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Wikipedia / Swordstaff

A swordstaff (Old Danish: sværdstaf), or staffsword (Old Danish: stavsværd, Old Swedish: stafsværdh, ), is a Medieval polearm mentioned in Nordic sources and sources pertaining to Scandinavia. It is a figurative term, referencing a spear, or similar, utilizing a sword- or dagger-like blade and crossguard. Archeological finds have been done in Sweden.

Period description

Evidence of the weapon in use at the battle of Elfsborg (Alvesborg) in 1502 is provided by Paul Dolnstein, a landsknecht mercenary that fought in the battle, who refers to the Swedes carrying "good pikes made from swords". He also provides sketches of the weapon.

Period Swedish texts mention swordstaffs separately along with other polearms, such as halberds, poleaxes, partisans, spears, and thereof. A period text, from , uses the term brander (compare ), an older term for swordblade, to describe the blades of swordstaffs:

In Variarum rerum vocabula cum sueca interpretatione (1538), Sweden's oldest dictionary, , a type of hunting spear, is translated as both "swine spit/skewer" (swijn spett), and "staff sword" (staff swärdh).

Archeological finds

A swordstaff blade has been found at the Husaby castle ruin in Västergötland, Sweden. The blade has a smith's mark similar to the Passau Wolf mark. With the original wooden shaft, the full length of the weapon was approximately two metres long.

Origins

The weapon has visual similarities to the partisan and ox tongue spear and may share common origins. However, Scandinavian sagas make references to a number of pole weapons, usually translated as "halberd" or "bill". These weapons are used to cut and to stab, but their names suggest they were derived from the spear rather than a cutting weapon, such as the hewing spear (hǫggspjót) and the atgeir. While clearly identifiable artistic or archaeological evidence of the form of these weapons is lacking, it is possible that the swordstaff may be a late derivative of this family of weapons.

Other languages

Various other languages have analog terms which might have referred to similar or the same type of weapon.

  • – dagger

  • – swordstaff, hunting spear, dagger

– sword cane

  • – sword cane

– throwing spear

  • – dagger, sword cane

  • – hewing spear

In Russia, a similar weapon, called (), a heavy daggerbladed spear for hand-to-hand combat and hunting large animals (compare sovnya), featured in later forms a full crossguard and sword length blade.

Chinese swordstaff

Chinese polearms that resembled swordstaves were also often used in ancient China from the late Warring States/Qin dynasty to the Han dynasty era. These were known as the pi (鈹), translated into English as either "sword-staff" or "long lance", and a long bladed ranseur-like swordstaff weapon called the sha (鎩) with a blade that was about long (up to long) and a hilt that was about long.

See also

Footnotes

References