Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth Century — John Shaqi
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth CenturyHewitt, John
History
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe: From the Iron Period of the Northern Nations to the End of the Thirteenth Century
Hewitt, John
Armor; Weapons
Figure 10 of our Plate, from Livonia, offers a variety from the axe
already described, in having an angle in its under line. A similar
contour is found in examples discovered in Normandy, and figured
on Plate VII. of the Abbé Cochet's work. The broad-axe is seen in
our figures 5 and 7; the first from Selzen, the other from Livonia.
Compare the Frankish specimen engraved at page 233 of _La Normandie
Souterraine_. Others have been found in England.
The single-axe used by the Anglo-Saxons in battle does not seem to
have differed in form from those employed in woodcraft; as may be seen
by referring to the Calendar contained in Cotton MS., Julius, A. vi.,
faithfully copied in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations." Indeed, it is
probable that the blade which had felled an oak was often called upon
to strike down an enemy. Manuscripts do not frequently give pictures
of the battle-axe; but examples occur in Cott. MS., Cleop., C. viii.,
and in the Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of the Library of Rouen.
The double-axe is of still more rare occurrence in book-paintings.
It appears in two places in Harleian MS., No. 603, but this is a
work not earlier than the close of the eleventh century. In the
graves, the bipennis has never been found at all; neither is it seen
in the hands of the Anglo-Saxons in the Bayeux Tapestry. But if the
bipennis of the true classical form, that is, having two vertical
blades, has not hitherto been seen among the varied contents of the
Northmen's graves, a very singular variety of this implement has been
discovered among the tombs of the Valley of the Eaulne. It is a kind
of adze-axe, the one blade being vertical, the other horizontal. It
was found by the Abbé Cochet in the cemetery of Parfondeval, and
has been engraved in his work, p. 306, and in the _Archæologia_,
vol. xxxv., p. 229. The adze form of one of the blades would seem to
indicate rather an artificer's tool than a warrior's weapon, and the
Abbé tells us that the peasants have still such an implement, which
they call their _bisaiguë_ (p. 307). We may remember, however, that
an authority for the military use of the horizontal blade exists in
the effigy at Malvern[77].
The Pole-axe is the almost universal form of this arm in the Bayeux
tapestry. Not only the Saxon soldiery, but Harold, and even Duke
William himself, are armed with this fearful weapon. Indeed, for
a force of infantry, as the English were, contending against
cavalry, no other kind of axe could have been of much service.
Wace, whose minute descriptions, wearisome enough to the general
reader, are invaluable to the archæologist, has not lost sight of
the long-handled axes of the islanders. He has even given us the
particular dimension of the head,--"ki fu d'acier:"--
"----un Engleiz vint acorant:
Hache noresche[78] out mult bele,
Plus de _plain pié_ out l'alemele[79].
* * * * *
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