Viy (folklore)

Encyclopedia : V : VI : VIY : Viy (folklore)

Viy (Ukrainian: Вій, Russian: Вий, most likely from from a Slavonic root that denotes 'eyelid') is a mythic creature of Ukrainian folklore best known from a story by Nikolai Gogol. Viy, the king of gnomes, is usually depicted a monster somewhat akin to Balor from Celtic mythology - a creature that is capable of killing with a glance. Viy is typically an eldery humanoid approximately of a normal person's height, has a dwarfish stature and extremaly long (reaching the ground when standing straight) eyelids that need to be opened with external assistance (various demonic and undead creatures as per Gogol's story). Another power of Viy is said to possess is the ability of vanquishing houses and creating ponds on that same place instead. Despite being extremely powerful, Viy is normally harmless because his hyper-developed brows and eyelids effectively prevent him from seeing anything.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.