Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 1).djvu/218

 famous encyclopaedia, refers to it as the godendard, and likens it to the Austrian bardische. The writer of this, however, thinks we have to thank Mr. Charles ffoulkes for enlightening us as to the probable appearance of the godendag, for, in his description of a chest, now in New College, Oxford, he construes the carved front to represent incidents connected with the battle of Courtrai, to which Guiart refers. It is noticeable that a great many of the soldiers and knights are armed with a curious looking implement, which in reality would be some four feet high, of circular section, swelling in circumference towards the top end, into which was apparently inserted a short broad blade. Guiart says that the godendag should be grasped with both hands, and that the man to use it should draw aside from the ranks to get a good swing. Mr. ffoulkes' suggestion that the curious weapon carried by the soldiery represented on the chest front is the godendag referred to by Guiart, seems highly probable. In the fresco at Ghent many of the soldiers carry a very similar weapon, which seems to prove that it was a favourite weapon of the Flemings. A portion of the chest front we illustrate shows soldiers holding the weapon in question (Fig. 178).

The voulge, the bill, the fauchard, and many other hafted weapons were doubtless in their very earliest uses in these times; but we are very uncertain of the forms they then took, and we hesitate in giving illustrations of them at this early stage, for we are not in accord with the practice of constructing weapons from vague contemporary descriptions, and of labelling them with distinctive names unsupported by some reliable authority or evidence.