Russia
In Russia, the ''vodyanoy'' is sometimes called the ' (, "Water-Grandfather") or ' ().Habitat
He is said to dwell in a slough (), kettle hole (), 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'' ().Appearance
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 (), wearing a high ) 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 theOffering 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 () 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 () 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 (; '' 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
Czechia
The Bohemian male water demon came to be called ''vodník'' or , 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. 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. ), or the peddler by the pond north of Přeštice, wearing a dripping wet coat.Informant: J. Gruber aus Merklin ( Merklín), The tale states starting from Merklín the pond is in the area around Přeštice, i.e., north of it. He is known as the "green man" at the market, appearing like an ordinary man wearing a green coat, with the left coat-tip () always wet, and also missing the thumb on his left hand. The merchants welcome him because when he makes purchases, business does well., pp. 4–6, portion undersigned K. J. Erben.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 () ''vodník'' uses the colorful ribbon (, pl. ; or its dim. to lure humans, according to numerous accounts. In Quarter of Prague, the vodník was seen on a raft (, 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" () 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."Die Wohnung des Hastermanns", , citing Vernaleken, ''Mythen und Bräuche'', p. 178.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. recorded a tale about the pregnant wife of a vodník () 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 under §Slovakia). In this Moravian version (but recorded in Bohemian dialect , the vodník returns from his absence in the guise of a red ribbon (), 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 (Slovakia
In Slovakia, the same water demon may be called meaning "water guy" or "waterman". The water spirit may also be called a (var. ). 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 (), attested in the former Trencsén County (nowAppearances
Also according to Boky lore, the vodník had a long beard, and would be naked one moment, then be wearing a blouse () dripping water from its side. Some say a vodník can be identified because the left side of his coat () is always dripping wet. Some ascribe long flowing hair, or blazing eyes as large as dishes (). 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 theFrog wives
The wife of a vodník () 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 () 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 children's 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, which was incorrectly given as the only variant in the original 1961 publication of the index, but later revised with the listing of Bulgarian and Polish cognate tales, and Slovene and other comparisons as well.Companion spirits
Bolotnik
Bolotnik () 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 () 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: ) 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
* The first SloveneIn games
* The Vodyanoi appears as a monster in '' Dungeons & Dragons''.The 1st Edition ''Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio'', p. 93. 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 2018See also
* Bolotnik * Grindylow * Kappa (folklore) * Lazavik * Merman * Sea Tsar * Su iyesi * Topielec * NixieExplanatory notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
* * * Usually cited as ''Slavia'' vol. 3) * * * * * * *External links
* * {{Authority control Monsters Piscine and amphibian humanoids Slavic legendary creatures Slavic paganism Slavic tutelary deities Water spirits Frogs in culture Nixies (folklore)