Bipennis, rendered twibille and stan-æx; and Marra, rendered stan-bill. Now Bipennis is an axe cutting at either end, and the word is accurately rendered by "twibille;"[1]—the axe having "bill" or steel at its two edges. But a double-cutting axe in stone is a form of very rare occurrence, and this alone raises a presumption of the stan in stan-æx referring to stone in some other manner than as the material of which the axe was made. The second word, Marra, seems to clear up the question, for this was a mattock or pick-axe, or some such tool, and this is rendered stan-bill,—the steel for use on or among stones. The stone axe may be one for cutting stones, like the mill-bill of the present day, which is used for dressing mill-stones, and this being usually sharp at each end, might not inaptly be regarded as the equivalent of the ancient bipennis. An axe is still a bricklayer's tool, and is also occasionally used by stone-cutters. It seems, then, that the "stan" in these two Saxon words refers, not to the material of which the axes or bills were made, but to the stones on or among which they were used. In Halliwell's "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words,"[2] the interpretation of Stone-axe is given as "A stone-worker's axe," but it is not stated where the term occurs.
In the "Matériaux"[3] M. Soreil has called attention to a very early German poem, possibly of the fifth century, in which the heroes are described as contending with stone axes. The subject has been discussed by Dr. Much,[4] who suggests that the name survived long after the actual use of the weapons, and points out that the modern word Hellebarde (halberd) has the same meaning, hella in Old German signifying "stone," and barte being still used to signify an "axe" or "chopper." He also hints at a connection between the scrama-seax or large knife, with saxum. The whole paper is worth reading.
In the Song of Hildebrand and Hadubrand, probably of the eighth century, stone hammers, staim-borts, are also mentioned.
"Do stoptun tosamane staimbort chludun
Hewun harmlicco huitte scilti."[5]
The passage in "William of Poitiers,"[6]— "Jactant cuspides ac
- ↑ "Twybyl, a wryhtys instrument," is in the "Promptorium Parvulorum" translated bisacuta or biceps, and "Twybyl or mattoke," Marra, or ligo.
- ↑ 1855, vol. ii. p. 811.
- ↑ Vol. xi., 1876, p. 385.
- ↑ Mitth. d. Anth. Gesellsch. in Wien, vol. vii., 1878, p. 7.
- ↑ O'Curry, "Mann, and Cust. of the Anc. Irish," vol. i. p. cccelviii.
- ↑ Wright's "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," p. 72.
