Vodyanoy

"Vodník" redirects here. For other uses, see Vodnik (disambiguation).

In Slavic mythology, vodyanoy (Russian: водяной, IPA: [vədʲɪˈnoj]; lit. '[he] from the water' or 'watery') is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, he is called vodník (or in Germanized form: Hastrman), and often referred to as Wassermann in German sources. In Ukrainian fairy tales, he is called “водяник“ (vodyanyk).

Vodyanoy by Ivan Bilibin, 1934

He may appear to be a naked man with a pot belly (and bald-headed) wearing a hat and belt of reeds and rushes, conflicting with other accounts ascribing him green hair and a long green beard. The varying look has been attributed in commentary to his shape-shifting ability. When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washes down water mills, and drowns people and animals. Consequently, fishermen, millers, and also bee-keepers make sacrifices to appease him. The vodyanoy would sometimes drag people down to his underwater dwelling to serve him as slaves.

The vodník in Czechia or Slovakia were said to use colored ribbons (sometimes impersonating peddlers, but also tying them to grass, etc., as lures in the landscape) to attract humans near water in order to snatch them.

Russia

In Russia, the vodyanoy is sometimes called the dedushka vodyanoy (Дѣдушка-водяной, "Water-Grandfather") or vodyanik (водяник).

Habitat

He is said to dwell in a slough (омут), kettle hole (Котловина), or a whirlpool of a river, pond or lake, and liked especially to live near a watermill. One that dwells in marshlands may be called a bolotnyanik (Болотняник).

Appearance

V. Malyshev. Vodyanoy, 1910

His usual appearance is that of a naked old man with a fat paunch of a belly and swollen face according to the Russian folklore collector, but a later English commentary using similar phraseology insisted the creature was not nude but bald, and concatenates additional commentary from the Russian source which says he is seen naked but covered in slime（тина), wearing a high boyar hat) made of green "club-rush" (or other sedges) and a green belt of that same "grass".

He is also described as an old man with green hair and (long) green beard The green beard turns white with when the moon wanes, as the immortal Vodyanoy ages or rejuvenates with the phases of the moon.

Or, rather than wearing plant-based clothing, a different source states he is covered in weeds and slime, and scaly-skinned in his true form. Or rather a figure of giant stature covered in grass and moss. Or be "quite black with enormous red eyes and a nose as long as a fisherman's boot". Or that he is human-faced, but has huge toes, paws instead of hands, long horns, a tail, and eyes that burn like red-hot coals.

He has the capability of shape-shifting. and this has been suggested as an explanation of its varied descriptions. He may crawl out of water in the dark of the night and comb his (green) hair on shore, but he can also appear in the form of a naked woman combing her hair. He may be heard all along the shore while he is slapping the water with his palm (ладонь, or paw ) on moonlit nights.

He can appear as a giant moss-covered fish, a log or even a flying tree-trunk with small-wings, skimming over the water's surface.

Offering and boon

Since he tampers with the waterwheel, the dikes, or control of water if he is not pleased, an operator of a mill must know how to have a good relationship with him. When a watermill is built, a sacrifice of pig, cattle, sheep, or even human (or a chicken) must be made to appease the vodyanik. There are reported cases of watermills destroyed by him (at Lake Ilmen for instance), and may drown a person as forewarned.

The fisherman can also benefit from the boon of the vodyanoy, receiving a bountiful harvest in their fishing nets. He may receive this reward after returning a child which was accidentally netted. The fishermen offer sacred libation, especially melted butter or oil (масло) into the river.

There seems to have been a cult recognizing vodyanoy as a patron saint of bee-keeping, as evidenced by the old custom of bagging the first swarm of bees and sacrificing it in water. And the bee-keeper wishing for a bounty of honey would choose the midnight hour of the feast days of Saints Zosimus and Sabbatius and dip a honeycomb into the water by the mill, while pronouncing an incantation.

He will also foretell the coming harvest. He comes into the village disguised as human, but the edge of his coat (балахон) will be visibly wet, and gives himself away. If he buys corn (grain) at a high price it forewarns spike in market price, i.e., crop failure. But if he buys at low price, the bread will remain cheap.

