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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The last two letters of Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, which were among the most important he ever wrote, have long been a subject of speculation. They were dictated at his mountain fortress of Mäqdäla (Magdala) on April 11 and 12 1868, and despatched to Sir Robert Napier, leader of a British expeditionary force, immediately prior to its capture of the citadel and the Emperor's dramatic suicide on April 13.
1 Girma-Selassie Asfaw and D.L. Appleyard in collaboration with Ullendorff, E., The Amharic letters of Emperor Theodore to Queen Victoria and her special envoy, Oxford, 1979.Google Scholar For other letters of Tewodros, see Pankhurst, R. and Asfaw, Germa-Selassie, Tax records and inventories of Emperor Téwodros of Ethiopia (1855–1868), London 1978, pp. 151–9Google Scholar and Appleyard, D. L., Irvine, A. K. and Pankhurst, R., Letters from Ethiopian rulers (early and mid-nineteenth century), London, 1985, pp. 135–46, 161–83.Google Scholar
2 On this legend see Pankhurst, R., “‘Tewodros’: the question of a Greco-Romanian or Russian hermit or adventurer in nineteenth century Ethiopia”, Abba Salama, 1974, vol. 5, pp. 136–42Google Scholar
3 On this chief, who is also known in the Amharicized version of his name, i.e. Gäbräye, see Markham, Clements, A history of the Abyssinian Expedition, London, 1869, p. 328.Google Scholar
4 Ibid p. 325.
5 Anon, , Theodore's cattle, Poona, 1869, p. 1.Google Scholar
6 Holland, T. J. and Hozier, H. M., Record of the expedition to Abyssinia, London, 1870, vol. 2. p. 40.Google Scholar
7 Blanc, H., Narrative of captivity in Abyssinia, London, 1868, p. 396.Google Scholar
8 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 40.Google Scholar
9 Ibid, vol. 2, p. 41.
10 Blanc, , op. cit., pp. 396–7.Google Scholar
11 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 41.Google Scholar
12 Ibid, vol. 2, p. 46.
13 Blanc, , op. cit., p. 397.Google Scholar
14 Markham, , op. cit., pp. 328–9.Google Scholar
15 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 46.Google Scholar
16 i.e. “to aid you” (kalwärrähullaččəahu)
17 bəyyäbəläw written as one word.
18 aččännäfaččəhuñ; the form aččännäfä is Gojjam dialect, corresponding to Shoan aššännäfä.
19 balsälla mädəf, lit. “with an unsuccessful cannon”, mädəf here must be understood in a collective sense.
20 yäfäränj haymanot, “the faith of the Frank”, i.e. Catholics, or by extension Europeans.
21 əjjän čäbbətot ayawqəm näbbärä, i.e. “no one has ever captured me”.
22 the placement of təlantənna “yesterday” is problematical. In the text it is preceded by the punctuation :: which normally marks the end of a sentence or phrase group before a pause in speech, and begins the sentence bädässəta yaddäraččəhu… “you who dwelt in happiness…”. Yet the translation in Markham takes it with the preceding sentence: “Last night the darkness hindered me from doing so”
23 i.e. “a man has been responsible for and protected others cannot himself be subject to the protection of others when the circumstances are reversed”.
24 Girma-Selassie, and Appleyard, , op. cit., pp. 5, 25, 26, 33.Google Scholar
25 For perceptive comment by contemporaries on Tewodros's possible sense of failure see Acton, R., The Abyssinian Expedition, London, 1868, p. 69Google Scholar and Markham, , op. cit., p. 329Google Scholar, and more recently, Rubenson, S., King of Kings Tewodros of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 1968, p. 92.Google Scholar
26 Markham, , op. cit., p. 324.Google Scholar
27 Mondon-Vidailhet, C., Chroniquede Theé;odorus II roides rois d'Ethiopie; Paris, 1905, p. 22.Google Scholar
28 Pankhurst, R., History of Ethiopian towns from the mid-nineteenth century to 1935, Wiesbaden, 1985, p. 80.Google Scholar
29 Idem, Economic History of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 1968, pp. 523–4, 566–8.Google Scholar
30 Rassam, H., Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, London, 1969, vol. 2, pp. 131–2.Google Scholar
31 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 59.Google Scholar
32 Pankhurst, R., State and land in Ethiopian history, Addis Ababa, 1967, p. 96.Google Scholar
33 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 280.Google Scholar
34 Pankhurst, R., “Some names for foreigners in Menilek's Ethiopia” in Sergert, S. and Bodrogliegeti, A. J. E., Ethiopian studies dedicated to Wolf Leslau, Wiesbaden. 1983, pp. 480–5.Google Scholar
35 House of Commons, Correspondence respecting Abyssinia 1846–1868, London 1868, p. 150.Google Scholar
36 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 305.Google Scholar
37 Correspondence respecting Abyssinia, p. 150.Google Scholar
38 Budge, E. A. Wallis, The life and exploits of Alexander the Great, London, 1896, p. 424.Google Scholar
39 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 137.Google Scholar
40 Wright, W., Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1877, pp. 204–5.Google Scholar
41 Markham, , op. cit., p. 320–1.Google Scholar See also Chojnacki, S. and Marshall, I., “Colonel Milward's Abyssinian journal 2 December 1867 to 13 June 1868”, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, 1969, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 106.Google Scholar
42 Correspondence respecting Abyssinia, p. 151.Google Scholar
43 , p. 151.
