In Slavic mythology and Norse Mythology, vodyanoy (Russian: водяно́й, literally "watery"), vodyanoi, Ukrainian vodianyk (Ukrainian: водяник), Polish wodnik, Czech and Slovak vodník, Bulgarian vodnik (Bulgarian: водник), or Serbian vodenjak (Cyrillic: водењак) and Norwegian havmannen is a male water spirit. Vodník (or in germanized form hastrman) in Czech fairy tales is the same creature as the Wassermann or nix of German fairy tales.
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[edit] Vodyanoy
Vodyanoy is said to appear as a naked old man with a greenish beard and long hair, with his body covered in algae and muck, usually covered in black fish scales. He has webbed paws instead of hands, a fish's tail, eyes that burn like red-hot coals. He usually rides along his river on a half-sunk log, making loud splashes. Consequently, he is often dubbed "grandfather" or "forefather" by the local people. Local drownings are said to be the work of the vodyanoy (or rusalkas).
When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washed down water mills, drowns people and animals. (Consequently, fishermen, millers, and also bee-keepers make sacrifices to appease him.) He would drag down people to his underwater dwelling to serve him as slaves.
[edit] Vodník
In Czech and Slovak folklore the features of the vodník are markedly different to the East-Slavic conception; he has a completely human in constitution and habits, except for few differences – they have gills, webbed membrane between their fingers and their skin is algae-green in colour (as well as his hair often which is typically of pale green tone). His overall dress and appearance is weird, sometimes even resembling bum or vagrant; patchy shirts and (by modern standards) odd hats - often boaters with long specled ribbons - are commonplace. They can withstand to linger for hours outside their ponds. When so, one can tell them unequivocally by wet coat-tail from which water is dropping under all circumstances. Vodník's face is usually unshaven and it is not uncommon for a vodník to have a large, wet, tangled beard.
Czech and Slovak tales have both evil and good vodníci (relatively to human beings) who do (or don't, respectively) try to drown people when they happen to swim in their territory. Anyway, whoever drowns, vodníci would store their souls in porcelain lid-covered cups. They consider their cups as the most valueable heritage and display of their "work", and number of these cups they see as proportional to their wealth and/or status among other vodníci. When lid of such cup is removed, the soul within (in a form of a bubble) would escape and get liberated. Except for fish (or perhaps fish spirits) they do not have servants. Otherwise, vodníci spend their time by running their territory, or – in their spare time – playing cards, smoking pipes or just sitting at the water surface (on rocks, willows nearby) and loitering. Fishermen ask the vodník for help by placing a pinch of tobacco in the water and saying, "Here's your tobacco, Lord Vodník, now give me a fish." In Czech and Slovak tales vodníci (plural of vodník) live in ponds or rivers; there is no mention of a particular dwelling and the 'half-sunken log' is unapparent. There are almost none references of vodník with connection to sea water, but it is supposed that it would be dangerous, even deadly for him.
[edit] Cultural references
- Vodyanoy is one of the best known characters of the Soviet cartoons. In the Soviet animated film "The Flying Ship", he performs a song about his loneliness and need to talk with someone.
- David Wiltshire's novel Child of Vodyanoi (adapted into the TV series The Nightmare Man) used the water spirit as a metaphor for a miniature Russian submarine.
- Composer Antonín Dvořák wrote a symphonic poem entitled "Vodník" or The Water Goblin about this creature, who is also a character in his opera Rusalka.
- In China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels, the Vodyanoi are an aquatic people skilled in water magics. In Miéville's Perdido Street Station, striking Vodyanoi dockworkers use their water magic to blockade a shipping route.
- The Bog Roosh of Hellboy lore bears many similarities including storing people's souls in jars and keeping slaves.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Rose, Carol (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 384. ISBN 9780393322118. http://books.google.com/books?id=GKrACS_n86wC&pg=PA384&dq=vodyanoy&client=firefox-a.
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