Mount

The vodyanik "owns" all the fish and aquatic creatures, and his control over them explains his ability to deliver fish. The vodyanik selects in particular the sheatfish (сом; Silurus glanis, aka "wels catfish") as his mount to ride on. But he will catch the farmers' cattle or horses (in water) and ride them till they drop dead in the wetlands. The farmer fording his livestock will make a sign of cross (emblem of Perun's weapon) over the river as protection from this happening.

Attacks on humans

The vodyanoy also posed risk of attacking people entering bodies of water, hence popular belief was to make the sign of the cross before swimming or bathing in such waters. An anecdote tells about a hunter trying to retrieve his duck, and the attack left the creature's finger-marks on his neck. In Ukraine, children were instructed to chant a certain rhyme before going bathing/swimming.

Family

He is known to take on a wife (or wives), and espouses "water-nymphs or drowned and unhappy girls who have been cursed by their fathers or mothers". According to Afanasyev, the "water-nymph" ("water-maiden") is known by various names in Russia, including the rusalka.

It is believed that vodyanoys have a ruler: the Tsar Vodyanik, or the Vodyan Tsar. He is described as an old man armed with a club, who can rise to the sky sitting on a black cloud and create new rivers and lakes.

Other folklores

Typical projection of vodník in Czech or Slovak folklore

The Russian vodyanoy answers to Czech (and Slovak) vodník, Slovene vodeni mož ("water-man"), and Polish topielec ("Drowner").

These water demons of West and South Slavic lore are similar to the East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) conception, though there are certain differences. The Czech and Slovak vodníci (plural of vodník) can also take on an appearance of ordinary humans, but often with water dripping from their clothing, which makes their false identity easily discernable. But their version says the demon, sometimes impersonating peddlers, use colored ribbons to lure humans. Some accounts give them green color, and also long hair or beard in Slovak versions. There is an isolated Czech example of the water-demon being human-like but transforming into frog, but the water-demon's wife being froglike is commonplace. A widely known tale type of vodník or wife hiring a woman as godmother or housekeeper tale is found in Czech and Slovak versions.

Czech, Slovenian and Slovak tales have both evil and good watermen (relative to human beings) who do (or don't, respectively) try to drown people when they happen to swim in their territory. Vodníci would store the souls of the drowned inside pots, and the liberated souls can ascend to heaven, or even revive.

Except for fish (or perhaps fish spirits), they do not have servants. Otherwise, vodníci spend their time running their territory or – in their spare time – playing cards, smoking pipes or just sitting at the water surface (on rocks or 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."

Czech

Vodník

―Illustr. Mikoláš Aleš (1921)

The Bohemian male water demon came to be called vodník or Hastermann, but their ancient names have not been found in older sources. It dwells in every river, stream, or pond. Though several may share a body of water, they keep themselves apart since they are antagonistic towards each other. Sometimes the vodník enters into a loving relationship with a human woman, and will live together with the family he has formed, but otherwise the bachelors are solitary. Those in the pond are considered more feral, living amongst the reeds, but those in the river are believed to live in crystal palaces in a whole expansive world found underwater, where they keep the souls of the drowned dead, inside pots.

There are also a tale and a legend concerning the hastermann or vodnik living near mills.

Physical description

The net-casting vodník (cf. § Man-snatching below) is described as a green man, and comes out of the water combing his green hair on a day he does not hunt drowning victims. But in several accounts he manifests himself as an ordinary human being (cf. § As frogs), or the peddler by the pond north of Přeštice, wearing a dripping wet coat. He is known as the "green man" at the market, appearing like an ordinary man wearing a green coat, with the left coat-tip (šos) always wet, and also missing the thumb on his left hand. The merchants welcome him because when he makes purchases, business does well.

Man-snatching

The vodník lures people into the water to drown them, and those who bathe after hours are especially vulnerable, but he can only drown those who were fated to die that way. Fishermen were afraid of saving a drowning man from the clutches of a vodník, because they would come in a bad way and wind up being drowned themselves.

