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",
Altarpiece of the Halberd Altarpiece of the Halberd The Altarpiece of the Halberd is a painting from around 1539 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto. It is housed in the Pinacoteca civica Francesco Podesti of Ancona, central Italy. The work was seen by the art biographer Giorgio Vasari in the church of Sant'Agostino in Ancona, where Lotto had fled in reply to the hostility received in Venice. It was later moved to the church of Santa Maria della Piazza and, after other locations, the current one. The painting dates to a few years after the coup by which Ancona had been restored