Posts: 704 Location: Oxford, CT
Wed 06 Jan, 2010 4:07 pm
Actually, on second thought, the lack of flexibility would be more detrimental. It means you must absorb any force not shed, not the flexure of the blade.
In any case, I can well see an axe moving the sword considerably. Plus, we don't know where the blow might be targeted. If it's aimed at the shoulder, rather than vertically to the head, the sword will have to deflect lower and more to the side, and *might* then end in the picture we're discussing.
It's possible it's a groin thrust, but that'd be the last thing I'd do. It's a poleaxe, and he's just got a sword: just hit him. The sword requires precision to injure the armoured man, whereas the axe can soften him up with blows and then move to more precise work.
On another note, I recently hit a relatively light gauge helmet with my A&A Burgundian axe...even though I just let the axe drop onto it, the results were appalling. Now there's a lot wrong with that as a meaningful test, but enough for me to be sure that if someone swings a bladed axe at my head, my response is: PARRY. There's a reason why Jeff Hedgecock & company went to rubberized axe heads in lieu of even blunt steel bladed ones for tournament fighting; the damage to the armour was just too great; sharpen that edge and that's a lot of pounds per square inch at work.
Halberds are simply differently configured poleaxes. There's no difference in striking with an axe-bladed poleaxe as opposed to a halberd - there are comparable geometries, blade shapes, and applications. And we know what halberds did to armoured knights and that it wasn't pretty. As I alluded to before, Charles the Bold had his helmeted head split in two by such a weapon. Clearly, it's more than possible to get a good hit with the blade.
We also can't dismiss the possibility that the pronged configuration was more popular in Fechtbucher simply because of customary stipulations. This is an area often given short shrift: the quirks created by rules. Most people would be surprised to find out that the man/woman duels actually happened, or that in the club &
shield encounters, it was sometimes possible to request replacements after you'd hucked yours at your opponent. The pronged heads might be favored because of rules, rather than effectiveness. Without further data, it's not possible to know.
Finally, iconography gives a sense of the blade being the 'forward' part of the poleaxe, where a blade and mallet are coupled together. Men are shown carrying them blade forward, and the blade is (almost?) invariably shown as the side being engaged in battle depictions. And, really, this is the configuration most shown - the pronged version appears much more in the dueling and tourneying context. All of which raises more questions...
In closing Hugh, you and I are on the same page regarding the primacy of the pronged variant in German sources. I just wasn't comfortable with you telling the other reader that the bladed versions were essentially irrelevant for practice, because, indeed, hitting a pell with a good bladed replica is an eye-opener. These are scary, scary weapons. I'm confident we can agree on that, at least. :)
All the best,
CHT