In 2017, Egor Baranov addressed the heroes of Gogol’s works. In 2018, the director will present to the public a film called “Gogol. Viy." The role of the writer will be played in the film.
Quotes
Phrases from Gogol’s “Viy” became aphorisms.
“Lift my eyelids: I can’t see!”
This famous remark of Viy is often used in jokes and sarcastic statements. It is curious that Khoma Brut is presented by the author as a philosopher, and therefore as a person for whom religion does not occupy a primary place. At the same time, Brutus knows the prayers and is invited to send the deceased to last way. The philosopher’s worldview combines skepticism and fear of God:
“A person cannot come here, but I have prayers from the dead and people from the other world that, as soon as I read them, they won’t lay a finger on me. Nothing!".
The guy is seriously afraid of what is happening, realizing that he is left alone with a terrible force that he cannot resist. Khoma’s friends are sure that it is not evil spirits that are to blame for the death of their comrade, but his own fear:
“And I know why he disappeared: because he was afraid. And if he were not afraid, then the witch could not do anything with him. You just need to cross yourself and spit on her very tail, then nothing will happen.”
Who is Viy???... July 25th, 2013
Viy - in Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze V. kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes
Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
There are two versions about the origin of this name. If you believe the first of them, then Ukrainian word“Вії” can be translated as “eyelashes,” which is directly related to the hero’s eyes. Another option says that this name comes from the word “to curl” - Viy resembles a plant, is covered with dried earth, and its legs look like tree roots.
“Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in a note to his story of the same name. — This is the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go all the way to the ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I didn’t want to change it in any way and I’m telling it almost in the same simplicity as I heard it.”
Indeed, tales with a similar plot are well known in mythology Slavic peoples. But none of them contains a character like Gogol’s Viy. Just as it is not found in any other folklore works.
Slavic mythology, as the most ancient, quite accurately describes Viy’s “device”:
Viy himself never came and will never come himself, it’s dangerous to wake him up and disturb him, and even dark entities don’t bother him again, and it’s not just his strength, his appearance, even among the devils, ghouls, ghouls, it causes horror and trembles with fear in front of him...
Viy is a soulless, emotional creature; he has no feelings at all: anger, hatred, anger. Unlike Pannochka, when she, in her rage, anger and hatred of Khoma, shouted: “Call me, Viya!” All the entities she summoned were horrified at how one could awaken ancient god?! But the lady’s order was carried out - Viy came to remove the amulet, the protection where Khoma was hiding, to show the way.
Viy does not move on his own, cannot open his eyelids, instead of arms and legs there are roots covered with earth. The ghouls dragged him and placed him near the circle and opened his “eyelids.” Viy's finger pointed at poor Khoma.
So where did it come from? Slavic mythology and folklore such a strange image of Viy?
The main characteristics of our character help us find the answer: hairiness, possession of herds of bulls and involvement in the underworld. These signs make us recall one of the most ancient and, moreover, the main East Slavic gods of pagan times - Veles (Volos). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom persisted after the harvest of leaving a bunch of unharvested ears of grain in the field - “For Veles on his beard.”
There is undoubtedly a kinship between the images of the Slavic Veles-Viy and the Baltic Vels, or Vielona, the God of the Other World and at the same time the Patron of Cattle (cf. the Slavic Veles - the Cattle God).
Vielona, Wels, Lithuanian Velnyas - Lithuanians. vеlnias, velinas
According to a German author of the 17th century. Einhorn, the month of October was dedicated to Wels - Wälla-Mänes (cf. also Latvian. Velu Mate - “Mother of the Dead”).
The name for the “window” in the swamp is also known: lit. Velnio akis, Latvian. Velna acis - literally: “eye of Velnyas”.
East Slavic Veles (Volos) is extremely close to the Baltic Vels (Velnyas). He was popular and was considered the god of “all Rus'” in contrast to Perun, the patron princely squad. In Kyiv, the idol of Perun stood on the mountain, and the idol of Veles on Podol, in the lower part of the city.
In Etruria, in the sacred city of Volsinia, a god was worshiped, whose name is rendered differently: Velthuna, Vertumna? Velthina, Veltha - “the main deity of Etruria”
The religious symbol of God Viy is the All-Seeing Eye - meaning “nothing can hide from the judge’s gaze.” Presumably, his idol was also depicted with such a symbol.
