Viking Age arms and armour to claim it for Odin. Possibly due to its cultural significance, pattern welded blades are common in spear heads, and the sockets were often decorated with silver inlaid patterns. A polearm known as the "atgeir" is mentioned in several sagas of Icelanders and other literature. "Atgeir" is usually translated as "halberd", akin to a glaive. Gunnar Hámundarson is described in "Njáls saga" as cutting and impaling foes on his "atgeir". Several weapons (including the "kesja" and the "höggspjót") appearing in the sagas are Viking halberds. No weapon matching their descriptions have been found in graves. These weapons may have been
Pole weapon blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It always has a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants. Early forms are very similar in many ways to certain forms of voulge, while 16th century and later forms are similar to the pollaxe. The Swiss were famous users of the halberd in the medieval and renaissance eras, with various cantons evolving regional variations of the basic form. In the 14th century, the basic long axe gained an armour piercing spike on the back and another on the end of the