Halberd

“ It was found with two flat celts. Three others, from 10 to 131⁄2 inches by 3 inches, were found together at Kingarth, [983] Bute. They are described as of reddish bronze.
The original of Fig. 336 was found near Stranraer, [984] Wigtonshire, and is now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. It is 121⁄2 inches long and 41⁄2 broad, and weighs nearly 13⁄4 lbs., so that if mounted as a halberd, it must have been a formidable weapon. The rivets are an inch in length.
In England and Wales the blades which can with any degree of confidence be regarded as those of halberds are by no means common. ”

“ Of course one is literally barricaded by halberdiers—two of them to every three persons, as a rule—and a very imposing line they make in their scarlet coats, white knee breeches and black gaiters, their halberds glittering round the four sides of the galleries. ”

“ Knives are common, and the vanity of Bronze Age man made him even put up without a murmur with the pangs of shaving with a bronze razor. Daggers and rapiers naturally abound, many of them of rare and beautiful workmanship. Halberds turn up less frequently, but swords are abundant, and are sometimes tastefully decorated with gold or ivory. Even the scabbards sometimes survive, while the shields, adorned with concentric rings or with knobs and bosses, would put to shame the rank and file of cheap modern metal work. ”

“ The partizans, ranseurs and halberts proper developed naturally from the earlier types. The feature common to all, as has been said, is the combination of spear and axe. In the halberts the axe predominates, as the examples (fig. 10, Swiss, early 15th century; fig. 11, Swiss, middle 16th century; and fig. 12, German court halbert of the same period as fig. 11) show. In the partizan the pike is the more important, the axe-heads being reduced to little more than an ornamental feature. ”

“ On the summit of the North-hill, a very small portion of the rock is laid bare, and it is so much decomposed, that a gentle blow of the hammer makes it break down into very small fragments. I succeeded however in obtaining a fracture that shewed the composition of the stone, which is a mixture of hornblende and reddish felspar in very small grains, similar to that noticed § 17 as occurring on the south-east side of the End-hill, and as prevailing very generally throughout the range. ”

“ The feldspar crystals have lost their luster and hardness, and even have decayed to clay. Where long- weathered granite forms the country rock, it often may be cut with spade or trowel for several feet from the surface, so rotten is the feldspar, and here the rock is seen to break down to a clayey soil containing grains of quartz and flakes of mica. ”

“ I have shown how, from the same form of palaeolithic implement already described, the more complex forms of the spear and axe-blade of the subsequent periods were developed. The point developed into a spear, and the broad end into an axe-blade. You will see by reference to Plate I that the oval tool of the drift suggested the smaller leaf-shaped spear-head of the early neolithic age. This, by a gradual straightening of the sides, became the lozenge-shaped form, which latter developed into the barbed form, and this last into the triangular form, which consists of barbs without a tang. ”

“ But though Hans declared he wanted no payment, the dwarf would take no denial.
“You see this small stone,” he said; “it possesses the power of making whoever holds it in his hand invisible. This sword,” he continued, drawing forth a tiny but exquisitely damascened sword, “is both sharp and strong, and though small enough to carry in your pocket, you have but to express the wish when you need to use it, and it will at once attain its full size and strength. ”

“ The blade is formed from a piece of quartz about as long as a man’s hand, which has been chipped into the form of a spear-head. The handle, instead of being a piece of wood, is simply a number of fibres made into a bundle. The base of the stone head has been pushed among the loose ends of the fibres, and then the whole has been bound firmly together by a lashing of string made of reeds. ”

“ That the flanged and winged celts and palstaves were, as a rule, destined to be mounted in the manner of hatchets or adzes, and not as spuds or spear-heads, is to some extent witnessed by the development of their form; the progressive increase in the size of the wings and flanges, more especially about the middle of the blade, appearing to be intended as a precaution against lateral strains, such as the blade of an axe undergoes, rather than against a mere thrust, such as that to which the head of a spear or lance is subject. ”