Many researchers of Gogol's story have noted the similarity of this mystical character, with a destructive gaze, with numerous folk beliefs about Saint Kasyan. He is known as a talented spiritual writer and organizer of monasteries.
Kasyan
In Russian folk traditions, legends, beliefs, the image of “Saint Kasyan”, despite all the righteousness of life real person, is drawn as negative. In some villages he was not even recognized as a saint, and his very name was considered shameful.
According to some beliefs, Kasyan is a fallen angel who betrayed God. But after repentance, he was chained and imprisoned for his apostasy.
The angel assigned to him beats the traitor on the forehead with a heavy hammer for three years in a row, and on the fourth he sets him free, and then everything he looks at perishes.
In other stories, Kasyan appears as a mysterious and destructive creature, his eyelashes are so long that they reach his knees, and because of them he does not see God’s light, and only on February 29 in the morning, once every 4 years, he lifts them and looks around the world - what if his gaze falls, he dies.
In the Poltava region, Kasyan is represented as a black creature covered with wool, with skin like oak bark. He lives in a cave, covered with earth. On February 29, his huge eyelids are raised by various evil spirits, Kasyan looks around the world, and then people and animals get sick, pestilence and crop failure occur.
Almost all legends about Kasyan emphasize his demonic essence and the extraordinary destructiveness of his gaze as a result of his connection with the devil, which makes Kasyan similar to Gogol’s Viy.
In East Slavic folklore, there are other characters who have characteristics similar to Viy.
So, for example, in the Tale of Ivan Bykovich, recorded famous collector and researcher Slavic folklore Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev (1826 - 1871), tells that after the hero defeated three multi-headed monsters (snakes) on the Smorodina River, their witch mother was able to deceive Ivan and
“dragged him into the dungeon, brought him to her husband - an old old man.
“On you,” he says, “our destroyer.”
The old man lies on an iron bed, sees nothing: long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. Then he called twelve mighty heroes and began to order them:
“Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I’ll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons.” The heroes raised his eyebrows and eyelashes with pitchforks: the old man looked..."
The motif of eyelids raised with a pitchfork (shovel, hooks) is widespread in East Slavic fairy tales. So, for example, in Volyn the sorcerer Mangy Bunyaka, or Scandinous Bonyak, is often mentioned; his eyelids are so long that they can be lifted with a pitchfork.
Sometimes he appears in the form of “a terrible fighter, with his gaze killing people and turning entire cities into ashes, the only happiness is that this murderous gaze is covered by clinging eyelids and thick eyebrows.” In the beliefs of Podolia, he is known as Solodivius Bunio, who destroyed with his gaze the whole city; his eyelids also lift like pitchforks.
But, probably, the most important prototype of Viy for Gogol was Judas Iscariot, whose appearance is guessed behind the figure of Gogol’s demon when referring to some apocryphal texts. In these non-canonical writings about the appearance of Judas, shortly before his death, it is reported that his eyelids became huge, grew to incredible sizes, not allowing him to see, and his body became monstrously swollen and heavy.
This apocryphal appearance of Judas (giant eyelids and a heavy, clumsy body) also determined the main features of Viy. Gogol, forcing him to look at Viy Khoma Brutus, who is in spiritual laziness and does not trust in God, shows the careless student his evangelical double.liveinternet.ru/users/bo4kameda/p ost187282834/
E. DMITRIEVA, historian
N.V. Gogol dedicated only a dozen lines in his story to Viya. But anyone who has read them at least once in their life will never forget such a bright, unusual, impressive image. Perhaps one of the reasons here lies in the special mystery and incomprehensibility of Viy. How did this image arise, where did it come from? Who is Viy and what do we know about him?
The Slavs recognized this as an underground god, whose place was occupied by the ancients by Pluto, the king of hell.
M. D. Chulkov. "Abevega of Russian superstitions"
The inhabitants of the world of the dead, spirits hostile to all living things, the dead were called in Ancient Rus' naviam.
The so-called Zbruch idol. It reflects the structure of the Universe according to the ideas of the ancient Slavs.
