilds.
Christian discusses these topics and more in this new, video interview:
The Freelancer 