The Rake

Reading the Ledall Roll, Harley, Basic Instructions, Jason B's Curriculum and Ars Ensis' Interpretation, there's a few possibilities, of what the Rake could be.

  I believe a Rake is a percussive slicing cut with the weak of the blade, mainly powered by the elbows and usually started and ending with the sword in front of you the whole time.

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With the designated targets of a Rake being quite often the elbows as shown in the Ledall Roll (AMS) a slight impact and draw cut would be efficient at disabling an opponent's muscles or tendons, whether from above or below.

........."standing still play 3 Rakes lightly cutting to the elbows," ......

(LR-First flourish)

Additionally, the drawing in, or pulling motion of a draw cut mirrors the use of the gardening tool also called "Rake"
 
The strike could be used from above, below or either left or right.

Harley's 4th chase, 2nd part says;

......made up with a rake down......

(4th chase, 2nd part)

and the 7th;

.....The 7th lesson and the first taking up is 3 rakes upward and 3 downward.....

(7th chase, 2nd part)

With my interpretation of directions in English sources of generally being the facing of the fore edge to the centerline or target, these would fit into that neatly.

According to etymonline, the word and meaning of "rake" existed in old english;

Rake:

"toothed tool for drawing or scraping things together," Old English raca "rake," earlier ræce, from Proto-Germanic rak- "gather, heap up," which is reconstructed to be from PIE root reg- "move in a straight line," with derivatives meaning "to direct in a straight line," thus "to lead, rule."

The implement is so called perhaps via its action, or via the notion of "implement with straight pieces of wood" Watkins. Germanic cognates include Old Norse reka "spade, shovel," Old High German rehho, German Rechen "a rake," Gothic rikan "to heap up, collect."



The following is a helpful collection of evidence/theories by ARS ENSIS, who wrote a substantial and helpful article.

The English word “rake” has the following meaning:

Tool in agriculture long handle, can be held by two hands having teeth or tines which can scratch (or, actually, can rake) may be turned, when, for example, used as hay rake for building haystack.

Rake as verb;

 Rake with its teeth may scratch or scrape. Rake in falconery means the fly of the hawk from the falconer or after catching te prey. 

 Rake as direction “inclination from the perpendicular” or “… from horizontal” (Geldof, 2011) identifies the word as a dance step, and, in general, considers rake as a diagonal movement.
Summary and translation Rake, in certain contexts, may mean a “diagonal step”, as it was found formerly under Footwork chapter.

 The former lines lean towards the draw cut interpretation with scratching however the latter speaks of it as a diagonal footwork step. 

 Altogether this doesn't have to be exclusive, however due to ledall's 10th chase as an example; 

........A Down-right stroke voiding back the left foot, suddenly play a Rake followed with the right foot. The void back the left leg....... 

Which following the footwork would mess up the flow, harming the thought the Rake as footwork.

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Jason Bright theorizes the Rake could be an upwards strike, similar to a Contrary-Quarter.

 He works over several different etymologies of the word;

 "from Old English racu (raking tool); akin to Old High German rehho rake (Merriam Webster)"

 "from Old English racian (“to direct, rule, govern, control; take a course or direction, go forward, move, run; hasten”)"

 "Middle English term rake is a shortened version of "rakehell" which means to proceed rapidly and was used in Old English to refer to someone who was prone to immoral conduct."

  He primarily uses the Rake as an upwards strike, angled or straight to strike reaching targets, such as hands, elbows, or the enemy sword itself to set up a thrust.

 We definitely agree on the targets but I don't believe it is exclusively an upwards cut, mostly due to the Cross-Rakes mentioned in Harley or aforementioned down Rakes.

 

 Bradak and Heslop's work, Lesson's on the English Longsword is a great read, and while I don't agree with them on everything, they had a few interesting points. 

They theorized the Rake was any strike that used only the hands to generate power creating a drawing cut. 

 They go more in-depth, regardless I believe this is too limiting of a description of the Rake but it helped with my own theory.

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  I believe it is more likely that the elbows play a large part in this strike, and over the past year drilling different interpretations of Ledall's chases, the most consistent success doing his "Proffer, Rake, Quarter" has been treating it as a slight percussive draw cut akin to a Round or Quarter.

  Movement is by your elbows to strike, and on contact pulling it in to slice, the angle of travel of my blade usually is horizontal, or slightly angled from below, all while keeping the sword in front of you.

 

 The body mechanics as you pull this off, is quite literally the same exact as if you were raking a lawn of leaves, extending your elbows and retracting, and this has proved effective time and time again. 

 The focus is now on the action of the elbows and hands, which now puts in harmony with Cotton's staff plays, the main issue with just a draw cut theory.

Strokes at the Two-handed Staff

......The first point is a flourish about the Finger. The next flourish is about the hand And then 3 quarters and a round and 2 rakes and 2 foins 3 quarters closed that a round ware him that arms behind and then 2 awks for the wrong side and then a foin for him in the other side and the heart the foot and the eye to accord etc......

 You can't do a draw cut with a staff, but if the Rake is now defined by the action of the elbows and hands, it works, and creates a percussive strike.

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The content and layout of this essay is subject to change as interpretations evolve or evidence is presented. Please be patient, and thanks for reading!

Sources:

ARS ENSIS Lovagi Kör és Kardvívó Iskola Egyesület Free Scholler SZAKDOLGOZAT Medieval English Longsword Manuscripts: An Analysis (Can't link, apologies)

Jason Bright's English Longsword Curriculum (Can't link, hopefully will publish eventually)

Ledall Roll - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Ledall_Roll_(Additional_MS_39564)

Harley - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Man_yt_Wol_(MS_Harley_3542)

Silver - https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/George_Silver

Etymonline - https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Rake

Michigan Library - https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED5742/track?counter=2&search_id=1843930