Ringeck Danzig Lew: Long Sword

As a student of the Liechtenauer Tradition for around 6 or so years now, Cheney's translation contained within this book is amongst one of the most clear and smoothest I’ve come across. Cheney does away with cryptic and elevated language and favors a more modern, accessible English. So many times have I rolled my eyes whilst reading English translations that try to sound lofty and ye olde medieval-like. But, Cheney adapts his translation to a wider audience via transparent language and sentence structure. In addition, he clearly shows he’s done his research with a beautifully detailed appendix and footnotes that bring each chapter to a close.Regardless of your experience level, this translation is lovely. Of course, I always recommend learning Early New High German so that you don’t have to rely on anything but your own lens. With that said, this translation is pretty much second to none, and multiple translations offer insights into things that you may miss.I also have to say I’m pleasantly surprised at how readable this book is, even though it can be repetitive at times, regarding the subject matter. The author keeps it fresh without flare and needless inventions of new phrases; Cheney simply describes what’s there with transparency.Other than its plain aesthetics, I have zero negative comments to make about this book or it’s content. Personally I’d like a hardcover or something bound in leather, because such an excellent work deserves fancy clothing. I’d also like to see red font introduce the chapters and portions of the recital so as to replicate the experience of reading a manuscript. Nonetheless, my personal taste is not a nitpick.In short, this book is a treasure, no matter your level of experience.

Stephen Cheney clearly put a lot of thought and effort into his translations and the quality here is high. Having the big three branches translated in one place, by one author with a consistent style and nomenclature is extremely useful for those not fluent in Early New High German and want to reason about the "big picture", correlating concepts and actions across the treatises. While he does not present an analysis of the texts, he does provide a glossary and term list in an appendix which gives the reader a bit to think about.I'm very excited to see this published and hope there is more to come.

Since purchasing this book, my longsword HEMA rating has increased by two hundred points.

This book is for the HEMA student, always a good idea to read the manuscripts/glosses of the old fencing masters (The translations are well done). The best things to pair with this book are a feder and a training partner!

It's a bit of a headache chasing down and reading all the various documents written by Leichtenauer's students. This book does a good job of making these mainstays of HEMA/western martial arts easy to access. There are a few typesetting issues typical of a print-on-demand book but the subject matter is clear and the translations unobstructive.