Hebrew Proverb? Turkish Proverb? Kimberly Joyce Pollock? Wafula Chebukati? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A popular allegory suggests that people are unable to distinguish between allies and adversaries:
The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. The axe was clever and convinced the trees that since his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.
Would you please explore the provenance of this tale.
Reply from Quote Investigator: This metaphorical framework has a long history. A pertinent proverb was circulating in the 17th century. The Reverend J. Ray published “A Collection of English Proverbs” in 1678 in Cambridge, England. A section of Hebrew proverbs titled “Adagia Hebraica” contained the following, Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The axe goes to the wood, from whence it borrowed its helve
The “helve” is the handle. This saying criticizes individuals who injure their own people or who injure those who have given them power.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The reference work “A Collection of English Proverbs” was was reprinted for more than one-hundred years. The fourth edition appeared in 1768. Hence, the proverb continued to circulate in English.2
Germane sayings also circulated in other languages. “A Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs” compiled by Metin Yurtbaşı contained the following two entries:3
Ağaca balta vurmuşlar, “Sapı bedenimden” demiş.
They struck at the tree with an ax; and the tree said: “The handle is made from my body.” [It is the most painful blow when it is one’s own child or someone you have protected who sets out to harm him.] ÖAA 85 < ET 160
Ormana (bir) balta girmiş sapı yine kendisinden (imiş).
An ax went into the woods and its handle was of itself. ET 796
The ET and ÖAA abbreviations indicated that these sayings appeared in compilations which were published in 1885 and 1965, respectively:
ET = Ebüzziya Tevfik, Durüb-ı Emsâl-i Osmaniyye (Ottoman Proverbs), 1885.
ÖAA = Ömer Asim Aksoy, Atasözleri Sözlüyü (Dictionary of Proverbs), Ankara, 1965.
In 1977 “Revolution in the Third World: Myths and Prospects” by Gerard Chaliand printed the following as an epigraph at the beginning of the book:4
When the axe came into the forest, the trees said: the handle is one of us.
TURKISH PROVERB
In 1996 “Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in 20th-Century Literature” contained a chapter by Kimberly Joyce Pollock which included an instance of the saying:5
The axe entered the forest, and each tree recognized the handle as herself.
The saying appeared on twitter and evolved. On April 17, 2008 Chirag Patnaik @chirag tweeted the following:6
From the forest itself comes the handle for the axe…
On July 9, 2008 kkartikeya @kkartikeya tweeted this:7
When the axe entered the forest, the trees said, “The handle is one of us!”
On March 1, 2024 Saif Rahman @SaifRRahman tweeted this:8
Old Turkish proverb ~ When the axe came into the forest the trees said dont worry the handle is one of us
On October 18, 2017 Vincent ‘Kimcent’ Kimutai @kimcentt tweeted the following:9
Q: Y r our forests disappearing?
A: Because our trees keep saying: “We will vote 4 the axe; the handle is from our tribe”. Wafula Chebukati
On November 13, 2017 @MbuyiZa tweeted this:10
The forest was at a loss as to why its tree population was shrinking.
Then it dawned upon the forest that the trees kept voting for the axe believing it was an ally since the handle was one of its own.
~ Anon
On February 24, 2018 @mabarsayaaaaa tweeted this:11
The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of the them.
In conclusion, QI believes that the allegory about voting evolved from a 17th century Hebrew proverb about an axe and a forest. Pertinent proverbs also occurred in the Turkish language. The latter stages of the evolution were facilitated by twitter. Multiple tweets highlighted the similarity between tribal allegiance and the connection between an axe handle and a forest. No single creator was responsible for the construction of this allegory.
Image Notes: Picture of an axe buried in a tree truck from Michael Aleo at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jonathan Lighter and Fake History Hunter whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to researcher Barry Popik who performed pioneering work on this topic and created two webpages here and here. Popik located important information such as the 1977 citation.
- 1678, A Collection of English Proverbs: Digested into a convenient Method for the speedy finding any one upon occasion, Author: J. Ray, M.A. and Fellow of the Royal Society, Second Edition, Section: Adagia Hebraica, Quote Page 369, Printed by John Hayes, Cambridge, England; Printed to the University for W. Morden. (ProQuest EEBO Huntington Library records) ↩︎
- 1768, A Collection of English Proverbs: Author: The Late Reverend J. Ray (Fellow of the Royal Society), Fourth Edition, Section: Hebrew Proverbs, Quote Page 309, Printed for W. Otridge, London, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 2012 (1993 First Printing), A Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs, Compiled by Metin Yurtbaşı, Topic: Ingratitude, Quote Page 231 and 232, Published by Mehmet Başpehlivan, Excellence Publishing. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1977, Revolution in the Third World: Myths and Prospects by Gerard Chaliand, (Translation of “Mythes révolutionnaires du Tiers monde”), Note: Quotation appears as an epigraph at the beginning of the book, The Viking Press, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1996, Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in 20th-Century Literature, Edited by Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, Chapter: A Continuum of Pain: A Woman’s Legacy in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy by Kimberly Joyce Pollock, Start Page 38, Quote Page 46, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: Chirag Patnaik @chirag, Timestamp: 9:51 AM, Apr 17, 2008, Text: From the forest itself. (Accessed on x.com on Jan 8, 2024) link ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: kkartikeya @kkartikeya, Timestamp: 7:26 PM, Jul 9, 2008, Text: When the axe entered. (Accessed on x.com on Sep 20, 2024) link ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: Saif Rahman @SaifRRahman, Timestamp: 12:16 PM, Mar 1, 2014, Text: Old Turkish proverb. (Accessed on x.com on Sep 20, 2024) link ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: Vincent ‘Kimcent’ Kimutai @kimcentt, Timestamp: 8:56 AM, Oct 18, 2017, Text: forests disappearing. (Accessed on x.com on Sep 20, 2024) link ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: Father of 3 girls and a son. @MbuyiZa, Timestamp: 1:49 PM, Nov 13, 2017, Text: The forest was at a loss. (Accessed on x.com on Sep 20, 2024) link ↩︎
- X-Tweet, From: Cut @mabarsayaaaaa, Timestamp: 10:46 AM, Feb 24, 2018, Text: forest was shrinking. (Accessed on x.com on Sep 20, 2024) link ↩︎