In one version the water demon spans a fine invisible net across the river to trap people. But he sits in the grass mending his nets on Friday, his day off from man-snatching.

The peddler vodník displays some sort of trinkets hanging on a rack in order to lure his prey into water. Most especially the peddler (kramář) vodník uses the colorful ribbon (Czech: stuha, pl. stuhy; pentle or its dim. pentlička to lure humans, according to numerous accounts. In Podskalí Quarter of Prague, the vodník was seen on a raft (vor, pl. locative vorách) in the evenings, and he hangs a red ribbons over the water to lure children and drag them down. A vodník in the guise of a red-haired man wearing green peddled green ribbons to a village woman, but the goods turned into grass when she returned home.

The vodník or hastrmann maintains a collection of captured souls inside pots in his underwater palace or mansion, as in the tale localized in Moldautein (Týn nad Vltavou), here specified as "earthenware" (German: irdenen) pots also filled with water. Here a poor day-laborer woman's eldest daughter becomes the Hastermann's servant, and when she sweeps, the dust she collects is gold. She liberates a soul from a noisy jar, which turns out to be her brother. She is forgiven, but after serving many years, homesickness hardens her decision to flee, and she frees all the souls on departure. The hastrmann pursues but she returns home to her siblings.

As frogs

In a Bohemian version of the butcher tale, a man from Předměřice was really a vodník, regularly shopping from a butcher at Tuřice, but the out-of-town man's habit of pointing the finger at the piece of meat he wanted annoyed the butcher into cutting a finger off one day. But two days later, he was taking the valley path along the Iser (Jizera) and encountered a huge frog which the curious butcher, but it turned into the client he maimed and dragged the butcher into water.

Matěj Mikšíček recorded a tale about the pregnant wife of a vodník (vodníkova žena) in frog form, which compelled a housekeeper named Liduška to be its child's godmother, though this tale type has been discussed elsewhere as a widely disseminated piece of Slovak folklore (see § Frog wives under §Slovakia). In this Moravian version (but recorded in Bohemian dialect[?]), the vodník returns from his absence in the guise of a red ribbon (červené mašle), attempting to lure and snatch Liduška, just as he is wont to do with girls with rakes haymaking on meadows by the river.

But in Jungbunzlau (Mladá Boleslav) it was rumored the water demon maintained two castles on the Iser (Jizera ), one by the mill, and other by the brickhouse. At mill was seen a vodník who was completely green, and covered with filamentous green algae; at the other abode was seen the vodník's wife, half maiden, half fish.

Slovakia

In Slovakia, the same water demon may be called vodný chlap meaning "water guy" or "waterman". The water spirit may also be called a molek (var. molok ). There is a story of a localized in a lake in the forest of Dolný Kubín in Orava, where a peasant encounters a waterman (from a lake in Kriváň (village)) pursuing another waterman who stole his wife, guiding him to the lake of the perpetrator. The peasant watches as an underwater fight ensues, culminating in bubbling froth turning red, signaling a bad outcome, and the peasant flees as forewarned.

Slovakian folklore also speak of the vodník's pot (vodníkove hrnce), attested in the former Trencsén County (now Trenčín Region or District), and anecdotally, in the northwestern village of Boky (now attached to Budča) a stream was home to a vodný ("aquatic" man) who purchased pots to trap souls inside.

Appearances

Also according to Boky lore, the vodník had a long beard, and would be naked one moment, then be wearing a blouse (halena) dripping water from its side. Some say a vodník can be identified because the left side of his coat (kabát) is always dripping wet. Some ascribe long flowing hair, or blazing eyes as large as dishes (tanier). It allegedly appeared out of the stream in the form of a "little green boy", according to one witness.

The boatmen on the Váh claim to have witnessed the vodník looking like a man with the head of a black ram, though another that was spotted had green hair and clothing.

The vodník are said to employ ribbons to lure humans (as in Czech regions), according to lore found in the Bratislava area and Nitra in western Slovakia.

