Bardiche

The Gatekeeper

The bardiche joins the edge of an axe to the reach of a spear, and strikes with the whole arm of the haft behind it, where a simple axe stops at the wrist. The price: it is cumbersome, slow to raise, and loses all meaning the moment it is closed upon too tightly.

A beginner believes he holds a great axe and strikes from high to low. His first lesson corrects this reflex: the blade is long, almost a crescent, and it works along its whole length. He is taught to cut in wide arcs, to keep the enemy at distance, and to use the blade's second anchor point on the haft to block or guide a blow. He also learns the care proper to this weapon: watch the two fastenings that hold the blade to the wood, for a bardiche that loosens at the base becomes dangerous to its bearer, keep the butt of the haft shod to plant it in the ground, and fold its iron-rimmed leather sheath over the edge as soon as he sets off, for that edge also wounds whoever walks beside him.

The master wields a moving barrier. He knows a bardiche holds a passage, a gate, a breach on its own, and that in numbers it forms a wall of edges no horse will face head-on. He braces the butt on the ground or against his foot to take a charge without giving way, cuts the hocks of a mount, unhorses a rider with the curved hook on the back of the head. At close range, he slides his hands along the haft and uses it as a lever, striking with the butt like a mace. For him, length draws a border.