On this website recounting collections of Austrian folktales, there is a story of “A Tyrolian Forester’s Legend” as taken nearly verbatim from:
Günther, Marie Alker, comtesse, coll. Tales and Legends of the Tyrol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1874.
In this story, there is repeated mention of a boy goat-herder going up into the mountains to hunt, and bringing “an Alpine stock” with him. It is unclear to me if this is his rifle, but from context, I think it might not be.
Anyone with knowledge of Austria circa 1800s, old firearms, climbing tools, or folk tales have an answer?
TL;DR: What is “an Alpine stock” in this story?
Link to the story as I read it, but there are nearly identical sources floating around the Google: http://oaks.nvg.org/ta12.html#tyrolian
This is rather easy and short to clear up: An Alpine Stock or Alpenstock is a long wooden pole with an iron spike tip that is used for hiking and mountaineering. Like so
It has since fallen out of fashion to use this accessory and has largely been replace witht he crampon but in the 19th century it was tused and so found its entreance into the English vocabulary. Sherlock Holmey in "The Final Problem" carries an Alpine Stock when ascending to the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland f.ex.