“ These are, felspar, quartz, mica, hornblende, and carbonate of lime. This knowledge cannot be acquired from books, but requires personal inspection, and the aid of a teacher. It is well to accustom the eye to know the appearance of rocks under the lens. To learn to distinguish felspar from quartz is the most important step to be first aimed at. In general we may know the felspar because it can be scratched with the point of a knife, whereas the quartz, from its extreme hardness, receives no impression. ”

“ In other cases we find that the flanges have some part of their apparent projection due to a diminution in the thickness of the portion of the blade which lies between them. If we take as a criterion the stop-ridge, as it has been termed, a projecting ridge for the purpose of preventing the blade being driven too far into its wooden handle, we find the ridge in a rudimentary form in the blades which taper both ways ”

“ Some of the iron spear-heads from Hallstatt and elsewhere have been made in imitation of those in bronze, and have been welded along the whole length of their sockets in a manner which displays the highest skill in the smiths. But, unlike the iron palstaves and socketed celts, none of the spear-heads are provided with a loop. In later times the sockets of the iron spear-heads were left with an open slit along them, a method of manufacture which produced an equally serviceable weapon, and involved far less trouble. ”

“ Amongst primitive races the transition from tool to weapon is slight; the same article must, in many cases, have served the double purpose. [Pg 58] Arrow- or spear-heads have been found of bone, horn, flint, bronze, and iron; they are usually of small size. Figs. 12 and 13, from Lough Ravel, county Antrim, represent (half-size) flakes fashioned into arrow- or spear-heads. Fig. 14 is a flake of basalt (full-size) from Toombridge, in the same county. Fig. 15 is a flint implement from the recently discovered crannog of Lisnacroghera. ”

“ Usually the first thing to enter our minds when stone is mentioned in connection with aboriginal peoples is arrowheads or projectile points. Stone was used for many and varied purposes, and it would be difficult to list these in order of importance. Projectile points were, of course, important, though used primarily for hunting rather than warfare. Points of various sizes, shapes and materials were used by the Carlsbad Basketmakers. First were the dart and lance points, and later, as arrow points, after the introduction of the bow to the Southwest. ”

“ It is the Black Elves that are malicious, though they often do good service to men; they, too, work in metals, but it is generally in iron and copper; they make arms and armour too, and sometimes filagree work, like the Ljus Alfar, but theirs is always black.”
“Berlin iron?” suggested the Parson.
“Perhaps so; at all events the chain armour that they make is a most valuable present, for, though no heavier than filagree-work, or, as you say, Berlin iron, it will turn a sword or a shot.”
“The disposition of the elf, then, varies with its colour.” ”

“ The blade assumes later a great variety of forms—cleaver, cusped, etc., and the top was sometimes garnished with a hook or spear.
The pole-axe was a favourite weapon of the fifteenth century, and one of the varieties of the period combines a hatchet, a pike, and a serrated hammer: this weapon is first cousin to the halbard, and often classified as such.
The Jeddart staff is a long-shafted axe with a half-circular blade and a side spike. It is more a halbard than an axe. ”

“ Ordinary granite, as well as syenite and eurite, usually contains two kinds of feldspar: First, the common, or orthoclase, in which potash is the prevailing alkali, and this generally occurs in large crystals of a white or flesh colour; and secondly, feldspar in smaller crystals, in which soda predominates, usually of a dead white or spotted, and striated like albite, but not the same in composition. [1]
As a general rule, quartz, in a compact or amorphous state, forms a vitreous mass, serving as the base in which feldspar and mica have crystallised ”

“ Fragments of a clay mould for casting a spear-head and a sword were found at Whitepark Bay, and portions of clay moulds for spear-heads have been found in Brittany, the Lake of Bienne, and other places. The discoveries [Pg 44] of moulds enforce the distinction of type between the looped and leaf-shaped spear-heads, and the moulds from Killymeddy (figs. 38-40 and 43) may probably be placed at the end of the period when stone moulds were in use, and assigned to about 1500-1200 b.c.
Fig. 43.—Half of mould for casting spear-head and dagger, Killymeddy, Co. Antrim.
Spear-ferules
Fig. ”

