To Break the Four Openings Four openings know,

aim: so you hit certainly,

upon all go

without regard for how he acts.

When you want to consider,

how to break the four openings with skill:

above dupliere,

below well mutliere.

I say to you truthfully:

he can not defend himself without danger,

if you have correctly learned,

to striking he will barely come.

I am using the Ringeck/Tobler of the Liechtenauer verse. If you look at the Wiktenauer translation, you see this instead:

Wit the four openings –

Foe has eight, thus you surely hit.

Strike not by chance,

Look even how he behaves / initiates.

If you have understood this,

he can hardly come to blows.

This is troubling. Attacking “without regard to how he acts” suggests a very aggressive style where you put the opponent into nach and maintain the vor throughout. The latter suggests you hold back and wait for an opening, seizing the vor only once you’ve discovered a flaw.

Ringeck defends his version by saying, “Don’t pay attention to what he’s up to, fence securely and you’ll hit so outstandingly that he’ll not be able to get through with his own techniques.”

Definitions

Doplieren – Doubling

also dublieren, doublieren

Meyer

This is to make a cut or technique double in this way: Cut first from your right to his ear; at once when the swords clash together, push your pommel through under your right arm; go up at the same time with both arms and strike him with the short edge behind his blade on his head. This handwork is called doubling, because through it a cut is doubled or executed twice, first with the long edge, then with the short.

Duplieren

ARMA

When you strike a strike of wrath (Zornhau) or any other Oberhau and he displaces it with strength, with the left hand, immediately thrust the pommel of your sword under your right arm. With crossed hands, behind his blade and in between the blade and his body, strike him diagonally through the face. Or strike him on the head.

Mutieren – Mutate

ARMA

If you bind against his sword, with an Oberhau or otherwise, wind the short edge at his sword, raise your arms and thrust at the lower opening from the outside along his blade. You can use that from both sides.

ARMA: http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Ringeck.htm