44 For an outline of Tewodros's earlier victories see Rubenson, op. cit., passim.
45 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 41.Google Scholar
46 Ibid. vol. 2, p. 43; Markham, , op. cit., p. 113.Google Scholar
47 Blanc, , op. cit., p. 399.Google Scholar
48 Markham, , op. cit., pp. 333–4.Google Scholar
49 Houses of Parliament, Further papers connected with the Abyssinian expedition, 1868, p. 5;Google ScholarTheodore's cattle, p. 2.Google Scholar
50 Theodore's cattle, p. 2;Google ScholarMarkham, , op. cit., p. 335.Google Scholar
51 Waldmeier, T., The autobiography of Theophilus Waldmeier, London, 1887, p. 115.Google Scholar
52 i.e. taking wädäj as subject of ləkkebb woəallähu, and not as appositional to nəgəst, there being no punctuation between the sentences here.
53 akäle, i.e. “preventing me from writing your name in full”.
54 the two dependent clauses ending in (i) bämättalate, lit. “at my quarrelling”, and (ii) bämayäte, lit. “at my seeing”, each of which is closed by the punctuation ::, thus identifying each within the structure of this unusually complex sentence, are conjoined by the word hulättäñña “second(ly)” which would thus seem to indicate that both Tewodros' quarrel with the British and the fact that he had realised the superiority of the British forces were seen by him as reasons for his people's defection from his cause.
55 aləmmälläsəlləñ bil, lit. “when he/they said, ‘I shall not return to/for me’” — the prepositional pronoun suffix of the beneficiary -lləñ “to/for me” is attached to the supposed quoted words of the defectors, “I shall not return”, though of course the referrents of the two 1st persons are different.
56 bəgälläw, note the assimilation from bəgädläw.
57 tämänja.
58 wabi albo, lit. “not having a donor/provider”.
59 qatta, i.e. that part of a gun which holds the flint, or which strikes the percussion cap; Fr. “chien de fusil” Baeteman, col. 369.
60 fərida, in the singular, but obviously used in a collective sense.
61 mälləšše yäsäddädhut, lit. “that I sent, having returned/replied”.
62 i.e. “us both”.
63 yəmtu in both cases is of course literally “let them come”, but the viewpoint must be that of the British and so, as in the translation in Markham, both are better rendered as “let them go” (i.e. “come to you”).
64 ənnä' ato wäld mayär; note the interesting writing of Waldmeier's name, reminiscent of an Ethiopian name wäldä.…
65 səra wädaj, i.e. taking səra “work, artifact” as object of the verbal idea in the agent noun wädaj.
66 əndalqärəbbə wo, lit. “so that I may not remain behind to your disadvantage”. It is difficult to see how the translation in Markham, “you must not leave me without artisans”, is derived from the Amharic.
67 Markham, , op. cit., p. 337.Google Scholar
68 Ibid, p. 337.
69 Ibid, p. 322.
70 Waldmeier, T., Erlebnisse in Abessinien, Basel, 1869, p. 105.Google Scholar
71 Markham, , op. cit., p. 338.Google Scholar
72 Tzadua, Paulos, The Fetha Nagast. The Law of the Kings, Addis Ababa, 1968, p. 115.Google Scholar
73 Parkyns, M., Life in Abyssinia, London, 1853, vol. 2, pp. 74–5;Google ScholarWalker, C. H., The Abyssinian at home, London, 1933, p. 193.Google Scholar
74 Ras Wäldä Səllase of Təgre, who died in 1816, was for example buried with the bones of a brother who had predeceased him. Pearce, N., Life and adventures of Nathaniel Pearce, London, 1831, vol. 2, p. 84.Google Scholar
75 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 326;Google ScholarHolland, and Hozier, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 44.Google Scholar
76 Further papers connected with the Abyssinian expedition, p. 5.Google Scholar
77 Blanc, , op. cit., p. 405.Google Scholar
78 Further papers connected with the Abyssinian expedition, p. 6.Google Scholar
79 Ibid, p. 5.
80 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 326–7.Google Scholar
81 Theodore's cattle, p. 27.Google Scholar
82 Ibid, p. 5.
83 Markham, , op. cit., p. 328;Google ScholarBlanc, , op. cit., pp. 405–6.Google Scholar
84 Waldmeier, , Autobiography, p. 116.Google Scholar
85 Markham, , op. cit., pp. 339–40.Google Scholar
86 Ibid, pp. 340–1.
87 Ibid, p. 340; Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 330.Google Scholar
88 Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 330.Google Scholar
89 Theodore's cattle, pp. 30, 34–5.Google Scholar
90 Ibid, p. 39.
91 Further papers connected with the Abyssinian expedition, p. 6.
92 Markham, , op. cit., pp. 340–2.Google Scholar See also Rassam, , op. cit., vol. 2, p. 330;Google ScholarBlanc, , op. cit., p. 407.Google Scholar