“ Then threwing fine Steel dust or Filings very thin on the Plain all round it, the Particles of Steel, upon a continued gentle knocking on the underside of the Plain, will by degrees conform themselves to the Figures in which the Circulation is performed. Thus in Fig. II. Let ABCD be a Terrella, and its Poles A the South, and B the North; and by doing as prescribed, it will be found that the Filings will lie in a Right Line perpendicular to the Surface of the Ball, when in the Line of the Magnetical Axis continued. ”

“ A tremor ran through the entire mass of rock. And directly in front of Harley, less than twenty feet from where he stood, a sort of half-moon-shaped curtain of rock slid slowly up to reveal an enormous, staring eye.
Frozen with a terror such as he had never felt before in a life filled with adventure, scarce breathing, Harley glared at the monstrous spectacle transpiring before him. A hill was coming to life, A granite cliff was growing animate. It was impossible, but it was happening.
The half-moon curtains of rock that so eerily resembled eyelids, blinked heavily. ”

“ Leaf-shaped and tanged arrow-heads appear to be rarer. Some scarce triangular forms are equilateral, and others long and somewhat expanding at the base. I have a series from Heistert, Roermond, Limburg.
In Central and Southern Germany flint arrow-heads appear to be rather scarce. In Pomerania the prevailing type is triangular hollowed at the base. The same form occurs in Thuringia. In the Königsberg Museum there are arrow-heads leaf-shaped pointed at both ends, lozenge-shaped, slightly tanged, tanged and barbed, and triangular with and without the hollowing at the base. ”

“ From inquiries since made, I find that the brass battle-axe was a bronze celt, so that, if we may assume, as seems most probable, that the iron weapons belonged to the same era, we have here most interesting examples of the weapons of the Teutonic Period. The farmer describes the swords as about two feet in length, edged on the one side to the handle, and on the other for the half length of the blade. Beside them lay some long spear-heads, nearly all broken, and more injured by rust than the swords. ”

“ The grinding-stones met with in Denmark and Scandinavia are gene- rally of compact sandstone or quartzite, and are usually of two forms—flat slabs, often worn hollow by use, and polygonal prisms smallest in the middle, these latter having frequently hollow facets in which gouges or the more convex-faced hatchets might be ground, and sometimes rounded ridges such as would grind the hollow part of gouges. ”

“ Stone hammers and axes, obsidian, flint and other arrow-heads, spear-heads, and knives, mortars and pestles, metates or meal grinders, obsidian and flint drills for making holes through stone or shell, bows and arrows,—the bows of tough wood often brought from afar, and the arrows pointed with chipped flint or obsidian, deftly and securely tied to the shaft with tough and durable strings of sinews ”

“ Ridged flakes, or those of triangular section with a single ridge formed by two facets on the convex face, are extremely rare in the gravel-deposits, though occasionally found. Indeed, the art of making long narrow flakes, such as abounded in Denmark in Neolithic times, and are not uncommon in Britain, seems to have been almost unknown to the men whose relics we find in the River-drift; unless, perhaps, their absence in the gravel may be accounted for in some other way than by their non-existence. ”

“ Every edge, when closely examined by a microscope, presents a more or less saw-like and jagged appearance. It [Pg 23] is merely a question of degree, and, in a sword to be used for ordinary cutting and thrusting, you want to secure hardness sufficient to produce a good edge and an instant return to its former shape after any reasonable bending, and you want to avoid anything like brittleness or liability to snap. ”

“ Not only, however, is metal absent, and not only, as we have already seen, does the Fauna indicate a greater antiquity, but the stone weapons themselvess are less varied and less skilfully made. Most of them are made from rocks which occur in Switzerland, though it is probable that the flint was brought from France. The absence of any great blocks of this valuable material in Switzerland accounts for our not finding any of the large, flat axes which are so characteristic of northern Europe, and especially of Denmark. ”

“ In another variety the blade is nearly flat, having only a broad protuberant ridge extending along the upper part to the stop. A palstave of this kind, found near Winfrith, Weymouth, Dorset, is shown in Fig. 64. In this, the metal between the side flanges tapers towards the top of the [82] instrument, instead of being of nearly even thickness, as is often the case, or thinnest near the stop-ridge, as it is sometimes. Close to the stop the metal is 1⁄2 inch thick, while at the top of the recess it comes to a nearly sharp edge. ”