Ethiopian swords

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by roanoa

As far as I know SHOTEL is not an Amharic word, rather it is from Tigrai and what is now Eritrea and it means BIG KNIFE. Amharic for sword is GORADE (actually spelled with the "O" and not the "U").

Thank you Ron! Not only good to see interest in the Ethiopian swords out there but to see you enter in. You were always my primary source for reliable data on Ethiopian weapons, and I still have the great paper you wrote on them years ago.

I think the idea that this European sword was Italian is that curious rise in the grip is an Italian characteristic in military swords on 19th c. (I think my source was 'Calemendrei' on Italian military swords not on hand at the moment).


The point I was making re: the use of shotel in classifying the European style bladed examples with the familiar hilt shape of rhino is due to the broader application typically occurring in collectors circles (the breeding ground for collectors terms) associating the hilt style.


While 'gurade' is of course proper for sword, it is transliteration and collectors use with these terms from different languages that contributes to the confusion. The use of 'big knife' and various applications for swords is a common occurence in a number of situations in many ethnic groups and cultures. For collectors, it is all the 'name game' in desperately trying to classify thier items......for students of arms, it is more cross referencing and broader descriptive explanation.