A Nice Messer from Landsknecht Emporium - And the Children of the Sun

Tl;dr: The artists at Landsknecht Emporium deliver again and very kindly indulged my request for a design that I cared about.

Detailed pictures and a short video at the end of the post.

Why Get a Messer

I’ve been without a good messer for fencing since I started fencing back in 2016. Messer fencing was pretty fundamental to German fencing culture for the period I focus on, and the first club I started at - bafflingly, in my opinion - doesn’t teach messer to beginners, so it flew under my radar for the first few years of my fencing “career.”

Earlier this year I decided to rectify that, and got in touch with Tamas at Landsknecht Emporium to talk about a custom piece I could use for fencing. I wanted a thick-edged blunt version of their “Gottfried” model with some customizations - longer pommel, slightly wider cross, slightly larger nagel, a “fuller” on the grip slabs, and a few other things. We figured out money and got the order in.

I wanted one because in 15th century Germany, pretty much everyone fenced, and messer fencing was extremely common:

The “first estate” of society (the clergy) fenced - see for example Hanko “Pfaffen” (“Priest”) Dȍbringer, mentioned as a longsword master in MS 3227a, or Johannes Lecküchner, the author of a mammoth manuscript on messer fencing. Papal prescriptions against violence certainly applied to those who sought to do violence to the clergy, but they also permitted the clergy to retaliate if attacked.

The “second estate” (the nobility) were primarily understood by society to be on Earth to engage in martial exploits, and knightly training of course included fencing. And, the Liechtenauer sources that I focus on tell me to become skilled with the messer as part of their “knightly” art.

And the “third estate” (the common people) also fenced - merchants, tradesmen, or rural laborers. They fenced at festivals and fairs, at fechtschulen (“Fencing schools”), or even just after work, for fun. Many period illustrations of tradesmen both in life and at their places of work show messers and similar swords being actively worn or hung on the walls.

Giving it some more thought, though, I decided I wanted a scabbard too - but what to do with that? Something basic and functional, so I could test out some fencing while wearing a scabbard and having to avoid not getting it tangled in my feet? Or something more decorative that would be fun to show off in the home, or at an event?

An idea got into my head: Why not get a scabbard with the sonnenkinder?

The Sonnenkinder and Marskinder - Not All Sword-Users Were “Fencers”

Knocking around with a sword is a little different from “fencing.” “Fencers” were understood in-period as being a particular subculture within society - both in culture and in the artistic works that responded to and participated in 15th century culture. Fencers-qua-fencers were understood as people who did more than just knock around with a sword, but who thought about fencing, and tried to practice specifically to get better at it.

Fencers, in the visual language of the time, were “Children of the Sun” - sonnenkinder. Here’s a sample image of the Children of the Sun from the Wolfegg hausbuch, which was created in approximately 1480. It's worth opening this and the following image up via the link so you can see them in full detail: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hausbuch_Wolfegg_14r_Sol.jpg

This depiction of the Children of the Sun includes all sorts of folks having a great time: In the bottom-left, we see the kneeling prayerful, praying to God; the giving of alms to a disabled beggar in tattered clothes; a goofball in a costume playing a pipe for a well-dressed couple studying a written document (poetry?); an ensemble of musicians playing for a gathering of well-dressed revelers, one of whom has his hunting falcon on his falconry glove.

And, importantly, just below the personified sun in the top of the image, we see athletes just under the sun’s gaze: A shot-putter, preparing to throw a heavy stone; a weight-lifter, lifting a heavy stone; a man drawing marks in the ground with a stick (instructions?); a pair of fencers, having just cast down their federschwert practice swords to wrestle; and staff-fencers. Overlooking it all is the sun, represented both as a sun with a face, and personified as a man in kingly robes, with a banner and a sceptre, a symbol of kingly authority.

The sonnenkinder were culturally understood in 15th century Germany to be in contrast to the marskinder - the Children of Mars. The children of Mars had very…different stereotyped activities in the visual language of the time: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Hausbuch_Wolfegg_13r_Mars.jpg

On the lower left, we see: A murder in progress, as a man prepares to stab his victim in the back of his neck with a dagger. The victim is on his stomach, with a look of fear and panic on his face as he realizes he is about to die. On the lower right, we see looters robbing someone, either slyly swiping a handful of coins or boldly making off with a victim’s purses in a lockbox while someone threatens to stab (or actually stabs!) the owner. The man stealing the lockbox already has a massively over-full bag - does he really need more?

In the middle, a bound and helpless prisoner is tied to the saddle of a soldier and made to walk; he is about to be clouted in the head with a gauntlet. To their left, another soldier drags a man desperately clinging to a fence while a woman (his wife?) prepares to smash a jar against the soldier’s hand. In the background, a woman wails with her hands raised, her eyes seeming to roll up in entreaty to God. Soldiers set fires, causing chaos. In the upper right, a soldier in a helmet and mail steals livestock as a woman tries to stop him.

