[Jonathan Hodge]

I am studying the two-handed clubs featured in the Morgan Bible, and I’m perplexed by the helical feature along the grip. It is present in each example, though there is slight variation (the same can be said of the nails/studs). Is this leather(thin?), paint, embedded metal bands, or something else entirely? Paint doesn’t seem likely to me, though I can’t say why other than I’ve just not seen record of it on anything but lances. Leather could help provide some grip, but could also prevent sliding the hands along the handle, though to be fair, I’m not sure how often this action would be taken with clubs. I’ve seen embedded metal bands in at least one manuscripts and an extant later period axe (that I kind seem to find the picture for) presumably as a way to strengthen or prevent damage to the haft. Perhaps it is none of these things?

Any ideas?

Clubs:
MS M.638, Morgan Bible, f34r
MS M.638, Morgan Bible, f16r
MS M.638, Morgan Bible, f10r
MS M.638, Morgan Bible, f14v

Axe
Morgan M.730 Psalter-Hours of Guiluys de Boisle, 14v

[Jonathan Hodge]

Clubs:
MS M.638, Morgan Bible, f14v

Axe
Morgan M.730 Psalter-Hours of Guiluys de Boisle, 14v

[Sean Manning]

Excellent eye Jonathan! One of the ancient manuals for siege engineers says that the front end of a battering ram should be wrapped with four spiraling iron plates to protect it from fire and breakage.

Edit: its Hegetor of Byzantium as retold by Athenaeus Mechanicus, in his edition and translation David Whitehead suggests that Hegetor was a 'scale-model engineer' who made toys to impress potential patrons rather than a working engineer

[Jonathan Hodge]

Thanks for this Sean! Another instance toward metal bands. I have since found the axe I was looking for - it’s a Scandinavian 15th century example in the Cleveland Museum of Art. There is also the Langeid axe, though it’s metal haft protection is markedly different than what we see here. Additionally, David Stríbrný has shared an article about several Baltic grave finds featuring metal-banded hafts that are similar, though they are all Early Medieval (8th-10th century). So, all this to day, it was a known feature, but I’m still unsure if that’s what’s going on here.

CMA axe included here.

[Greyson Brown]

There is another, very similar, axe example shown on the Hurstwic Viking Axe page here: https://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_axe.htm.They do note that the metal wrapping is not from the Viking period, but it may well be from later in the Medieval period. Unfortunately, they do not provide any details on where the axe is located.

I would have initially assumed that the clubs in question had a leather or cord wrap for grip, but the axe examples provide enough incidental support for the possibility of a metal wrap that I wouldn't rule it out now.

[Jonathan Hodge]

Thanks for this Greyson. I knew I’d seen another axe similar to the one in the CMA but couldn’t remember where. These two axes could be twins. As far as the club handles go, I’m leaning more and more towards metal of some kind. The Morgan Bible is carefully and deliberately illustrated in many facets, and these just look like iron or steel - the same color of many of the studs/nails. My difficulty now is determining use. Metal banding of this kind would seem to make multiple grip types or sliding of the hands along the haft difficult, unless the metal was recessed, or unless the moving of hands was not part of regular use. It would also seem that the banding would make any grip more precarious.

Thoughts?