The New and complete American encyclopedia 1808

The inhabitants ire a mixture of the descendants of the ancient Hunns, Sclavonians, Camani, Germans, Walachians, Greeks, Jews, Turks, and a wandering people called Zigduns, said to b: of uncertain origin, but probable the fame as those we call Gypsies. The Hungarians are said to be of a sanguine choleric temper, and somewhat fierce, cruel, [...]

Johann Georg Kohl 1843

Austria, Vienna, Hungary, Bohemia and the Danube, Galicia, Styria, Moravia, Buckovina, and the military frontier Johann Georg Kohl 1843 ” It is often very difficult,” continued my informant, ” to say whether these Bacony foresters are swineherds or robbers. Their wandering and uncertain mode of life, and their superiority in strength to their more settled [...]

The Poles in the seventeenth century By Henryk Krasiński 1843

They have over them chiefs, resembling the chiefs of clans, to whom they render an imperfect obedience. These chiefs sometimes wear an eagle’s plume on their hat, and round their necks a cord, decorated with pieces of gold. The ordinary costume of the Mountaineers is composed of a short tunic of grey cloth, confined at [...]

ROUMANIAN SMUGGLERS.

CHATTER BOX Published for the Proprietors by W. WELLS GARDNER, 10 Paternoster Row, London. Printed by John Strangeways,] [Castle Street, Leicester Square No. 18. March 30, 1872. Weekly—One Halfpenny. ROUMANIAN SMUGGLERS. ROUMANIA, otherwise called Wallachia and Moldavia, a country watered by the Danube, and not far from the Black Sea, is inhabited by a wild [...]

1844 Description of the “mountaineers” in the Carpathians.

“The mountaineers here are called Huzzulen as in Bukovina. We found two of them sitting by the fire at the inn, leaning upon their hatchets. They told us that they were never without their hatchets, that they travelled with them, danced with them, and wore them as a part of their Sunday finery. They went [...]

Mountain Axe at ISMAC XI 2011

Wow, I have really neglected this site for the last year or so haven’t I? Like anyone is reading:) So here is an update…while I may have let the site slack a bit I have been keeping up with my axe work and was lucky enough to present a class on the subject at the [...]

Cold steel to sokyra update

I did a little more work on my converted Cold Steel Norse tomahawk…it felt nice but was just a bit too heavy so I worked on grinding the head into a lighter more historically accurate shape. After a few hours of constant grinding and quenching , I can honestly say I am overjoyed at the [...]

Mountain Axe at SCA Saxon Summer again this year.

I will be teaching a workshop on the mountain axe again this year at the local SCA event called Saxon Summer on September 12. I believe the event is being held in hubbard Ohio again this year but will post the address when I get it. Should be a good time. Last year it was [...]

Axe galore at the RV Weekend!

We got to play with all sorts of axes last weekend at the 5th annual Recreational Violence Weekend here in Northeast Ohio. Medieval pollaxes, tomahawks, entrenching tools and our beloved moutnain axe were all featured in classes this past weekend. Photo courtesy of Kirk Lawson The first axe class was on the use of the [...]

Mountain Axe at the Recreational Violence Weekend!

Recreational Violence Weekend V June 11-12 here in beautiful Northeast Ohio..we will have a variety of axe classes including a class Sunday on the mountain axe. I am picturing this as the most people ever swinging mountain axes in one place outside of the Carpathian mountains ever…or at least in a very long time. Should [...]