Viking halberd difficult to know what kind of weapon is being described in these translations, or the original texts. Many of these terms are shown below. The "atgeir" was a type of bill or halberd, from Old Norse "geirr", "spear". The "atgeirr" is thought to have been a foreign weapon and is rarely mentioned in the sagas, but is famous as the favorite weapon of Gunnar of Hlíðarendi. In Njál's saga this weapon is shown as used mostly for thrusting, but also for hewing. The "höggspjót", literally "hewing spear", takes its name from Old Norse "högg", "stroke, blow, slaughter, beheading" and "spjót",
Bill (weapon) a spear head, and also a hook or spike mounted on the reverse side of the blade. There were many types of bill. English bills tended to be relatively short, with broad chopping heads, while Italian bills (ronche) often had very long thrusting points. The English distinguished between several varieties of bill, including the black, brown and forest bills, but the differences between them are currently not fully understood. George Silver, writing in 1599, stated that the black bill should be long, while the forest bill should be long. One advantage that it had over other polearms was that while