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

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

and in other territories which comprise today Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary. 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.

Languages

Depending on the language, the axe is called as follows: ; , lit. "Romanian"; Polish (depending on the region): ''ciupaga, rąbanica, obuszek, cekanka, wataha, wataszka'', the latter two from Romanian ''vătaf'' ("master shepherd"); ; ; , lit. "Romanian"; ).

Appearance

A shepherd's axe is a light axe 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 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's court.Magyar Demokrata
2009-09-04, in Hungarian It is also depicted on Scythian imagery. 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 ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

, Zsolt Petkes, in Hungarian Apart from them, the

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...

and also the Alans and

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

used similar weapons. Vlach shepherds brought their shepherd's axes into Central Europe when they migrated along the

and Dinaric Mountains from the 14th through 17th centuries{{cite book, last=Reychman, first=J. , title=Peleryna, ciupaga i znak tajemny, year=1971, pages=68 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 Slovakia and Poland, 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. In Hungary, modified axes were also used as martial weapons by Hungarian warriors in the early modern period, used, for example, in the 18th century in Rákóczi's War for Independence against Austrian soldiers. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hungarian Kuruc leader Imre Thököly and his soldiers used shepherd's axes as weapons. Hungarian shepherds in the northern regions used them also as tools. Many people of the

Halychyna Galicia ()"Galicia"
'' Oleksa Dovbush.

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 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 holding a ciupaga Image:Wladyslaw Skoczylas - Janosik.jpg, Juraj Jánošík holding his valaška Image:Thokolyi.jpg, Imre Thököly holding a modified fokos Image:Bajurak.jpg, Opryshok Vasyl Bayurak holding ''bartka Image:Obst WPD bartka.jpg, Depiction of ''bartka'' by Severyn Obst (1882)

References

Axes Carpathians Hungarian culture Polish culture Romanian culture Slovak culture Ukrainian culture Weapons of Hungary Weapons of Poland Weapons of Romania Weapons of Slovakia Weapons of Ukraine