Original poster is very much right. The use of spears, hasta, and the like during antiquity is well-known but similar "long" weapons remained in common use into the early modern period.
During the late medieval period, plate-armored knights tended to use the lance (an evolution of the spear) in mounted charges and quite often favored the poleaxe for dismounted foot combat, especially duels. The sword was the symbol of the knighthood and a part of the knight's normal dress, and in battle always served as a trusty back-up weapon, but it wasn't necessarily the first choice. There's a similar tendency in Japan, where their samurai are best known for the various swords they carried, but in full-scale battle often started out with various polearms first before reverting to swords once something got lost or broken.
From the above, it should be possible to divine why "long" weapons become slightly under-represented in the public mind: They mostly came out only in battle, never a daily occurrence, while the knightly classes (and later on, noble civilians more generally) were going around wearing their swords seven days a week.
Danth
|