Ethipian Agema (or Guard)

**Ludens** · 09-26-2009, 18:48

Originally Posted by Phalanx300

Yes, though it was probably rarely used like the bow, it was an ordinary day tool so it was kindoff the weapon you'd only take if there was nothing better since weapons were status.

Two-handed axes are no tools, they are specialist weapons. IIRC they were mainly used by huscarles, the elite forces of Viking and Saxon warlords. For that matter normal axes weren't exactly the poor-man's melee-weapon either: medieval men-at-arms would have used one-handed war-axes next to swords, maces, etc. An axe hasn't got the reach or versatility of a sword, but it's quite handy and less likely to break.

About the saex, I can't really answer you. I think you are confusing me with someone else.

**Phalanx300** · 09-26-2009, 19:16

Originally Posted by Ludens

Two-handed axes are no tools, they are specialist weapons. IIRC they were mainly used by huscarles, the elite forces of Viking and Saxon warlords. For that matter normal axes weren't exactly the poor-man's melee-weapon either: medieval men-at-arms would have used one-handed war-axes next to swords, maces, etc. An axe hasn't got the reach or versatility of a sword, but it's quite handy and less likely to break.

About the saex, I can't really answer you. I think you are confusing me with someone else.

I mean that a wood cutting axe was an ordinary days weapon just like the bow, your weapon ment status.

**Kevin** · 09-26-2009, 19:54

Wait, so noone got the idea of using 2-handed axes until the Vikings showed up?

**Aemilius Paulus** · 09-26-2009, 20:17

Originally Posted by Kevin

Wait, so noone got the idea of using 2-handed axes until the Vikings showed up?

Well, is it not an exceedingly arduous task to attempt to defend oneself with an two-handed axe? Spears are mentioned always breaking in the books I have read about Ancient Greece. That was a problem. Now imagine if you have no shield, ad the axe is all you have to parry blows. Not to mention, you are not fighting in a dense formation, so you have but yourself to look out for yourself. One handed-axe seems as a much more viable weapon.

Not to mention, in the Antiquity you did not have the same proliferation of maille around Germania as you did with the Norse. By the times of the Norse raiders, maille was quite common in Anglia, France, as well as in the Nordic domains. Now you needed better weapons, and the trade-off between offensive and defensive power was less unbalanced.

Or so I think. I myself am not very well informed in the Norse studies. Anything I wrote about the Norse is speculation, although the proliferation of maille was a true phenomenon.

**Ludens** · 09-27-2009, 11:19

I am not an expert on Viking weapon-use either, but I think you are correct. In fact, there is still some debate on how these two-handed axes were used. Probably they were a team weapon, with one axe-bearer and ordinarily-equipped fighter to cover the axeman should his attack fail.

However, given the emphasis on shieldwalls in Viking and Saxon tactics, they must have been used (or at least against) dense formations.

**The General** · 09-27-2009, 12:20

I once talked to a Viking reenactor who used an (two-handed) axe and he told that the most important thing was to keep the axe in constant motion, because if he lost momentum he was screwed. Without momentum that axe was too slow to do anything useful, or so I gathered, and thus he had to keep swinging the axe, keeping it perpetual motion and constant attack.

The best defense is a good offense, I suppose.

**Phalanx300** · 09-27-2009, 14:56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ0G...eature=related

**Aemilius Paulus** · 09-27-2009, 20:06

Originally Posted by The General

I once talked to a Viking reenactor who used an (two-handed) axe and he told that the most important thing was to keep the axe in constant motion, because if he lost momentum he was screwed. Without momentum that axe was too slow to do anything useful, or so I gathered, and thus he had to keep swinging the axe, keeping it perpetual motion and constant attack.

Oh yes, the bloke could not have put it better. I have done of wood-chopping with a large two-hander in Russia (not the standard ones - this axe was home-made, much larger, for chopping trunks and not just splitting logs) and I could not agree more. I mean, I cannot claim to share even a fraction of his expertise, but still.

It is very difficult to get the axe going - the only choice you have is to keep moving it. Otherwise, trying to start a blow with zero initial momentum is tiring and sluggish. No time for either in a real battle.