Medieval polearms

A halberd (also called halbard or halbert) is a two-handed polearm that was in prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It may have a hook or thorn on the back of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants and protecting allied soldiers, typically musketeers. The halberd was usually long.

pole weapon

thumb|300px|Normans|Norman cavalry attacks the Anglo-Saxon [[shield wall at the Battle of Hastings as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The "lances" depicted here are held with a one-handed over-the-head grip, and so their use is not the same as the "lances" of the later medieval period, when they were fitted with a "grapper" designed to engage a lance rest attached to the wielder's plate armour and used couched in the charge.]]

right|thumb|upright|Two examples of a bardiche together with a flail (weapon)|flail, on display in [[Suzdal]]

thumb|300px|Glaives (from Handbook of Weapon Knowledge: Weaponry in Its Historical Development from the Beginning of the Middle Ages to the End of the 18th Century by Wendelin Boeheim, 1890)

thumb|Spontoon, American, detail (MET, 42.140) A spontoon, sometimes known by the variant spelling espontoon or as a half-pike, is a type of European polearm that came into being alongside the pike. The spontoon was in common use from the mid-17th century to the early 19th century, but it was used to a much lesser extent as a military weapon and ceremonial implement until the late 19th century.

thumb|Remains of original goedendags in the Kortrijk 1302 museum, Kortrijk, [[Belgium]]

thumb|Two examples of Guisarmes thumb|Illustration of a scene from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, showing an axe-shaped "giserne". A guisarme (sometimes gisarme, giserne or bisarme) is a polearm used in Europe primarily between 1000 and 1400. Its origin is likely Germanic, from the Old High German , literally "weeding iron". Like many medieval polearms, the exact early form of the weapon is hard to define from literary references, and the identification of surviving weapons can be speculative.

thumb|15th-century Republic of Venice|Venetian poleaxe at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] The poleaxe (also poleax, pollaxe and other similar spellings) is a European polearm that was used by medieval infantry. Poleaxes differ from halberds because the blade is vertical, not diagonal, and poleaxes are generally shorter than halberds.

thumb|Types of ranseur, 16th century A ranseur, also called Brandistocco or Runka, was a polearm similar to the partisan used in Europe up to the 15th century. It was still seen in court as a ceremonial weapon through the 17th century.

medieval pole weapon, war hammer with a pointed head, and usually with a long handle

polearm weapon used by infantry in medieval Europe

thumb|The Adoration of the Magi from the ''Livre d'heures d'Étienne Chevalier'' 1455). The leftmost character is holding a voulge A voulge (; also spelled vouge or wouge) is a type of polearm that existed in medieval Europe, primarily in 15th-century France.

pole weapon

polearm which was popular in Switzerland during the 15th to 17th centuries

A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European polearm, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period.

type of war hammer with a pointed head, usually with a short handle

type of pole weapon

thumb|50px|Drawing of an ahlspiess by Wendelin Boeheim The ahlspiess (or awl pike) was a thrusting spear developed and used primarily in Germany and Austria from the 15th to 16th centuries. The ahlspiess consisted of a long thin spike of square cross section measuring up to about a metre (39 inches) in length, mounted on a round wooden shaft and sometimes secured with a pair of langets extending from the socket. The length of the shaft ranged from 1.6 to 1.8 m. (5 - 6 feet), and located at the base of the spike was a rondel guard (a circular metal plate) to protect the hands. Large numbers of

The menaulion or menavlion (), also menaulon or menavlon (μέναυλον) was a heavy spear with a length of with a thick shaft, used by the Byzantine infantry as early as the 10th century AD, against enemy heavy cavalry. To give it increased strength, whole oak or cornel saplings were preferably used. These were then tipped with a long blade of ca. .

thumb|right|Gunnar Hámundarson defends his house with an atgeir in [[Njáls saga.]] An atgeir was a type of polearm in use in Viking Age Scandinavia and Norse colonies in the British Isles and Iceland. The word atgeirr is older than the Viking Age, and cognates can be found in Old English and other Germanic dialects (atiger, setgare, aizger), deriving from the Germanic root gar, and is related to the Old Norse geirr, meaning spear.

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thumb|Head of a sovnya A sovnya () is a category of traditional polearms used in Russia. Similar to the glaive, the sovnya had a curved, single-edged blade mounted on the end of a long pole. The modern term refers to weapons used by late-medieval Muscovite cavalry and were retained in use until the mid-17th century.