I’ve often pondered the virtues that Kal attributes to a fencer. We have the hawk’s eyes – this is pretty straight-forwards as far as birds of prey having clear eyesight and this seems to also have a double-meaning of perception. The lion’s heart, this also is quite clear – lions are physically strong, but also bravery is needed to stick to the fight. The feet, though, this has always bothered me. Why a hind? Why not a stag, a creature clearly more knightly than the doe.

Consulting bestiaries (as you do), I find that good old Isidore of Seville (whom I referenced in my book Medieval Wrestling) pointed out: “The doe (dammula) has this name because it escapes from the hand (de manu). It is a timid and unagressive animal.” This wording I find hilarious, when applied to fencing terminology.

Further, in “Lexicon of the Medieval Hunt: A Lexicon of Middle High German Terms” we find, among other intriguing information, “The art of tracking a stag and distinguishing its trail from that of a hind, was more highly cultivated in Medieval Germany than in either France or England, and it reached its apogee in 14-16 cent, when a large number of treatises on the subject were written down or printed. In a stag-hunt, the hind was an animal to avoid, since it’s trail could mislead an inesperienced or incautious huntsman. This fact may well have given rise to a superstitious avoidance of the animal’s name, esp during the hunt, and would explain the remarkable absence of the term [hind] from several 15 and 16 cent treatises on the tracking of deer, with the substitution of euphemistic names.”

Finally in “Essays on Medieval German and Other Poetry” we are told that “And if the path from the familiar to the unfamiliar world is to be particularly secret, then a hind is more likely to lead the way than a hart, not only because of the affinity of womanhood with secrecy, but also for the reason (obvious to hunters) that because of his antlers no less than his high mettle, the majestic male has to move in relatively open country, whereas the sleek doe can glide on unseen paths.”

So what kind of footwork does Kal wish us to have? Tricksy, unobvious, secret and misleading. This is completely at odds with the linear, driving footwork that so many of us train and revert to when we spar or compete.

Seek your inner doe, and find ways to slip unseen into and out of measure.