MINE2026-084 - historical text
Slovak villages around Malaczka
Slovakia - West slope of the Little Carpathians around Malaczka (now Malacky) - Central Europe
Play / practical
Source term: Schwirrholz
Schwirrholz = German 'whirring wood'; here the source's name for the flat, cord-whirled Malaczka toy.
Children in the Slovak villages around Malacky made a bullroarer that looked like a wooden sieve: a smooth rectangular blade, about fifteen centimetres long, peppered with holes. Tied by its narrow end to a whip-thong, the perforated board whirled and sounded in the open air.
Ein flaches, glattes, rechteckiges, etwa 15 cm langes, siebartig durchlochertes Holzblättchen wird mit der Schmalseite an einen Peitschenriemen gebunden und in der Luft gewirbelt.
A flat, smooth rectangular little wooden blade, about 15 cm long and perforated like a sieve, is tied by its narrow side to a whip-thong and whirled in the air.
Hans Schukowitz, 'Schwirrhölzer' (1896), p. 256.
- Object
- Smooth rectangular wooden blade about 15 cm long, perforated like a sieve and tied by its narrow end to a whip-thong.
- Function
- Children’s whirled toy.
- Map confidence
- high - Malacky town anchor only; the source names Slovak villages around Malaczka, not the town itself.
- Source location
- printed p. 256
- Toy / secular survival