Halberdier

A halberdier is a military unit that features both in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the real world.

They are soldiers armed with a long polearm known as a halberd, and are usually utilized in the anti-cavalry role and sometimes phalanx fighting formations. Their weapon, the halberd, is far more effective and useful than its distant cousin, the pike. It consists of a long wooden pole (about 10+ feet long) with an axe head mounted to one side of the weapon and another implement, usually a metal spike, mounted to the opposite side.

With this lethal combination, a halberdier could not only stab a horse or impale its rider, but also dismount the cavalryman, parry and block other polearms, or hamstring the rider's mount. Many armies and nations in Middle-earth realized its effectiveness and thus trained special units to wield the halberd, known as halberdiers.