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There are a group of complex, bendy, multi-bladed African and Polynesian throwing knives/axes, although sadly I cannot remember the name of the one I am thinking of. Anyway, they coimmonly have a short, knobbed, grip. I would not be surprised if the throwing style has the fingers sliding down the shaft while the knob rests in the palm.
My exact thoughts, Squippy; This could well have been a way to throw it.
Besides, what about this proto-Francisca as a weapon of a rider? Graves of Frankish mounted nobles contain both the Spatha and the Francisca among other weapons. Now the Francisca could have been also a symbol of Frankish identity, but be surly not useless thrown from a charging horse.
It is rather heavy and it's range and traveling speed would be greatly increased by the speed of the horse, if thrown on enemys in front of the rider or standing slightly sidewards. It is compact and can be easily be used from the horseback. Variants of it can also be used both for the melee and for ranged combat.
So a German cavalry unit from Scandinavia is easily imaginable with this Proto-Francisca.
That makes a fair amount of sense, but I'd see it rather as a specific design. That is, long, short, twwo-handed, and bearded axes are used elsewhere by the Germanic tribes for specific roles. So I'd kinda expect a rider to carry a specialist axe; there are a number of riders with axes on display in the Bayeaux tapestry as I recall, you could look at them. It would be wquite plausible for a high status warrior to be buried with a weapon that individual favoured, or one which was just part of the militaruy cult, without concluding it was used equally. Or, it may be that many of these men actually fought on foot, cavalry not yet being the dominant arm.
Heres something interesting I found:
LENOCH refers to two historical texts, mainly to the one by ISODORUS HISPALENSIS, the bishop of Sevilla of that time. He wrote in the 7th century in his "ORIGINES":
The terms in brackets refer to differing passages from the original text of "ISODORI". A possible translation of the text-here by Beate Rodenberg- is:
It was called the clava (stick) - of the same composition like the one Hercules had- , because it was fixed with two iron clubs on either side; it has the length of half a cubit.
This is the cateia (throwing club), which was called caia (club, cudgel) by Horaz. There is a kind of a Gallic missile consisting of very flexible (inert) material, which does not fly very long, when it is thrown because of its heavy weight, but arrives there nevertheless. It only can be broken with a lot of power. But if it is thrown by a master (its builder), it returns to the one who threw it. Vergil reminds us with the following words: " One used to fling throwing clubs similar to the habit of the Teutons". Since then both the Spanish and the Germanics call those "teutonas".
http://www.rediboom.com/englisch/geschich/#ozan
Very interesting;
Hm seems to me that they mingle different types of missile weapons.
The returning boomerang was fairly surly used by the Germanic tribes of Scandinavia, Denmark included, but not as a weapon of war. It's flight characteristics aren't suited for hunt or warfare, but they seemed to have played a important part of religion as a religious symbol.
Can't deal right now with the comment about the "iron clubs on either side"
Perhaps the second was a combination of a flexible staff of wood or of inter-twisted small branches of flexible wood and a stone tied together. This could be thrown like a stiffer sling bound together with the stone ~ similar to a single bola.
This "bola" than became intermingled with the returning boomerang.. strange sources.
Any ideas?
@Squippy: I think that if a rider wanted an Axe good for throwing he would pick up this proto-francisca or later on a francisca with a less curved handle.
Bearded axes were used by Germans, but we know little about their use in battle as far the RTW-period is concerned.
After having discussed the possibly use of this throwing axe in RTW I wonder if we have the possibility to see german archers with on of the classic germanic warbows: the longbow.
Thanks to great quantity of findings we are can doubtless state that the Germans used longbows in the RTW period.
But how can we imagine such an archer and what was his role in battle?
Any ideas?
Some more information about their possible use in battle:
The Throwing Axe or Francisca
Light throwing axes, traditionally identified as franciscae [5], the distinctive weapon of the Franks, are found in several pagan Anglo-Saxon burials (Pollington 1996, 126-128; Brooks 1999, 46-47). Two main forms can be distinguished: one with a convex upper surface and another type had an "S" shaped upper surface (Underwood 1999, 35-37). The Roman author Procopius, writing in the sixth century, recorded that the Franks "....at the agreed signal and since the first charge, threw all together their axes against the enemies....."( Contamine 1986, 248). Even if employed in hand-to-hand combat, it is to be considered as a throwing weapon that could also be used with success by the Anglo-Saxon people. Some trials showed that, whirling a 1.2 kilogram francisca on itself (the shaft 40 centimetres long, the axe 18 centimetres long), a warrior could hit his enemy being four metres away (single rotation), 8 metres away (double rotation) and 12 metres away (triple rotation). Its weight varied depending on the iron part, which would range from 300 to about 900 grams (Contamine 1986, 248-249). The Roman author Procopius, writing in the sixth century, describes the Franks and their use of the throwing axes:
"........Each man carried a sword and shield and an axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at one signal in the first charge and thus shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men......" (Underwood 1999, 35).
Source:
http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/6/devingo.html
From the same source we can also see that the Francisca or variants of it were also used fight in close combat. I don't think this applies the axe shown in the pic though..
The Byzantine scholar Agathias recorded their use by Frankish warriors at the battle of Casilinum in 554 describing how it was used during fighting:
"..... Angons are spears that are neither very short nor very long, but suitable for throwing, should it be necessary, as well as for engagement at close quarters. The greater part of it is covered all over with iron - and the same with the ferrule - so that very little of the shaft can be seen. At the tip round the head of the spear are curved barbs reaching downwards from the blade itself on both sides like curved hooks. Suppose a Frank throws his angon in an engagement. If the spear strikes a man anywhere the point will penetrate, and neither the wounded man nor anyone else can easily pull it out because the barbs which pierce the flesh hold it in and cause terrible pain, so that even if the enemy is not fatally hit, he still dies as a result. And if it sticks in the shield, it fixes in it at once and is carried around with it, the butt dragging on the ground. The man who has been hit cannot cut it off with his sword because of the iron which covers the shaft. When the Frank sees this he quickly treads on it with his foot, stepping on the ferrule and forcing the shield downwards so that the man's hand is loosened and his head and breast bared. Then, taking him unprotected, he kills him easily either cleaving his head with an axe or piercing his throat with another spear...."[4].