In Slavic mythology, the Leshy or Lesovik is a male woodland spirit who protects wild animals and forests.
Etymology
Derived from proto-Slavic les, which means 'the forest'. Other names and spellings include Lesiy, Leshii, Leszi, Lesovik, Lešy, Lesovy, Lesnik, Lesun, Lesny, Lešak, Leshak.There are also leshachikha/leszachka (wife of the Leshy) and leshonky (children of the Leshy).
Description
The Leshy is seldom seen, but his voice can be heard in the forest laughing, whistling, or singing to lure lost wanderers to their caves. He can take the appearance of a human but usually displays a pale white skin, dark green eyes and a beard made from living grass and vines. His eyes glow and his shoes are on backwards. In some tales, he appears to visitors as a large talking mushroom. He is also sometimes depicted with a tail, hooves, and horns similar to the Devil. As the Forest Lord, he usually carries a club to express that he is the master of the wood.
Powers
Leshy had no shadow and he is said to have the ability to shapeshift into any form, animal or plant. He usually appears as a tall man, but he is able to change his size from that of a blade of grass to a very tall tree. Leshy is the protector of all animals and birds in the forest.
Behavior
The leshy is sometimes mischievous and has many tricks, including leading peasants astray, making them sick, kidnapping young maidens or tickling them to death. They are also known to hide the axes of woodcutters. If a leshy crosses the path of a person in the woods, the person will get lost immediately. To find the way out, you have to turn your clothes inside out and wear shoes on opposite feet.
If a person befriends a leshy, the latter will teach them the secrets of magic. They are also known to keep grazing cattle from wandering too far into the forests and getting lost. Farmers and shepherds would make pacts with the leshy to protect their crops and sheep by handing him their crosses from around their necks and sharing communion with him after Christian church gatherings; these pacts are said to give the cowherds special powers.
Leshy as a demon
Dictionnaire Infernal - Collin de Plancy (1863)
Lechies were Russian demons that lived in the woods. They had human bodies from the waist up with the horns, ears, and beard of a she-goat. From the waist down, they had a goat's body. They would shrink themselves to the height of the grass when marching through fields, but would grow to the size of the tallest trees when they ran through the forest. They had horrible cries, but could imitate voices familiar to wanderers & could lure them back to their caves, where they would tickle them almost to death.
See also
Art/Fiction
- The Wood Demon(1889) - four-act comedy by Anton Chekhov
- A benevolent leshy appears first as a peasant, and then as a gigantic demon-like creature in the comic book miniseries Hellboy: Darkness Calls by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo.
- A Forestall from the Thomas Covenant series is a type of leshy.
- In Sierra's 1993 role-playing game Quest for Glory IV, the Hero encounters a leshy in the forest who offers game clues as rewards for solving riddles.
- In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, the leshy is a monster that appears as a giant, vaguely humanoid and mobile tree.
- In the fifth-season episode Fallen Idolsof CW television series Supernatural, Leshii is portrayed as an eastern-European forest demi-god that feeds on people who are fans of the form he takes, and as such he takes the forms of Gandhi, James Dean, Abraham Lincoln, and Paris Hilton.
- Leshy is a song by Russell Hibbs and Daevid Allen (it appears an 2001 album called Nectans Glen).
- the corpse of a leshy is the object of a mission in the MMORPG City of Villains.