The Invisible Axe

The axe played an large an interesting role among the foresters of the western Ukraine known as the Hutsuls or Trans-Carpathian Rusyns. One interesting piece of folklore is about the sound of a phantom axe. An icident of this myth can be seen in the classic Soviet era film “Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors” where young Marichka and Ivan are out on their own playing when they here the sound of an axe nearby and call it the “invisible axe”, Ivan begins to play a song on his pipe and sings about his missing goats (A traditional song about the Devil having his goats stolen by God) and an eerie wail belows from the distance and scare the two youngsters.

My friend and fellow researcher Ainsley Friedberg was nice enough to point me in the right direction with this piece of folklore and to transcribe the following from her copy of the book of the same name for me:

“An old Hutsul related to Onyshchuk that in his youth, when he had been a shepherd, he had heard someone felling trees and groaning and breathing heavily. Although the noises were quite near, nothing was visible, The mysterious hewer was felling trees all night and floating them down a stream, but in the morning, when the shepherds went to see how many trees the invisible woodsman had felled, they saw to their amazement that the surrounding forest was intact. (The sound of the ax, I suspect, belongs to a myriad of preternatural phenomena collectively called blud, which leads men and women astray) – Notes on the Text of Kotsiubynsky’s “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” by Bohdan Rubchak

I have this book ordered via ILL so I am anxiously awaiting it. Meantime the film “Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors” has recenty been released on DVD with subtitles so it is worth checking out for the lore and over beauty of the film and the region it was shot in. Very neat to see how much of a role the axe plays in the lives of these people in the film.

Even the poster for the movie is a dead giveaway as to how important the axe is to this film. Don’t get it expecting to see some great martial arts moves of feats of highland brigands, you may see a head or two busted and some wood being chopped but the most interesting thing is how they carry the axe around like a gentleman carries his cane.

Southwest Vatra 2008

The first annual Southwest Vatra took place on the weekend of June 20th. Harnas Dragoslav gave a presentation on the gear and lore of the highland brigand. We will be adding a transcript of this to the site very soon. Below is the offical logo for the event with original artwork by our own Harnas Dragoslav and also a pic of some of the gear that was part of his presentation.

A nice description of the Tanec Sokyra

On the High Uplands
Sagas, Songs, Tales and Legends of the Carpathians
by Stanislaw Vincenz

Dance description
pg 43
What did they dance? The depicted their ancestors history and past adventures. They swung their axes at one another, erect and squatting, as though repulsing an enemy; they threw their axes from one to another, as though challenging to a fight. Then after the battle, they united, embraced, and danced in harmony. Then they ran off together with raised axes, gazing into the distance, looking for the enemy, as though storming over the mountains, capturing towns, or fleeing from pursuit; or they trotted almost in the one spot, evenly, slowly, yet steadily moving round, always in a circle…….

[The following pic is from a Polish dance manual but is really illustrates some of the things mentioned in the above quote.]

On Fighting

On Fighting On the High Uplands
Sagas, Songs, Tales and Legends of the Carpathians
by Stanislaw Vincenz

pg 50
So far as free fights, duels, head splittings and bone breakings were concerned, we know that no one thought them particularly wicked. obduracy in a quarrel is evil, but not the quarrell itself. if the enemies were reconciled, as was the custom, then the rancour vanished. if in fight something happened by accident…well, it was an accident.