War hammer
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| War hammer | |
|---|---|
 Reproduction of a spiked war hammer |
- For the tabletop games, see Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000.
A war hammer is a late medieval weapon of war intended for close combat, the design of which resembles the hammer. The war hammer consists of a handle and a head. The handle may be of different lengths, the longest being roughly equivalent to the halberd, and the shortest about the same as a mace. Long war hammers were pole weapons (polearms) meant for use against riders, whereas short ones were used in closer quarters and from horseback. Later war hammers often had a spike on one side of the head, thus making it a more versatile weapon. War hammers were developed as a consequence of the ever more prevalent surface-hardened steel surfacing of wrought iron armors of the late medieval battlefields during the 14th and 15th centuries. The surface of the armour was now as hard as the edge of a blade, so a blade tended to ricochet. Swords, or the blade of a battleaxe, were likely only to give a glancing blow, losing much of the impact, especially on the high curvature of the helmet. The war hammer could deliver the full force to the target. (Open question; Were these new armours brittle?) War hammers, especially when mounted on a pole, by impact alone, could damage without penetrating the armour, in particular they transmitted an impact through even the thickest helmet and skull to damage the brain against its own skull. A blade or spike tended to be used against other parts of the body where the armour was thiner, and penetration was easier, than through the helmet. The spike end could be used for grappling the target's armour, reins, or shield, or could be turned in the direction of the blow to pierce even heavy armour. Against mounted opponents, the weapon could also be directed at the legs of the horse, toppling the armored foe to the ground where he could be more easily attacked.
A famous instance of a hammer as a weapon is Mjolnir, the weapon of the Norse god, Thor.http://www.columbiacostumes.com/Images/Weapons/hammer_war.jpg Other weapons that are types of war hammers include:
[edit] War Hammers in Popular Culture
- In the film adaptation of The Golden Compass, the king of the Gyptians, John Faa, uses a war hammer as a primary weapon.
- In Dungeons & Dragons, the best-known tabletop role-playing game, war hammers are a standard weapon. They are usually depicted with a very short handle and impractically large head, which may be derived from the way Mjolnir is described in the Norse Eddas regarding the God Thor. This sort of depiction is seen in other fantasy-themed games, such as the tabletop wargame Warhammer, the online RPG Runescape and the Sony Playstation game Medievil, among many others.
- In Halo 2 the brute chieftan, Tartarus, is never seen without his war hammer (Gravity Hammer) the Fist of Rukt.
- In the Mortal Kombat Games, the character Shao Kahn uses a War hammer as his weapon style.
- King Robert's weapon in A Song Of Ice And Fire is a war hammer.
