A strong diagonal cut from the right shoulder, thrown into the opponent's Oberhau so that the blades bind and your point threatens their face.
The Zornhau is the first . It is thrown as the opponent's comes in: you step out to your right with a and cut diagonally from your right shoulder into their blade. Your meets their blade, their cut is displaced, and your stops in front of their face.
The cut itself is only half the technique. What matters is the instant of the bind:
- Soft bind (they yield or are weak): thrust straight along their blade, the .
- Hard bind (they push): into and thrust, or to the other side.
- They strike around: into the opening.
- They cover the winding: or .
The gloss keeps returning to the same instruction: feel what is happening in the bind and act .
Sources and interpretation
- Liechtenauer tradition well-attested The 15th-century glosses present the Zornhau as the answer to any Oberhau and go straight into bind-work from it. Sigmund ain Ringeck (Wiktenauer article and gloss)
- Joachim Meyer (1570) interpretive Meyer keeps the Zornhau as a principal cut and launches it from his own Zornhut; his devices tend to continue with further cuts rather than with the thrust, in line with his cut-focused system. Gründtliche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens (1570), Wiktenauer page
- Johannes Liechtenauer (Wiktenauer article, with the Zettel and its glosses) Article text CC BY-SA 4.0; hosted translations generally CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; the historical text is public domain Zettel, Zornhau verses and gloss.
- Sigmund ain Ringeck (Wiktenauer article and gloss) Article text CC BY-SA 4.0; hosted translations generally CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Ringeck's gloss on the Zornhau.
- Pseudo-Peter von Danzig (Wiktenauer article and gloss) Article text CC BY-SA 4.0; hosted translations generally CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Pseudo-Danzig's gloss on the Zornhau.