Image of Veles in the 12th century Dmitrov Cathedral (column console) in Vladimir.
Round dance is not just folk dance, and a pagan rite is a spell. Folk festival. Lithograph from the workshop of Ivan Golyshev. Mstera. 1871
Saint Blaise with herds of cattle and Saint Spiridonius. Novgorod icon of the 16th century.
Footprints pagan beliefs, in particular the cult of Veles, could be traced in folk culture and folklore until the beginning of the 20th century. For example, grass, bushes, trees and other vegetation were popularly called “hairs of the earth.”
To begin with, let’s quote Gogol: “Bring Viy! Follow Viy!” came the words of the dead man.
And suddenly there was silence in the church; a wolf howl was heard in the distance, and soon heavy footsteps were heard echoing through the church; Looking sideways, he saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling, his long eyelids were lowered to the very ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron. They brought him by the arms and stood him directly in front of the place where Khoma stood.
Lift my eyelids: I can’t see! - Viy said in an underground voice, - and the whole host rushed to lift his eyelids.
"Don't look!" - some inner voice whispered to the philosopher. He couldn’t bear it and looked.
Here he is! - Viy shouted and pointed an iron finger at him. And everyone, no matter how many there were, rushed at the philosopher. Lifeless, he hit the ground, and the spirit immediately flew out of him out of fear.”
It is difficult to find a more impressive and mysterious character in the works of Russian classics than Gogol's Viy. Clearly belonging to the heroes of folklore and fairy tales, he stands out among them for his special effectiveness and inexplicable, hidden power. “Viy is a colossal creation of the common people’s imagination,” wrote Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in a note to his story. “That was the name given to the Little Russians for the chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids go down to the very ground. This whole story is a folk legend. I didn’t want to how to change it and tell it in almost the same simplicity as I heard.” Considering that in 1835, when the story was written, Slavic folklore as a science was still in its infancy and we knew no more about our own mythology than, for example, about Chinese, then it is not surprising that Gogol did not give a more meaningful explanation regarding "chief" of the Little Russian "gnomes".
Today we can look into Viy’s eyes without fear and tell about him everything that even his literary father did not know.
So, who is Viy? If, according to Gogol, he is a hero of folk legends, then his image should be found in works of folklore. However fairy tale hero does not exist with that name. Where did the name itself come from - Viy? Let's turn to the dictionary. In the Ukrainian language, the name of the character of Little Russian legends Viy, apparently, comes from the words “viya”, “viyka” - eyelash (and “poviko” - eyelid). After all, the most memorable and characteristic Viya - huge eyelids, so it is quite natural that his name came from them.
And although there is no Viy as such in either Ukrainian, Belarusian, or Russian fairy tales, quite often there are images that almost completely coincide with Gogol’s description of Viy: squat, hefty, and therefore strong, covered with earth, as if the devils had taken him out of dungeons. The tale about Ivan Bykovich, recorded by the famous collector and researcher of Slavic folklore A. N. Afanasyev, tells that after Ivan first defeated three multi-headed monsters on the Smorodina River, and then destroyed their wives, a certain witch, having now lost her daughters and sons-in-law, dragged Ivan to the owner underground kingdom, to my husband:
“On you,” he says, “our destroyer!” - And in the fairy tale the same Viy appears before us, but in the underground kingdom, at home:
“The old man lies on an iron bed, sees nothing: long eyelashes and thick eyebrows completely cover his eyes. He called twelve mighty heroes and began to order them:
Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I’ll see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons.”
Both in Gogol and in the fairy tale recorded by Afanasyev, the presence of iron attributes is not surprising. In Gogol's Viy - iron face, an iron finger, the fairytale has an iron bed, an iron pitchfork. Iron ore is mined from the earth, which means that the ruler of the underground kingdom, Viy, was a kind of owner and patron of the earth’s bowels and their riches. Apparently, this is why N.V. Gogol classifies him among the European gnomes, guardians of underground treasures. For ancient man at the time of the formation of Slavic mythology, iron, a durable metal, difficult to extract and difficult to process, irreplaceable in the economy, seemed to be of the greatest value.
