Viking halberd The term " halberd " has been used to translate several Old Norse words relating to polearms ( specifically the " atgeir " ) in the context of Viking Age arms and armour , and in scientific literature about the Viking age . The term " halberd " is not to be taken as referring to the classical Swiss halberd of the 15th century , but rather in its literal sense of " axe - on - a - pole " , describing a weapon of the more general glaive type . Instances in literature . In a translated saga , the term " halberd " can be used to translate several words : It is thus difficult to know what kind of weapon these translations , and the original texts , refer to . There are several interpretations . The first " Icelandic - English Dictionary " by Richard Cleasby and Guðbrandur Vigfússon , translates " kesja " as " a kind of halberd " and states that " " kesja " , " atgeir " and " höggspjót " appear to be the same thing " . Other translations have been used , most notably " bill " . For instance , in the 1892 translation of Eyrbyggja saga by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson , " atgeir " is translated in this manner : " Thou shalt go to Holyfell and get into the loft that is over the outer door , and pull up the boards of the floor , so that thou may ' st thrust a bill therethrough ; then when Snorri goes out to his privy , thou shalt thrust the bill through the floor of the loft into his back so hard that it may come out at his belly " , which translates : " " Þú skalt fara til Helgafells og ganga í loft það er þar er yfir útidyrum og rýma fjalir í gólfinu svo að þú fáir þar lagt atgeiri í gegnum . En þá er Snorri gengur til kamars þá skaltu leggja atgeirinum í gegnum loftsgólfið í bak Snorra svo fast að út gangi um kviðinn " " . Egils saga gives a description of what it calls a " kesja " : The weapon would thus have a blade with a diamond cross - section at the end , and an additional spike attached to the socket , whose placement and purpose is not explained . The length of the weapons ' shaft is unclear : it has been translated as " the shaft stood just high enough for the hand to grasp the socket " , as above , but also as " no taller than might be grasped at the socket by the hand " , which could mean that the shaft was just long enough to be grasped in one hand , and thus , no bigger than a sword ' s hilt . Alternatively , if the shaft was approximately 1 . 1m in length , and the butt placed on the ground , the socket would be just high enough to be grasped by the hand . A third possibility , less exotic but simpler and probably more logical : when reaching up you would be able to touch the socket , in other words the shaft was about 2 . 2 - 2 . 4 m long , like many other polearms . Archeological evidence . The term " Viking halberd " was used to describe a find in North America in the 1995 book " Early Vikings of the New World " , but it was later demonstrated to be a tobacco cutter . There has currently been , in fact , no clearly identified Viking halberd or bill found . Spears are the only type of polearms found in Viking graves . It is possible that halberds and bills were not part of Viking funerary customs , as opposed to other weapons that have been found in graves . Bills have been found in Frankish graves from the Merovingian period , which predates the Viking age ; but their use by the Scandinavians is not attested and , if existent , seemed to have been rare .