Meyer Frei Fechter, Free Fencing Guild

Meyer’s Dagger Combat: a Synopsis

by Jason Vail

The Upper Key Lock

Joachim Meyer’s 1570 treatment of dagger combat is rich in simple and practical, yet sophisticated technique. Altogether, the dagger section presents:

21 techniques for dagger vs. dagger combat.
12 techniques for unarmed defense.
8 dagger attacks.
6 general precepts.
3 defenses for when the enemy grabs one or both of your hands.
16 separate unarmed wrestling techniques at the end of the section.

In addition the text is accompanied by six plates which picture 28 defenses. Most are explained in the text, but eight are not.

Stylistically, Meyer’s dagger shares many characteristics with the methods depicted in other medieval and Renaissance manuals. It focuses mainly on defense rather than offense. It deals largely with reverse grip combat, where the blade extends below the little finger. But most importantly, it shares a core, fundamental approach we see across European manuals: that is, the first and most important aspect of dagger defense, whether armed or unarmed, is the deflection, capture and control of the enemy’s dagger arm. This control is achieved with:

The left hand, when the defender is armed. Meyer describes two grasps. The first, known as the “reverse hand,” where the defender’s thumb stands toward the attacker’s elbow. Exactly how the reverse grip is achieved is unclear, but at several points, Meyer advises strongly striking away the enemy’s arm, as if he envisioned something not dissimilar to a karate knife hand block. This normally, though not necessarily, would entail the palm of the defending hand to be down or facing toward the attacker. Such a method is shown in the German manual from 1500 known as the A.83. The second is the “straight hand,” where the defender’s thumb stands toward the attacker’s hand. This grip is achieved by a palming action not unlike that you see boxers employ to palm away a blow. Fiore illustrates these methods.
The right hand when the defender is unarmed. Reverse and straight hand grips are the same.
The right hand when the defender is armed. In this case, the dagger is in the right hand. Control is usually achieved by what Meyer describes as stabbing over the enemy’s arm. After the defender’s forearm makes contact, the dagger blade pinches the enemy’s arm against the forearm. This allows a momentary degree of control which is used to direct the enemy to a vulnerable position. The same technique can be seen in Talhoffer’s 1467 manual.
Both hands, when the defender is either armed or unarmed. This involves what is popularly known as the X block, but which I call “crossed hands.” Either term will do, but the defense is not properly a block as much as it is an interception and redirection of the attack with a meet-and-sweep movement. If this method is done while armed, Meyer is careful to advise you to lay the dagger blade along your forearm (he assumes a reverse grip). Control is gained with the off hand, which sweeps the enemy’s arm to the side. This method is seen in many manuals, including Fiore and Gladiatoria.
Both hands against the thrust from below. Here, the defender meets and deflects the attacker’s arm with his dagger and simultaneously (or immediately thereafter), grasps with his off hand. Talhoffer advocates this method.
Both hands where one follows another. Basically, this means that one hand performs the deflection and may or may not actually achieve control. The other hand then goes to help, securing the enemy’s arm and preventing further attacks. One example is: the enemy strikes from above in the reverse grip. You are also holding your weapon in the reverse grip. You meet the attack with your right hand with the dagger lying along your forearm. This deflects the enemy’s weapon to your right but does not achieve control. You obtain control by immediately bringing your left hand to the enemy’s elbow.
The overbind. This is also known as the overhook. To obtain the overhook you shoot your off arm over the top of the attacking arm and bring your off hand under the arm to your chest, trapping the enemy’s arm in your armpit. As it happens, this action deflects the enemy’s dagger hand. It is a fast and effective deflection. Fiore employed the overbind.

Meyer is so focused on capture and control that he does not mention thrusting or cutting to the attacker’s hand or arm, methods addressed in such diverse manuals as Fiore, Vadi, Marozzo and Paulus Kal. This is an unfortunate gap, since hand and arm cuts have a definite place in dagger play.

Meyer’s follow up techniques after achieving control are also very similar to those found in other manuals. Like other masters of the period, wrestling lay at the core of his method: “grappling is extremely important with the dagger, and grips are executed not only with one hand, but also with both hands.” For example, he makes good use of the back heel throw, the one-leg pick, the straight or pressing arm bar, the backward over-the-leg (which is so well described that reading the passage immediately improved my personal performance), the upper key lock (known in aikido as shiho nage) and so on — all of which can be found in other manuals in one variation or another.

Given the common emphasis on cover and control and the shared vocabulary of follow up techniques, it is obvious that Meyer’s method fits comfortably in a pan-European method of dagger combat that prevailed during the late middle ages and Renaissance. His manual simply expresses his vision of that method — that is to say, it sets out his personal style.

While Meyer may sound like a knock off, his manual provides answers to problems that others do not, a common feature of individual styles within a martial tradition, which share common features but have distinctive characteristics. For example, his is the only manual of which I am aware which describes what to do if you are standing in the high guard with your weapon in the reverse grip at the level of your right ear or at belt level, and your enemy strikes at your left ear. When your right foot leads, you’re better off defending with your right hand, even when it holds the dagger. If you study Meyer, you’ll know what to do. You might think: I don’t really need to know that. But if you train under realistic conditions as safely as can be managed, you’ll find that the technique comes in handy. He also has something different to say about what to do when your adversary grabs you by the collar (although two collar breaks depicted in the plates but not explained in the text appear identical to methods shown by Fiore), and he provides a quick way to break a man’s arm after you’ve caught it that I’ve not yet seen elsewhere.

Where Meyer is most different is in his treatment of how to attack. In most manuals, the reader is hard pressed to find even a single description of an attack. In Meyer, there are eight — seven for reverse grip and one for forward grip. Consistent with his sword methods, the dagger attacks often involve leading with feints to deceive the opponent. This is a bit at odds with his general approach to dagger defense, which is designed to address the committed attack and thus is often thwarted by the feint. The reliance on feints, at least to some degree, may signal a transition in dagger fighting from straight combat, where feints appear not to be used, to dueling, where it is necessary to break through the defense of a ready and prepared opponent by feinting.

Thus, in the end, it appears that Meyer had his feet at least partly in two camps: one firmly implanted in the old combat-oriented medieval methods and the other poised over new ways of dagger dueling characterized by Marozzo and Silver.

Yet sadly, Meyer appears to be the last great hurrah for European dagger combat. Some, like Fabris’ 1606 manuscript, touch on dagger combat and dagger defense, but I am not aware of any later European manuals to discuss its techniques in such depth. As Alfred Hutton noted in his 1889 work Cold Steel, the dagger fell out of use in Europe; and so people stopped practicing with it or writing about its techniques until Hutton attempted to revive interest in the weapon. It is a terrible loss these methods were forgotten. Their rediscovery is something to celebrate.