The fairy-tale hero Afanasyev with his long eyebrows and eyelashes fully matches the appearance of Viy. However, in Slavic mythology, it was apparently not necessary for the owner of the underground kingdom to have long eyebrows or eyelashes. His distinguishing feature- Just long hair, but what it is, eyelashes, eyebrows or a beard, is not important. It can be assumed that exorbitant eyelids are a later distortion folk legend. The main thing is not the eyelids, but just long eyelashes and hair. One of the Belarusian fairy tales describes “Tsar Kokot, a beard as long as an elbow, a seventy arshin iron whip, a bag made of seventy ox hides” - an image similar to the owner of the underworld. Also known is the fairy-tale old man “As big as a fingernail, with a beard as big as an elbow,” the owner of exorbitant strength and a huge herd of bulls. He had a three-headed serpent in his service, and he himself was hiding from the heroes pursuing him underground. But among the Belarusian fairy tales there is also one where Koschey, like Viya, was raised by a maid who raised her eyelids, “five pounds each.” This Koschey “no matter how he looks at someone, he will not leave him, even if he lets him go, everyone will still come back to him.”
This means that you can’t look Viy in the eyes because he will take you and drag you into the dungeon, into the world of the dead, which, in fact, is what happened to poor Khoma in Gogol’s “Viy”. This is probably why in Christian apocryphal legends Saint Kasyan was identified with Viy, who was popularly considered the embodiment of leap year and the personification of all misfortunes. They thought that Kasyan, like the owner of the underground kingdom, lived deep underground, in a cave where daylight did not penetrate. Kasyan's gaze is destructive for all living things and entails troubles, illnesses, and even death. Some of Viy’s traits were also shared with the apocryphal Judas Iscariot, who, as punishment for betraying Jesus Christ, allegedly lost his sight due to overgrown eyelids.
So where did such a strange image of Viy come from in Slavic mythology and folklore? The main characteristics of our character help us find the answer: hairiness, possession of herds of bulls and involvement in the underworld. These signs make us recall one of the most ancient and, moreover, the main East Slavic gods of pagan times - Veles (Volos). Before people learned to cultivate the land, he patronized hunters and helped hunt animals, which, according to many researchers, determined the name of the deity. It comes from the word "hair", that is, fur, the skin of hunting prey. Veles also personified the spirits of killed animals. Hence the idea that this deity is associated with death, the world of the dead. “Initially, in the distant hunting past, Veles could mean the spirit of a killed animal, the spirit of hunting prey, that is, the god of that only wealth of the primitive hunter, which was personified by the carcass of a defeated animal.” This is what Academician B. A. Rybakov wrote about Veles-Volos.
But time passed, and agriculture and cattle breeding became an integral part of the economy of ancient people. Hunting lost its former importance, and Veles became the patron saint of livestock. That’s why the old man “As big as a fingernail, with a beard as long as his elbows” has a herd of bulls, and anyone who encroaches on them risks experiencing the hefty strength of the owner of the herd. The number of livestock in ancient times was the main indicator of a family’s wealth. Livestock provided people with almost everything they needed: draft power, fur, leather, wool for clothing and other household needs, milk, dairy products and meat for food. It is no coincidence that the custom of measuring wealth in the “heads” of cattle survived into the Middle Ages. The word “cattle” meant not only the livestock itself, but also all the property and wealth of the family. The word "bestiality" was used in the meaning of "greed", "greed". The post of the financial official, standing between the mayor and the headman, was called “cowman”, since “cowwoman” is the treasury (hence another meaning of Veles as a deity: in charge of income and wealth).
It is no coincidence that Veles was opposed to Perun - the god of heaven, thunderstorms and war. After all, wealth, prosperity and war, leading to ruin, are incompatible. The giver of thunderstorms, Perun, lived in the sky, in the transcendental kingdom of the gods. Veles connected with the underworld of the dead, “that light.” Until the beginning of the 20th century, the custom persisted after the harvest of leaving a bunch of unharvested ears of grain in the field - “For Veles on his beard.” The peasants hoped to earn the favor of the ancestors buried in the earth, on whom the harvest depended next year. Trees, bushes, and grasses were popularly called “hairs of the earth.” Thus, it is not surprising that the owner of the underground kingdom Veles, whose name was forgotten centuries later, was depicted as a hairy old man and subsequently received the name Viy because of this. (However, the name Viy is similar in origin to the name Veles: both came from the words “hair”, “eyelashes”.)