Overlooking it all is Mars, personified as a man in full field harness for war, carrying only a spear. Even the barding that armors his horse is covered in “hostile” details, with spikes that contrast the graceful sweep of the barding on the steed of the Sun.

Art is not a photograph, and the choices that the artist rendering these images has made are quite striking. “Fencers” are visually coded as being distinct from “warriors” or “soldiers” in the semiotic visual language of 15th century Germany. Warriors were part of society, but were seen as vicious people who preyed on the vulnerable. Fencers, in contrast, were athletes and their activity was part of joyful revelry. Their art is depicted as being of a piece with sportive recreation, Godly charity, and civilized enjoyment.

What’s Your Point?

The point of all this is simply to say: Violence in the Late Medieval and Early Modern period was more complicated than “real deadly combat whenever swords appear.” Assuming that this is what our fencing should always strive to simulate appears to be an error when you look at the art they left us depicting the differences between the Children of the Sun and the Children of Mars, at least when it comes to unarmored fencing.

Anyone holding a sharp sword could certainly do violence with it. However the visual language of the period and culture whose fencing I try to embody, as reflected in its artwork, shows disapproval of aspirations to a “warrior” mindset. If anything, it encourages us to be good to our fencing partners. Give them a challenge, certainly, but the athletic culture of the time seemed to see fencing as being primarily for the enjoyment of gymnastic exercise, and you cannot practice fencing with a partner you have hurt in practice. If we want to recreate that art, we should not misunderstand the nature of our art to mean that we need to fence as hard as possible in order to be “authentic” in our fencing.

Fencers might have been better-prepared than the average person to fence with sharp swords and the intent to harm an opponent if needed, but this is less a product of their mindset and willingness to harm others than it is simply a product of the fact that they practiced. Trying to cultivate a “warrior” mentality with one’s fencing is out of step with how these societies saw warriors and fencers in the period these weapons were used. Fencers trained to be expert in the use of weapons, yes, but the context of their art is not shown as being war.

In the meantime, the more repetitions and practice we can complete with our fellow sonnenkinder, the more skilled and artful our practice will be.

The Messer Itself

I’m in love.

This was meant to be a “working” messer, useful for vigorous fencing, and I think it will fill that role exceptionally well. Unfortunately between COVID cases being fairly high in my area and my job making it virtually impossible to get to the club nearest to me most of the time, I haven’t had a chance to fence with it yet and may not for some time - but it feels amazing in the hand. I handed both my older messer and this new one to my wife - who does not fence - and her response was immediate, “Oh, this new one is great…it feels like an extension of my arm. This older one though…ugh it feels so heavy, it’s like it’s taking my arm away from me.”

It’s true - my old one is a bit clumsy and overbuilt. The LE product feels nimble, but choppy if I want it to chop. The Gottfried also makes a very nice, crisp sword-wind when I turn the blade around and cut with the short edge. It will make a good single-hand cutting practice tool for throwing cuts in the air. The flex in the blade is exceptional - I would feel unworried about getting or giving a concussion from a thrust with this sword. The point is large and rounded enough (without resorting to a rolled tip) that I also feel unworried about it accidentally penetrating my fencing partner’s safety gear. The edge is wide enough that it will spread the impact area enough to make it pretty safe with standard safety gear.

In terms of the aesthetics, I think it’s perfect. Some of the quote-unquote “rough finish” on the hollow pommel, scabbard locket, and chape are, I would say, thoroughgoingly Medieval. As Tod of Tod Cutler has pointed out, it’s important to remember that extant original swords are seldom “perfect” in the way that we modern people sometimes feel they want. I don’t want that for this - I want exactly what I got.

Instead, this looks like something I might pick up from a cutler friend in Nuremburg in about 1480. The front of the scabbard is a gorgeous product, with detail and time lavished on the figures. The back - which basically no one will see in person, and which you see because you’re looking at these pictures - gets the job done. A modestly complex, decorated scabbard like this one is eminently plausible as a middle-class tradesman’s slightly show-offy (but not too show-offy) way to adorn something he’d use relatively often. It is a bit too long to be legal for everyday carry in most of the cities of southern Germany of this time, but it’s a great length to use as my duty weapon when pulling a shift on the city watch. The length is also not too long to get in the way too much when just walking around taking care of things in the house (yes, I made lunch with it on the other day).

If You Want More Sonnenkinder Info

This is not an academic research article and this is not a bibliography, but if you want more information on the sonnenkinder, you can refer to these links:

Olivier Dupuis, "When Fencers and Wrestlers were the Children of the Sun," in Martial Culture in Medieval Town, 26/02/2020, https://martcult.hypotheses.org/780.

Lecture by Adam Franti on Late Medieval and Early Modern German athletic culture: https://youtu.be/JZyHmQ6nFMg

Video examples of some modern, reconstructed training based on the sonnenkinder iconography as part of Maciej Talaga's dissertation research: https://youtu.be/mOxWqdydnD4

Pictures and Video