Note 3 — Chapter XVIII

'Gisarmes.' "Wace mentions the gisarme as an exceedingly destructive weapon, used by the Saxons at the battle of Hastings: but by the Gisarme he evidently means the 'byl,' to which he gives a Norman name:"—see Hist. of British costume, 1834, page 33. The Saxons used also the bipennis, or 'twy-byl.' The bill was an axe with long handle. Benoit mentions 'haches Danoises,' which probably were the double axes. See also Maseres's note on William of Poitiers, 129. Wace afterwards says of the hache of an English knight:

Hache noresche out mult bele, Plus de plain pié out l'alemele.