With the advent of Christianity, the role of the patron of cattle Veles passed to Saint Blaise (most likely due to the consonance of names), whose day fell on February 11 (24th in the new style). In many places in Russia, Vlasiev Day was celebrated as a big holiday. For example, in the Vologda province, residents of neighboring volosts came to the festival, a solemn, crowded prayer service was held, during which loaves of bread were blessed. Housewives at home fed hunks of consecrated bread to their cattle, thereby hoping to protect them from disease for the whole year. From this day on, livestock trading began in the bazaars. They turned to Saint Blaise with a prayer for the safety and health of the livestock: “Saint Blaise, give happiness to the smooth heifers, to the fat bulls, so that they can walk and play from the yard, and walk and gallop from the field.” Icons of the saint were hung in cowsheds and stables to protect livestock from all kinds of misfortunes.
But the function of Veles, who dominates the underworld, apparently was taken over by the image of Viy - a purely negative character, an “evil spirit.” In other words, with the adoption of Christianity, the image of pagan Veles gradually divided into two hypostases: the positive - Saint Blaise, the patron of livestock, and the negative - Viy, an evil, formidable spirit ruling the underworld, the personification of death and grave darkness, the leader of evil spirits.
"A rooster crow was heard. This was already the second cry; the dwarves heard the first. The frightened spirits rushed randomly into the windows and doors in order to fly out as quickly as possible, but that was not the case: they remained there, stuck in the doors and windows The priest who entered stopped at the sight of such a disgrace of God's shrine and did not dare to serve the requiem in such a place. So the church remained forever with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, overgrown with forest, roots, weeds, wild thorns, and now no one will find the way to it; ". This is how Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol ends his story “Viy”.
Viy is a mythological character who is known to literally everyone. Viy became one of the most famous characters mythology, in particular, Ukrainian mythology, after Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) wrote his immortal work"Viy." This creature is presented exactly as Gogol showed him, but is this what Viy really looks like and isn’t he a product of the great writer’s imagination?
Researchers of the pagan culture of the Slavs do not find any mention of the name “Viy” in ancient sources. However, a god is mentioned that is similar in sound and essence. We are talking about the god of the underworld, whose name is Niy (correspondence). Niy, most likely, is related to the ancient Slavic words “” (world of the dead) and “navi” (dead people). Researcher D. Moldavsky puts forward the version that Gogol in his work used later ideas about Niya in folklore. The change in the name Niy to Viy most likely came from a feature of the underground god, namely his long eyelids or eyelashes, which cover his deadly gaze. Here is Ukrainian. viya - eyelash and povika - eyelid over time in the dialect of the inhabitants of Ukraine they replaced Niya with Viya.
As for this character, we should be grateful to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol for the fact that he left extremely valuable information for us, which, if not for his work, would quite possibly have been erased from the memory of peoples. The most interesting thing about this character, who, as we have already found out, is a fairy-tale prototype of the god of the underworld - Niya-Koshchei, is his deadly eyes and long eyelids, which have to be revealed to the creatures or heroes around him. Although in Gogol’s book Viy’s gaze did not kill at all, but rather removed the effect of the amulets, apparently, in ancient times this gaze was attributed with destructive abilities.
In Russians and Belarusian fairy tales There are descriptions of certain characters associated with evil spirits who kill with their gaze, but their eyelids are so huge and so heavy that they have to be lifted with a pitchfork. We can observe such a character in the fairy tale “Ivan Bykovich,” where the eyebrows and eyelashes are raised with a pitchfork to the witch’s husband. In the fairy tale "Fight on Kalinov Bridge“The mother of the snakes dragged the main character into the dungeon, where her husband lay on an iron bed - an old man with long eyelashes and thick eyebrows that covered his eyes. The old man calls twelve mighty heroes and orders: “Take an iron pitchfork, raise my eyebrows and black eyelashes, I will see what kind of bird he is that killed my sons.” This tale, most likely, talks about the pagan goddess and her husband Koshchei. Thus, it can be assumed that the ability to kill with a glance was inherent in both Niy and our Koshchei. There is an assumption that it is from this ancient concept, a superstition has appeared, which is known as the “evil eye” - from a black, slanted or ugly eye, an evil look, a sideways glance, and so on, everything perishes and deteriorates.