Frog wives

The wife of a vodník (vodníkova žena) is said to have the appearance of a frog. There is an anecdote of one that transformed into a frog and went to the home of the plowman (oráč) where it was feasted, then entertained him in her own abode. In a more intricate but widespread tale, the froglike being with a swollen belly is met by a woman washing in the river Hron, who offers to be the godmother of the unborn child. A servant (drowned man) arrives with news a girl was born, and conveys the godmother to the vodník's home, hidden under the stairs beneath river boulder, which the man splits open with a magic wand. The vodník's wife instructs the woman to sweep and take home the sweepings (which later turn out to be gold and silver), but not to touch the covered pots. The godmother disobeys and overturns a pot revealing a soul had been captured inside. Then in a double pot she finds the soul of her two drowned children, who tells her they were thus captured by the vodník and could not ascend to heaven. She takes her childrens' souls in the pot and makes an escape; thereafter, the river throws up the children's bodies, and they breathe back to life.

This tale type is classed as ATU subtype 476* "In the Frog House", where the type example is a Hungarian folktale, but listing Bulgarian and Polish cognate tales, and Slovene and other comparisons as well.

Companion spirits

Bolotnik

Main article: Bolotnik

Bolotnik (Russian: болотник) is the owner of the swamp. He is often considered a relative of the vodyanoy and the leshy. There are many descriptions of him, but most often he was imagined as an old man with long green beard and his body covered in fish scales and algae. The bolotnik is dangerous, and he would pose an especially huge threat to those who play shepherd's pipe at night. In order to lure the person to the swamp, he would parody the sounds of various animals, create wandering lights and grow intoxicating plants. This spirit is often said to be a loner, although in some beliefs he has a wife, a bolotnitsa.

Vodyanitsa

Vodyanitsa (Russian: водяница) is a beautiful green-haired water maiden, and she is often said to be the wife of a vodyanoy. This spirit sometimes appears in the form of a golden-finned fish or a white swan. Vodyanitsy (plural: Russian: водяницы) prefer forested lakes, mill ponds, wells and (less commonly) seas as their habitat. They are considered harmless spirits, although sometimes they tear the nets and spoil the millstones; the sea vodyanitsy are more aggressive than freshwater ones and are dangerous to ships. According to some beliefs, the main difference between the vodyanitsa and other water spirits is that she is a baptized drowned girl. The term is often used synonymously for rusalka.

Cultural references

Czech Vodník in Peklo u Nové Město nad Metují

• The first Slovene ballad, written in 1826 by the Slovene national poet France Prešeren, was titled "The Water Man" (Povodni mož). It is about Urška, a flirt from Ljubljana, who ended up in the hands of a handsome man who turned out to be a vodyanoy. The poem is based on a story from The Glory of Carniola, about a dance at Old Square in Ljubljana in July 1547, when Urška Šefer was enchanted by a vodyanoy and tugged to the Ljubljanica. Prešeren wrote it due to his unfulfilled love towards Zalika Dolenc. In the first publication of the poem, the flirt was named Zalika.
• Composer Antonín Dvořák wrote a symphonic poem entitled Vodník (1896) about this creature, who is also a character in his opera Rusalka.
• Karel Jaromír Erben's poem "Vodník" is the ninth poem of his Kytice collection, and inspired Dvořák to compose the above-mentioned symphonic poem.
• The 1974 Czechoslovak comedy film about the end of vodníks in Bohemia, How to Drown Dr. Mracek, the Lawyer (Jak utopit dr. Mráčka aneb Konec vodníků v Čechách).
• David Wiltshire's novel Child of Vodyanoi (1978, adapted into the TV series The Nightmare Man) used the water spirit as a metaphor for a miniature Russian submarine.
• Vodyanoy is one of the best known characters of the Soviet cartoons. In the Soviet animated film The Flying Ship (1979), he sings about his loneliness and need to talk with someone.
• A vodyanoi named Hwiuur features in C. J. Cherryh's Russian novel trilogy, Rusalka (1989), Chernevog (1990), and Yvgenie (1991).
• In China Miéville's Bas-Lag novels, the Vodyanoi are an aquatic people skilled in water-based magic. In Miéville's Perdido Street Station (2000), Vodyanoi dockworkers go on strike and use their magic to blockade a river shipping route.
• An aging vodnik is the main character of the novel Hastrman by Czech writer Miloš Urban published in 2001. The novel won the Magnesia Litera prize for literature in 2002. A Czech film based on the first part of the novel was produced in 2018.
• Vodnik is the main character in the 2013 thriller Croaker, written and directed by Pittsburgh area filmmaker Fred Terling.
• A Vodyanoy features early in Larry Correia's 2017 novel Monster Hunter Siege.
• A Vodník appeared as an antagonist in episode 3 of the animated Netflix series Legend Quest, where it terrorized a village by stealing the souls of children.
• A Vodyanoy is a spirit partner to a Russian shaman named Zria Gagarik in the manga and anime series Shaman King.
• The Ghosts of Rose Hill features a vodnik named Rudolf Wasserman as its primary antagonist.

