Langort is a position in the
German School
Education in Germany is primarily the responsibility of individual German States of Germany, states (), with the federal government playing a minor role. Optional Kindergarten, Kindergarden (nursery school) education is provided for all child ...
of
historical fencing
Historical European martial arts (HEMA) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms.
While there is limited surviving documentation of the martia ...
. In the Langort position, the point of the
sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
is extended. The term appears first in
Royal Armouries Ms. I.33
Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 is the earliest known surviving European ''fechtbuch'' (combat manual), and one of the oldest surviving martial arts manuals dealing with armed combat worldwide. I.33 is also known as the Walpurgis manuscript, after a fig ...
.
In modern literature, sometimes it is identified with the position ''vom tage'' in the system of
Johannes Liechtenauer Johannes Liechtenauer (also ''Lichtnauer'', ''Hans Lichtenawer'') was a German fencing master who had a great level of influence on the German fencing tradition in the 14th century.
Biography
Liechtenauer seems to have been active during the mi ...
, according to Ms.
Nürnberger Handschrift GNM 3227a
Codex 3227a of the in Nuremberg (also known as ''Hs. 3227a'', ''GNM 3227a'', ) is a manuscript of 169 folia, dated to the close of the 14th century. Its text is written in Latin and German. The German portions have been identified as in East C ...
. Although ''vom tage'' is executed with both hands and sword high over the head, while "Langort" is executed with both hands pointing away from the body, directly at the contrahent.
Also, ''vom tage'' is a very active position that gives you the opportunity to start a variety of attacks, while "Langort" is highly defensive and passive, mostly used to force a contrahent with shorter blade to keep distance. The only real possibility to attack while standing in this position is by running into a highly incautious opponent.
Otherwise standing in this position means to force your contrahent to either attack your blade or to run into the sword, which can create nearly insurmountable situations in combat.
References
Swordsmanship
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