The pommel (Anglo-Norman pomel "little apple") is an enlarged fitting at the top of the handle. They were originally developed to prevent the sword slipping from the hand. From around the 11th century in Europe they became a counterweight to the blade. This gave the sword a point of balance closer to the hilt allowing a more fluid fighting style. Depending on sword design and swordsmanship style, the pommel may also be used to strike the opponent (e.g., using the Mordhau technique).
Pommels have appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including oblate spheroids, crescents, disks, wheels, and animal or bird heads. They are often engraved or inlayed with various designs and occasionally gilt and mounted with jewels.
Ewart Oakeshott introduced a system of classification of medieval pommel forms in his The Sword in the Age of Chivalry (1964)to stand alongside his blade typology. Oakeshott pommel types are enumerated with capital letters A-Z, with subtypes indicated by numerals.
- A the "brazil-nut" pommel derived from the classical Viking sword
- B is a more rounded and shorter form of A. B1 is the variant with a straight lower edge, known as "mushroom" or "tea-cosy"
- C "cocked-hat" form, derived from the Viking sword
- D a bulkier and slightly later variant of C
- E a variant of D with an angular top
- F a more angular variant of E
- G a plain disk. G1 and G2 are disk pommels ornamented with flower-shaped or shell-like ornaments, respectively, both particular to Italy
- H a disk with the edges chamfered off. One of the commonest forms, found throughout the 10th to 15th centuries. H1 is an oval variant.
- I a disk with wide chamfered edges, the inner disk being much smaller than in H. I1 is a hexagonal variant
- J as I, but with the chamfered edges deeply hollowed out. J1 is an elaborated form of the classic wheel-pommel
- K a very wide and flat variant of J, popular in the late medieval period
- L a tall type of trefoil shape; rare and probably limited to Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries
- M a late derivation of the multi-lobed Viking pommel type, found frequently on tomb effigies during 1250-1350 in southern Scotland and northern England, but with few surviving examples
- N boat-shaped, rare both in art and in surviving specimens
- O a rare type of crescent-shape
- P a rare shield-shaped form only known from a statue at Nuremburg cathedral
- Q flower-shaped pommels, only known from artistic depicitions of swords
- R rare spherical pommel, mostly seen in the 9th and 10th centuries
- S a rare type in the form of a cube with the corners cut off
- T the "fig" or "pear" or "scent-stopper" shape, first found in the early 14th century, but seen with any frequency only after 1360, with numerous derived forms well into the 16th century. T1 to T5 are variants of this basic type
- U "key-shaped" type of the later half of the 15th century
- V the "fish-tail" pommel of the 15th century, with variants V1 and V1.
- W a "misshapen wheel" shape
- Z the "cat's head" shape, apparently exclusive to Venice and Dalmatia
Read more about this topic: Hilt