A guisarme (sometimes gisarme, giserne or bisarme) is a

polearm A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee we ...

used in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

primarily between 1000 and 1400. Its origin is likely Germanic, from the Old High German , literally "weeding iron". Like many medieval polearms, the exact early form of the weapon is hard to define from literary references, and the identification of surviving weapons can be speculative.

Possible interpretations of form

Two main modern schools of thought exist: # Like most

s the guisarme was developed by

peasants A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising f ...

by combining hand tools with long poles: in this case by putting a pruning hook onto a

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

shaft. According to Sir Guy Francis Laking, among the polearms, the guisarme was second only to the spear in importance for the medieval soldier class. In fact, it was so effective by the 13th century there was active support for its banishment from the battlefield. While early designs were simply a hook on the end of a long pole, later designs implemented a small reverse spike on the back of the blade. Eventually weapon makers incorporated the usefulness of the hook in a variety of different polearms, and ''guisarme'' became a catch-all for any weapon that included a hook on the blade. This is exemplified by the terms bill-guisarmes, voulge-guisarmes, and glaive-guisarmes. # An alternative definition is given by

Ewart Oakeshott Ronald Ewart Oakeshott (25 May 1916 – 30 September 2002) was a British illustrator, collector, and amateur historian who wrote prodigiously on medieval arms and armour. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Founder Member of the A ...

in his book ''European Weapons and Armour''. He sees the guisarme as a "crescent shaped double socketed axe" on a long shaft. His primary reason is the use of the term "giserne" and axe interchangeably for the same weapon in the poem

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot comb ...

. This interpretation is also favoured by John Waldmann.

Illustrations and textual evidence

Supporting the second interpretation are the illustrations in the original manuscript of the Gawain poem which clearly show Sir Gawain with a long crescent shaped axe (see right). However, other texts from the same period draw a distinction from the axe and guisarme (Such as in

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...

's '' Romaunt of the Rose'': "With swerd, or sparth (axe) or gysarme" and '' Mandeville's Travels'': "with swerds drawen and gysarmez and axes") and the use in the epic poem ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' may have been poetic license.

Olivier de la Marche Olivier de la Marche (1425–1502) was a courtier, soldier, chronicler and poet in the last decades of the independent Duchy of Burgundy. He was close to Charles the Bold, and after his death held the important position of maître d'hotel to his ...

, writing in the 15th century, describes the guisarme as "hafted combination of a dagger and a battle axe" and describes the weapon being of "great antiquity". In his novel ''Knight in Anarchy'', George Shipway describes the process of training for a judicial duel using the guisarme, where he favours the double-socketed axe interpretation of the weapon.''Knight in Anarchy'' (1969), in the time of Stephen & Matilda. ; American title ''The Knight''

References

Medieval polearms Edged and bladed weapons Hewing spears {{Germany-hist-stub