Belariath

As there seems to be no clarification on the website, I'd like to ask:

What exactly is a glaive in Belariath?

Is it a single-edged blade at the end of a long pole, as is the historical weapon? Or is it a bladed throwing weapon like the chakram as depicted in video games and movies?

If I am not mistaken a glaive is 'just' a sword - in effect a broadsword.

Throughout history Glaive has three meanings. The fantasy throwing weapon (such as what hunters and night elves use in world of warcraft), the more traditional pole arm and then there is the sword term that it is used for. Being that it is a one handed weapon on the site, I can only assume that it was originally meant to be (as Ehl has already said) the sword version of the term.

From Wikipedia:

• The word "glaive" originated from French. Almost all etymologists derive it from either the Latin (gladius) or Celtic (*cladivos, cf. claymore) word for sword. Nevertheless, all the earliest attestations in both French and English refer to spears. It is attested in this meaning in English roughly from the 14th century to the 16th.
  
• In the 15th century, it acquired the meaning described above.
  
• Around the same time it also began being used as a poetic word for sword (this is the main use of the word in Modern French).
  
• The term "glaive" is frequently misapplied in modern fantasy fiction, films and video games to various thrown weapons, similar to the chakram or hunga munga, which can mystically return to the thrower (as in popular myths surrounding the boomerang). These objects are fictional, and are not in any way related to the historical glaive.

The most accurate usage would be the polarm, a one-handed low attack, with so much Warcraft influence, would make some think of the thrown, here we mean the nickname for a broadsword... I am curious as to why a broadsword is unusable by rangers, but that's not the point of the current discussion.

To clear up any potential confusion and misunderstanding in the future, could I request someone to add in 'broadsword' or similar to the description? I for one did not know Glaive had a third meaning of 'sword' until yesterday, I only knew the polearm and chakram meaning, which really made the discussion confusing for me until I wiki'd it.

the more you know *makes rainbow with a star*

And for the LotR version:

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Aeglos

But since this is Belariath and we do things our own way, Ehl is omniscient That makes it a sword.