Fig. 92.—German Processional Axe.
The Axe[312] was adopted by the Franks, as well as by the Scandinavians and the Germans, especially the Saxons. Hence the two-edged axe when affixed to long staves, forming a spear, became the Icelandic Hall-bard[313] (hall-axe?), the Teutonic Alle-barde (‘all-cleaver’), and the ‘Pole-axe,’ called from Poland (= Polje, the plain-country). This modification was universal in Northern Europe during the first ages of Christianity. The earliest shape (middle fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries) was a broad and massive axe, mounted on a thick and solid spear; in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the blade became more slender and hollow-edged, and the head longer and more taper. The Swiss introduced the Halbert to France in the middle fifteenth century: in the seventeenth century it was conventionalised, the axe resumed its original aspect, and the spear grew to leaf-shape. In this form it was retained by the subalterns and sergeants of the British army till abolished with the pig-tails of ‘Shaven England.’ It is not wholly forgotten on ceremonious occasions in certain European Courts, and during all its changes it has ever retained its cousinly likeness to the broadsword.
Fig. 93.—Halbards.
Fig. 94.—Halbards.
Fig. 95.—a, b. Bechwana’s Club Axe; c. The Same, Expanded; d. The Same, Barbed; e. Silepe of the Basutos; f. Horseman’s Axe of the Sixteenth Century.
AXE AND SCYMITAR.