Spears, Glaves, and Halberds

The most common infantry weapon remained the spear, which changed name and appearance according to its place of use in Europe, although it was always characterized by a sharp point. The pike, a long spear, which had been so important in the Macedonian armies of the Hellenistic period, returned to dominate the battlefields of Europe under the Swiss by the mid-fifteenth century [C.E.], but was used rarely before that. When it reappeared, it was associated with other weapons: the glaive, the bill, and the halberd. [They] were among the medieval contributions to warfare, developed from the application of the agricultural bill-hook to a pole. Around 1300 or so we find the first variations on this simple instrument. In the case of the glaive, the metal component became longer and included, besides the hook, a long spear in front and a shorter one at the back of the blade. The halberd became something like a great axe with a spearlike top and usually a hook on the back of the axe blade. Both glaive and halberd became deadly instruments against cavalrymen, for they could bring down a horse and finish a horseman who fell to the ground.

— Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels, p. 135