Lif and Lifthraser
Will lie hid
In Hodmimer’s-holt.
The morning dew
They have for food.
Some pre-christian Slavic names
Istislav (honorer of truth)
Snovid (dream seeing or seen in a dream)
Ratibor (fighter of armies) Popular among modern Pagans
Nevid (unseen (for evil?) or unseeing)
Bogomil (beloved by God)
Medovnik (honey/sweetie)
Drochen (pampered)
Mal (small) A notable Mal was a X c. chief of Drevlian tribe
Mil (dear)
Odinets (first) Firstborn son
Vtorets (second) Secondborn son
Hoten (wanted)
Zhdan (long-awaited)
Ljut (angry)
Strahon (scary)
Radogost (happy guest)
Derzhimir (world holder)
Men were turned into wolves and bears a long time ago, back when there used to be powerful wizards, though, there is a belief, that even now there are still wizards who can turn a man into a wolf among the Komi peoples.
S.V.Maksimov
(written in 1903)
Interestingly, the term vourdalak doesn’t come from folklore. It originates from a 19th c. poem written by a russian black poet of Ethiopian descent A.Pushkin. The latter took Slavic word volkodlak (volk-wolf and dlak-hair i.e. werewolf) and twisted it into a neologism which later became somewhat popular among the nobles and was used as a synonym to upyr/upior i.e vampire.
Читать полностью…Since we are on the topic I might as well review the novella. It was literally written by a 22 y.o. kid who knew nothing but luxurious salons and balls. So, it all does sound very naїve (especially considering that the narrator is supposed to be an old man). What’s funny is that the novella was written in French. Like most Russian nobleman Aleksey barely spoke the lingo and considered it too crude.
Читать полностью…Of course the highlight is the titular monster himself. Vourdalak is a far cry from typical Hollywood vampire being a living corpse of the family’s patriarch who returned home after hunting down a local Turkish bandit. Old man Gorcha used to love his grandson the most and now tries to feed on him.
Читать полностью…The Vourdalak, despite being a modern move, has managed to pull off a great retro feel with it’s grainy visuals. The atmosphere is very fitting for a gothic novella adaptation and music is especially praiseworthy as it features some of the best violins in recent memory.
Читать полностью…The Vourdalak (2023) is a gothic horror movie based on a novella by A.Tolstoy (a relative of Leo’s). The titular vourdalak is a vampire or rather the original Slavic version of the horror icon.
Читать полностью…Thor took his goats and killed them both, whereupon he had them flayed and borne into a kettle. When the flesh was boiled, Thor and his companion sat down to supper. Thor invited the bonde, his wife and their children, a son by name Thjalfe, and a daughter by name Roskva, to eat with them. Then Thor laid goat−skins away from the fireplace, and requested the bonde and his household to cast the bones onto the skins. Thjalfe, the bonde's son, had the thigh of one of the goats, which he broke asunder with his knife, in order to get at the marrow. Thor remained there over night. In the morning, just before daybreak, he arose, dressed himself, took the hammer Mjolner, lifted it and hallowed the goat−skins. Then the goats arose, but one of them limped on one of his hind legs.
Читать полностью…Tsitsoha
An evil female frog monster from Western Polesia. She hunts and kills naughty children by force-feeding them with her iron tits.
Odin was smart enough to listen to women when it came to the topic of magic and even learned some spells from his wife. Don’t be a MGTOW, guys, it’s not traditional and dare I say unnatural.
Читать полностью…In Luchasi village of Smolensk Governorate people say that there once lived a man who knew how to turn into a wolf. He used to go to the threshing floor and disappear. Once a knife was found thrust into the ground behind the barn. It was taken out. Since then the man disappeared for three years. One witch doctor recommended the relatives of the lost man to put the knife back into the ground behind the barn where it once was. They did so. Soon after the lost man came to his hut…The werewolf told how he used to turn: he jumped over the knife and became a wolf.
N.Galkovski
^ interesting idea for a knife. Folklore mentions that to turn into a wolf shapeshifters use magic knives, usually a bunch of those (up to 12) and after each jump over a stump they turns more and more. There’s no mention of the knives having any special features (aside from (sometimes) rare materials), but a handle with a wolf’s head sounds good and fitting. Volkhvs more daring than myself might try something like that.
Читать полностью…At least The Family of the Vourdalak is short and easy to read. There’s even some action which is rare for the genre. The dialogue is probably the worst part of it (again, literally written by a pampered kid).
Читать полностью…What will break or make the movie for you is the fact that Gorcha, the resident vampire, is not portrayed by an actor, but rather a puppet. A very good one, which looks great most of the time (at least while in shadows), but still a puppet. Younger viewers may have an issue with that. By the way, Gotcha is voiced by the director himself and the performance is great, but this may be lost in a dub.
Читать полностью…The actors fit the setting of 18th c. Serbia which is always a big plus in my book as I’m always frustrated by inappropriately "diverse" casting. Even though the Serbian family is portrayed by mostly French actors this minor downside is mitigated by nice, authentic costumes.
Читать полностью…The movie is a debut work of French director A.Beau. This is not the first time Tolstoy’s novella got a film adaptation e.g. there’s Mario Bava’s short featuring Boris Karloff, but so far Beau’s is the most book-accurate one and features impressive cinematography for a first time director.
Читать полностью…Are you guys interested in an obscure movie review? It’s a French folk horror. Don’t know if one in US or UK can watch it. Might not be worth it. Let me know.
Читать полностью…"Christian nationalism" can never mean ethnic nationalism.
Just ask the "Christian nationalist" calling for deportation, if he will deport fellow Christians. If he says no, he's a civic nationalist. If he says yes, he's a heretical Christian.
@folkishworldview
In Old Norse culture, the cult of gods and other powers was normally performed at a farm or in its close vicinity. Sacrifices could of course be performed anywhere when needed, for example on a journey, but the established places of worship were found where people lived. In the parallels to the Gunnsteinar mentioned by Hermann Pálsson from Kristni saga and Þorvalds þáttr víðfǫrla (which are variants of the same story) and from the young saga of Icelanders, Harðar saga, the stones are located close to the farmhouses. In the latter saga, the stone is even located inside a building (in a blóthús). The spirit living in the stone in Kristni saga and in Þorvalds þáttr víðfǫrla is a ármaðr, a spirit of the garðvǫrðr type. This type of cult is closely connected to the farmstead and farming and is therefore, in my opinion, different in principle to the cult of the Gunnsteinar in the outfields.
Journal of Northern Studies Vol.12
If you think about it the best Pagans are not rewarded with afterlife alongside the Gods. That’s what heroes get, they are exception, not the rule and most had some divine blood to begin with. For a regular man the greatest boon would be becoming a household spirit like Roman Penates or Slavic domovoi. Most dead dwell in the Underworld and though invoked and fed regularly, it still doesn’t happen as often as with the household guardians.
So, if you serve your family well in this life you will do the same after it by leaving a part of the soul in the world of the living helping your kin.
Note that it’s only a part, so you will still be reborn in your descendants.