I treat this blog as an ongoing project. Its purpose is to help me gather my thoughts so that I am prepared if teaching a class on i.33. This means I will update my understanding and interpretation over time, and may revisit older posts to update them. I have recently realised that I have been using the term 'falling under the sword' incorrectly. It will take me some time to edit my older posts, so for now here is my explanation.
The term comes from a verse in i.33 (from the Joey Nitti translation):
If halpschilt (half-shield) is conducted, fall under the sword and shield.
If he is common, he will seize the head, then you stichslach.
If he rebinds and steps against you, then you schiltslach (shield-knock).
The first line appears multiple times (If halpschilt (half-shield) is conducted, fall under the sword and shield), but the full verse only once.
The verse is written from the perspective of the priest, who is in first ward, and the student is attacking the priest using half-shield.
If you are familiar with the plays of third ward or first ward vs half-shield (I.33 Sword and Buckler - 101 - Part 9: Third ward vs. half-shield (hema101.com) , I.33 Sword and buckler - 101 - Part 15: First ward vs. half-shield (hema101.com)) then you should understand what this verse is saying (using my stages of the fight):
I am in first ward.
My opponent (he in the verse) enters in half-shield. Halphschilt is conducted...
a) If I do nothing he attacks my head (in the verse, 'if he is common' suggesting this is what an untrained person would do), therefore b) I counter this by making an underbind to the outside of his sword (my left) and conducting a stichslach around his defence.
'If he rebinds and steps against you' - meaning he defends against my attack on the outside by binding my sword down to my left...
a) ...where he then makes a shield-knock and Nucken. To prevent this I b) disengage under his sword and attack from my right with a rebind (changing of the swords) and shield-knock (schiltslach) and Nucken of my own (or perhaps a step-through instead).
I've tried to illustrate this below. Note, in i.33 fashion, the priest is sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right.
Now, the underbind in 3b could come earlier, i.e. I could underbind and then he attacks my head like the verse suggests, or I could fail to underbind and he still attacks my head. It doesn't really make a difference.
So what about this term 'Fall under the sword and shield'?
In all of my previous blog posts, I had assumed that to 'fall under' was to carry out the disengage under the opponent's sword from one side to the other. While this makes intuitive sense and this action does happen (in stage 5b), I now realise that to 'fall under' is referring to the earlier action in stage 3b - namely, to form an underbind. From here I can now stichslach or disengage under.
So why is it called falling under the sword?
I have written at length that, in my opinion, half-shield is held directed at the sword of the opponent, not at the opponent's centre (footwork is also important here to get offline). This covers the outside line (if used on the right) or inside (if used on the left). In alternative interpretations where half-shield is held centrally, the sword arm is exposed, and from first ward or third ward my opponent could cut down onto my sword arm. They could also easily form an overbind over my blade. To refer to this attack to my sword arm, or even an overbind, as 'falling under the sword and shield' makes no sense to me, and there is no mention in i.33 of attacking the sword arm of the person in half-shield. Instead, it says to stichslach, which is only neccessary if you are in an underbind.
However, when half-shield is held like I've sugested, pointing to the outside, the sword is directed outwards, meaning that it is impossible for the opponent to gain an overbind from the outside. See the image below (ignore the black arrow). Orange is in half-shield, and his sword is pointed vertically, but also a little horizontally as well. (The image isn't completely correct, as the edge of orange's sword should be facing forward, I've drawn it with the flat facing forwards because I'm a poor artist). When blue attacks to the outside (to orange's right), he will be in an underbind. He will have 'fallen under the sword and shield'.
So, what does this mean for my interpretation of i.33? Not much really, except that I have used the term 'fall under the sword' incorrectly to refer to the disengage under the opponent's blade, when it should refer to the underbind before that. It makes no difference to the plays at all. However, I will update my earlier posts when I have the chance.
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