The era of dual faith proves that Viy (Nii) and Chernobog Koschey are the same god, as well as the fact that both had a deadly look and long eyelids (eyebrows, eyelashes). After baptism, both on the territory of Russia and on the territory of Ukraine, the image of these gods was transferred to one Christian saint - St. Kasyan. It is believed that Kasyan is evil, unkind, stingy, vindictive, unpleasant and dangerous. St. Kasyan's Day is celebrated on February 29 in leap year. Despite the fact that in the Christian tradition Kasyan (John Cassian the Roman) is considered a righteous man, in Slavic tradition he was credited with the role played by Chernobog in pagan times. In all likelihood, this came from the name of a Christian saint, since Kasyan in Russian and Ukrainian is heard as “oblique”, “ukr: kosiy”. A sidelong glance meant a bad look, which could bring misfortune. Russian sayings about Saint Kasyan: “Kasyan looks at everything, everything withers”, “Kasyan mows everything down”, “Kasyan looks at the people - it’s hard for the people”, “Kasyan looks at the grass - the grass withers, at the cattle - the cattle dies, at the tree - the tree is drying up" and "The offspring are bad in the year of Kasyanov." There are also beliefs that Kasyan has disproportionately large eyelids that cover his eyes, and if these eyelids are opened, then everything that this saint looks at, whose prototype is the god of the underworld of the dead, immediately dies.
“Lift my eyelids!” excerpt from the 1967 film “Viy”:
"Mygenstar" - help for car enthusiasts from professionals in their field. On the website http://mygenstar.ua you can find out how to repair a car air conditioner and much more. High-quality repairs of generators, starters and turbines.
Viy- in Slavic mythology, a demonic creature that gives people nightmares; he is capable of killing a person and destroying an entire city with a glance, but his eyes are covered with iron eyelids, which must be lifted by his evil servants with iron pitchforks.
Sources:
● M.B. Ladygin, O.M. Ladygina Brief Mythological Dictionary - M.: Publishing House NOU " polar Star", 2003.
Dictionary of pagan concepts and gods
(Niya, Niam) - mythical creature whose eyelids descend to the very ground, but if you lift them with a pitchfork, then nothing will be hidden from his gaze; word viii means eyelashes. Viy - with one glance he kills people and turns cities and villages to ashes; fortunately, his murderous gaze is hidden by thick eyebrows and eyelids close to his eyes, and only when it is necessary to destroy enemy armies or set fire to an enemy city, do they lift his eyelids with a pitchfork. Viy was considered one of the main servants of Chernobog. He was considered a judge over the dead. The Slavs could never come to terms with the fact that those who lived lawlessly, not according to their conscience, were not punished. The Slavs believed that the place of execution of lawless people was inside the earth. Viy is also associated with the seasonal death of nature during winter. He was revered as the sender of nightmares, visions and ghosts, especially for those who do not have a clear conscience. ...He saw that they were leading some squat, hefty, club-footed man. He was all covered in black earth. His legs and arms covered with earth stood out like stringy, strong roots. He walked heavily, constantly stumbling. Long eyelids were lowered to the ground. Khoma noticed with horror that his face was iron(N.V. Gogol. “Viy”). ... Today Viy is at rest,” the two-headed horse yawned with one head, and licked his lips with the other head, “Viy is resting: he destroyed a lot of people with his eye, and from the country-cities only ashes lie. Viy will accumulate strength and get down to business again(A.M. Remizov. “To the Sea-Ocean”).
encyclopedic Dictionary
in East Slavic mythology the spirit, deathly. Having huge eyes with heavy lids, Viy kills with his gaze.
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
In Little Russian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the very ground; V. cannot see anything on his own, but if several strong men manage to raise his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his menacing gaze: with his gaze V. kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes. Afanasyev sees in V. a reflection of the ancient and powerful deity of the Slavs, namely the thunder god. The processing of the legend about Vie by N.V. Gogol is known.
