H16: The hanging (Hengen)

08/15/2019

The Hengen is described as being in lower (plow) or higher (ox) positions although the initial description is cryptic:

"Mark, this is a lesson and an admonition of Hanging
and of Winding with the sword; therein you shall well
meditate on and take account of, so that you boldly drive with
agility and break against the others fencers' techniques
correctly, and drive boldly against him therefrom. When the
hangings are the Ox above on both sides, these are the two
upper hangings; and the Plow below on both sides, these are
the lower two hangings. From the Four Hangings you shall
bring Eight Windings, four from the Ox, and four from the
Plow, and the same Eight Windings you shall further thus
consider and correctly weigh, so that from every particular
Winding you shall drive the Three Wounders (that is a hew, a
stab, and a slice)."

Elsewhere in the gloss, the purpose of the Hengen is provided with this description:

"If he is hard and strong at the sword and intends to force you
aside strongly, you should be soft and weak against his
strength, and yield to his strength and forward pressure, thus
evading with your sword. And with this evading as his sword
swings about, as it has been written before, and now as this
happens and while he is recovering from that and thus cannot
execute strikes or thrusts, you should attack his openings,
with strikes thrusts or cuts, wherever you may hit him best.
According to the teaching you should do this quickly bravely
and fast so that your adversary cannot come to strikes. As
Liechtenauer says: "I tell you truthfully, no man defends
without danger, if you have understood it, he will not come to
strikes." And by this he means that the adversary will not be
able to safely defend if you act according to this teaching."

This has led to interpretations of the Hangen as a type of static hanging parry from which you use the force of your opponent's cut to respond with a counter attacking cut as shown in the video here.

However, the full scope of the 4 Hangen are directly involved with the Winden.

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