Battle Axes

[longbow]

LO chaps,

I think the Dane axe is a impressive weapon,it has fearsome power if the Blow is deliverd right and like Neil said it could cut people in half!People,Horses whatever stood in a Huscarl way had better be good or he's in trouble .

 

I've allways quite liked the Francisca throwing Axe,its a good way to brake a formation your about to plow into and i like it's sexy curves

 

 

Is a Glaive a Axe?

[caldrail]

Strictly speaking glaive is a pole-arm, an axe on a longer stick and used in two different ways. Firstly as long weapon to deter cavalry, but also allowing a wider swing with greater energy given the longer circumference. The drawback being of couse that using it to swing requires a lot of room! It was really an anti-cavalry axe if you want to look at things that way.

 

By the way, beware of fancy style axe heads which are derived from fantasy rather than history.

[Pertinax]

Please indulge a further question then : (and a possible very bad spelling) the "Rhomphia" /"Romphia"(?) is this a glaive like ceremonial polearm of the "Byzantine" period associated with Varangian.s? Or do I have false memory syndrome.

[caldrail]

No, its something else entirely. Apparently a thracian derived curved longsword in many ways reminiscent of the japanese no-dachi.

 

http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5972

[Pertinax]

No, its something else entirely. Apparently a thracian derived curved longsword in many ways reminiscent of the japanese no-dachi.

 

http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5972

That is quite alarmingly similar to a no-dachi ! Nothing very ceremonial about that then.

[caldrail]

Not really. But look at this chap....

 

 

He's a russian strelitz of the early renaissance. Notice the nasty polearm. Thats called a Bardiche. The 'bard' part of the name derives from an old german word barta which means axe or bill (not the financial sort!). For another example, the medieval Hellebarde is what we now know as the Halberd. There's a very strong german connection here. During the dark ages, the franks, saxons, angles, danes, germans, goths - all the warrior barbarian peoples - became enthusiastic axe wielders, usually falling into one of two camps. On the one hand is a short handled single headed axe, or a longer handled two-headed variety that became popular in the medieval period, or its derived version with one blade replaced with a spike. Yet the bardiche was never popular in western europe. It was however in much wider use in eastern parts, and I wonder if this has a byzantine origin. Was your varangian ceremonial polearm an earlier version of this perhaps?