The shepherd's axe is a long thin light axe of Eurasian origin used in past centuries by

shepherds A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...

in the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

and in other territories which comprise today

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. The features of a shepherd's axe combine a tool with a walking stick, that could be used as a light weapon. It has symbolic historical and cultural connotations and is still used as a prop in many traditional dances, for example the odzemek.

Names

Depending on the language, the axe is called as follows: ; ;

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

(depending on the region): ciupaga, rąbanica, obuszek, cekanka, wałaszka; ; ; ; ).

Appearance

A shepherd's axe is a light

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

with a long and straight wooden shaft, often with a metal butt. The length of the shaft is usually slightly more than 1 metre. The shafts were usually engraved as their owners had plenty of time for crafting. A small metal head-piece is sharp on one side while the other side is flat and can be used as a hammer. The head-piece is formed to fit comfortably into the hand so the shepherd's axe could be used as a walking stick. Today's shepherd's axes are mostly decorative, some having golden or

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

head-pieces (mostly brass, iron, chromed iron, wood or aluminum – it is rare that any axe head would be made of solid gold or silver). Many are considered works of art (esp. those made up to the 1960s by highlanders). They were skillfully stamped/adorned according to ancient tradition. The main motifs were the sun, stars (whirl), comets, tree of life, flowers, trees such as fir or spruce, and various geometric designs. Some smiths used many different, elaborated stamps.

History and usage

The first written mention of the shepherd's axe comes from Emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 25912 July 210 BC), born Ying Zheng () or Zhao Zheng (), was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. He is widely regarded as the first ever supreme leader of a unitary state, unitary d ...

's court.Magyar Demokrata
2009-09-04, in Hungarian It is also depicted on

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

imagery (see sagaris). The first users of the shepherd's axe were Eurasian nomads. Many of them were found in Avar graves. Besides the common Eastern steppe varieties, Avar influence too can be felt on the Hungarian shepherd's axes. In the 9th century, Magyar warriors used light axes on long shafts, called ''fokos'', in their military arsenal during their invasion of Central Europe.Honfoglalás kori fokosok, balták és bárdok
,

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

, Zsolt Petkes, in Hungarian Apart from them, the

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic peoples, Turkic Nomad, semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between the 5th and 7th centu ...

and also the

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

and

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

used similar weapons.

Vlach Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...

shepherds brought their shepherd's axes into

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

when they migrated along the

and

Dinaric Mountains The Dinaric Alps (), also Dinarides, are a mountain range in Southern and Southcentral Europe, separating the continental Balkan Peninsula from the Adriatic Sea. They stretch from Italy in the northwest through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Her ...

from the 14th through 17th centuries. These were used by shepherds as versatile tools, providing a small axe, a supplemental hammer and a walking stick. Although a shepherd's axe could not be used to effectively cut down heavy trees, it was still able to cut smaller branches. In

and

, shepherd's axes were inseparable tools of native shepherds, together with heavy decorative belts. In the Slovak culture, the shepherd's axe was popularized by local historical legend

Juraj Jánošík Juraj Jánošík (first name also ''Juro'' or ''Jurko'', ; ''Hungarian: Jánosik György'', baptised 25 January 1688, died 17 March 1713) was a Slovak highwayman. Jánošík has been the main character of many Slovak novels, poems, and films. ...

. In

, modified axes were also used as martial weapons by Hungarian warriors in the

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

, used, for example, in the 18th century in Rákóczi's War for Independence against Austrian soldiers. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hungarian

Kuruc Kuruc (, plural ''kurucok''), also spelled kurutz, refers to a group of armed anti- Habsburg insurgents in the Kingdom of Hungary between 1671 and 1711. Over time, the term kuruc has come to designate Hungarians who advocate strict national inde ...

leader

Imre Thököly Imre () is a Hungarian masculine first name, which is also in Estonian use, where the corresponding name day is 10 April. It has been suggested that it relates to the name Emeric, Emmerich or Heinrich. Its English equivalents are Emery and He ...

and his soldiers used shepherd's axes as weapons. Hungarian shepherds in the northern regions used them also as tools. Fokosrakoczi

Many people of the

Halychyna Galicia ( ;"Galicia"
''

Oleksa Dovbush Oleksa Dovbush (, ; 1700 – 24 August 1745) was a famous Ukrainian outlaw in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, leader of the movement, who became a folk hero. Biography Oleksa was born in the Hutsul village of Pechenizhyn, Kolomyi ...

Present-day usage

At present, shepherd's axes are still made and sold as souvenirs and for decorative purposes. They are also still used in many traditional dances. Occasionally they may be seen in the

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

parts of the country where older men still use them as walking sticks. They are rarely used as tools or weapons.

Gallery

Image:Klimek3.jpg,

Klemens Bachleda Klemens "Klimek" Bachleda (13 November 1851 - 6 August 1910) was a pioneering Polish mountain guide and mountain rescuer in Austria-Hungary. He died during an unsuccessful mountain rescue attempt in the High Tatras. By . Biography Early and p ...

holding a ciupaga Image:Janosik - Wladyslaw Skoczylas (77104868) (cropped).jpg,

holding his valaška Image:Thokolyi.jpg,

holding a modified fokos Image:Bajurak.jpg, Opryshok Vasyl Bayurak holding ''bartka Image:Obst WPD bartka.jpg, Depiction of ''bartka'' by Severyn Obst (1882)

Notes

References

{{Slovakia topics Axes Carpathians Culture of Hungary Culture of Poland Culture of Romania Culture of Slovakia Culture of Ukraine Weapons of Hungary Weapons of Poland Weapons of Romania Weapons of Slovakia Weapons of Ukraine