Russian Vampires: Lonely Solitary Hunters

“Presently up ran the first corpse--the one that had chased the Soldier--and dashed into the chapel. Thereupon the one that was lying on the table jumped up, and cried
to it: "What hast thou come here for?"
"I've chased a soldier in here, so I'm going to eat him."
"Come now, brother! he's run into my house. I shall eat him myself."
"No, I shall!"
"No, I shall!"
And they set to work fighting; the dust flew like anything.
The Two Corpses – Russian Fairy Tale


Those who encounter vampires in Russian fairy tales and live to tell the tale are often not strong, they are the lucky. They are those who through happenstance survived until the cocks crow (morning) when the dead loose the ability to move. Humans in these tales are swept into the dark world of the dead, rarely if ever do they go in search of it. They spend their night in fear, praying, begging for the light, hoping for some reprieve as the vampires, as evil descends upon them. Then something happens, and through luck they survive until dawn, when in Russian tales the dead loose the ability to move.
This all is typical of such stories, what’s unique about this story is that while most Russian folk tales involve a single vampire this one has two. The two vampires in the tale meet not as friends or kindred spirits, instead they meet as two predators hunting the same prey. So it would seem that in the Russian conception of the world, those who haunted the night were territorial, typically solitary hunters.
At the same time vampires in the Russian tradition seem to crave company. Other fiendish beings will befriend travelers or the people of a village. They don’t simply do so to eat them because that would be easy enough without a long term deceit. Indeed in the tale “The Soldier and the Vampire” the vampire eats everyone but the soldier who he tries to befriend. As strange as it might seem this does paint vampires as both tragically lonely figures and deadly hunters.

Nukiuk is a folklorist who’s been translating Russian Fairy Tales into English and writing on them. You can find these at http://zeluna.net/russian-fairy-tale.html.

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The Leshy

A priest’s daughter went for a walk in the forest without asking her father or mother and disappeared without a trace. Three years later, in the village where her parents still lived there was a brave hunter who traveled through the primeval forests with his dog and his gun.

One day while he was traveling through the woods his dog began barking furiously as its hair rose up on its back in anger. The hunter looked down the path to see a man picking at his shoe. After a moment the hunter realized that the man wasn’t really a human but a leshy and so he took aim and fired striking the forest spirit in the belly. The Leshy rolled across the ground for only a moment before getting up and dragging himself into the thicket with the dog and the hunter chasing after.

The hunter followed the Leshy into the mountains, through a rock crevice where there stood a tiny cabin. On peering inside the cabin the hunter saw the Leshy laying on a bench with a girl crying bitterly beside him.

“Who will feed me now?” the girl cried.

“Hello, fairy maiden,” the hunter greeted her. “Can you tell me where your from?”

“I do not know,” the girl told him. “I do not know if I have ever seen freedom, if I have a father and mother, I don’t recall anything.”

“Very well, I’m going to take to Holy Russia,” the hunter told the girl.

So he took her with him out of the forest as he realized that she had been carried away by the Leshy, and had lived in the woods for many years, naked and knowing no shame. At last they came to the village and the hunter inquired if anyone had lost a girl. Soon the priest and his wife discovered that their daughter had returned. SO the priests wife ran to the girl and hugged her.

“You are my dear little child, where have you been so long?” the girls mother said tearfully.

At first however the girl didn’t understand anything that was happening and it took some time for her to recover. However eventually she recalled all and married the hunter. When people went later to find the hut in which she’d been living with the leshy they couldn’t find it.

See all Russian Fairy Tales

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Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga is perhaps one of the most feared of all creatures within Russian fairy tales. A hag witch whom appears as a monstrous old lady with long greasy hair, a sign of her freedom and wildness. She is interesting however because despite how feared she has become she's obviously plays a duel roll. On the one hand she's the witch who devours girls who get lost in the woods, who threatens the weak and the faint of heart. Yet at the same time she tales on the roll of the donor within fairy tales. She's the one who tells the hero how to kill their immortal foes, or gives them the magical object needed to complete their quest. Of course it's interesting to note that she only does this for male characters who tend to seem perfectly at ease with her, to understand exactly how to act. Because she represents the wilderness and that is their element. Girls are only in the woods in Russian fairy tales because they have been lost or left their. Thus their test in the forest is much more scary.

The obvious duel role of Baba Yaga has led to speculation that she was once purely good. That Christianity perverted her. I think that this is a misconception. In the post Christian world we want to divide things neatly into good and bad. Perfect and imperfect. We forget that even in places which never converted many of the deities and fairy like creatures still retain a duel role. Baba Yaga doesn't represent good or evil, she represents the world which the heroes of fairy tales have now found themselves. These heroes are entering the adult world, a world which is both good and bad. Which provides opportunity and danger. Baba Yaga like nearly all fairies appears to people at a time of inbetween, when they are not yet adults but are no longer children. A time when that which challenges someone also makes them stronger. When people have conflicted emotions about those challenging them to be better. In the modern and perhaps even the past era she is the employer which people portray as a cruel hag but which provides what they need to advance in society.

The world isn't always divided into good and evil then, sometimes its divided into growing experiences, into challenges. And while Baba Yaga represents something harsher then the modern day challenges we tend to face, she was exactly what was needed when nearly everyone was a serf.

To learn more about Baba Yaga visit http://zeluna.net/russian-fairy-tale-babayaga-fairy.html

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