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
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