This page was created by Amanda Sopchockchai.
Pollaxe (WAM 2014.81)
As opulent as this gleaming, brass-inlaid, Northern European weapon may appear at first glance, it was designed for violent tasks. A pollaxe had a sharp axe-like blade, a spear head, and a hammer surface, and was mounted on a long pole. It could have been used to deliver a coup de grace or death blow to a wounded comrade, to pierce the armor of an enemy in mortal battle, or to defeat an opponent on foot during a considerably less lethal tournament. The multiple uses of this weapon speak to the chivalric and military culture pervading the 1400s, a culture that crossed boundaries of geography and faith.