In games

• The Vodyanoi appears as a monster in Dungeons & Dragons. It is described as a variety of Umber hulk.
• The Witcher video game (2007) portrays a race of water creatures called the vodyanoi, also known as the Fishpeople. Drowners are also referred to as Vodniks.
• Vodyanoy appears as a playable dragon in the 2018 Nintendo game Dragalia Lost.
• A Water-attribute monster called the Vodianoi appears in the 2003 FromSoftware game Lost Kingdoms II.
• A ship called Vodianoy entered Call of Duty: Warzone at the start of Season 2, bringing zombies to Warzone once more, and potentially hinting at the oncoming destruction of Gora Dam.
• Vodyanoi are depicted as small winged frog monsters in Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader. They are commonly found near the coast and rivers.

See also

• Bolotnik
• Grindylow
• Kappa (folklore)
• Lazavik
• Merman
• Sea Tsar
• Su iyesi
• Topielec

References

Bibliography

• Afanasyev, A. N. (1868). Poėtičeskie vozzrenija Slavjan na prirodu Поэтические воззрения Славян на природу. Vol. 2. Moskva: Izdániye K. Soldatenkova.

• Černý, Adolf (1898). "VII. Wódny muž (nykus) a wódna žona". Mythiske bytosće łužiskich Serbow (in Upper Sorbian). Budyšin/Bautzen: M. Hórnik & E. Muka. pp. 264–265.

• Erben, J. K.; et al. (Slavia; Škorpil, L.; Woldrziski, Julius; Brdlík, Františka (from Táborská); Švarc, Václav) (1874). "Vodník". Národní pohádky, písně, hry a obyčeje. Vol. 3. pp. 4–10. Usually cited as Slavia vol. 3)

• Grohmann, Josef Virgil (1863). Sagen-buch von Böhmen und Mähren (in German). Prague: J. G. Calve. pp. 148ff.

• Košťál, Josef [in Czech] (1892). "Vodník v podání lidu českého". Český lid: Etnologický časopis (in Czech). 1: 52–58.

• Kravchenko, Maria (1987). The World of the Russian Fairy Tale. P. Lang. ISBN 9783261036728.

• Polívka, Jiří (1921). "Podklad lidových bájí v Jiráskově „Lucerně"". In Hýsek, Miloslav (ed.). Alois Jirásek: sborník studií a vzpomínek na počest jeho sedmdesátých narozenin (in Czech). Vol. 1. Prague: J. Otto. pp. 305–323.

• Polívka, Jiří (1922a). "Du surnaturel dans les contes slovaques: Les êtres surnaturels". Revue des études slaves (in French). 2 (1–2): 104–124.

• Polívka, Jiří (1931). "149. Povesti bájeslovné: K) O Vodníkovi". Súpis slovenských rozprávok (in Slovak). Vol. 5. Martin: Matica slovenská. pp. 305–323.

• Rose, Carol (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-393-32211-8.

External links

• Media related to Vodyanoy at Wikimedia Commons
• Works related to Lidushka and the Water Demon's Wife at Wikisource