Most weapons are meant to be kept. The francisca was meant to be let go of. Isidore of Seville, writing in the sixth century, is the first to use the word at all, and he explains it simply enough — the axe is called a francisca because of its use by the Franks. The shape is unmistakable: an arch-shaped head, widening towards the cutting edge and coming to a prominent point at both the upper and lower corners, on a haft of only 40 to 45 cm — sixteen to eighteen inches — with a cutting edge of about 10 cm and a whole weight near 600 g. Heads recovered in Norfolk measure 14 to 15 cm from edge to socket. What made it feared was the drill rather than the metal. Procopius, writing in the middle of the sixth century, describes the Franks throwing their axes at one signal in the first charge, to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men, at an effective range of about twelve metres. Consider the arithmetic in that. You have one throw, at roughly the width of a tennis court, and if it lands you have not necessarily wounded anybody — you have ruined his shield, and split boards do not come back together. Then he is fighting on with a broken guard, and you are coming at him with the sword on your hip. It is worth saying plainly that this is early kit: the francisca belongs to the Merovingian centuries, roughly 500 to 750, and was still known in Charlemagne's day, so a Saxon carrying one against Vikings three hundred years later is holding something old-fashioned, however many examples have been found in English ground. There is one last thing in the word. His countryman "Abrecan" Saxon Attacking with Axe carries a knife that may have given the Saxons their name; here it is the other way about, and the people gave their name to the axe.

Grindan comes down with the axe already at the top of its arc, cloak of plain grey wool thrown back off his shoulder, a one-piece helmet with a nasal bar, mail at the throat, and a black-and-white shield quartered by a cross and painted with long-legged stags. His name is Old English grindan — to grind, to crush to powder — and forgrindan, to destroy by crushing. The man who throws at the other end of the field is "Alfgeir" Viking Throwing Spear, aiming at the same shields for the same reason, while "Torgny" Viking Attacking with Axe carries the sort of axe you keep hold of, and the difference between the two is the whole design argument. For a diorama, stand him beside "Bestanden" Saxon Defending with Sword and Shield — their shields carry the same stags in the same black and white, and painted a decade apart they still look like two men from one household.

Model: 62134 / W. Britain / 1/30 scale / matte finish / 1 piece set