INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
Double episode this week - how exciting! This is your second one and the one at the proper time this week, I’m so glad we’re all caught up now and back on schedule - it certainly makes me feel better about it all at least.
DESCRIPTION:
So this week, we’re heading back over the Slavic regions of Europe and looking at a god-like figure, which if you’ve been listening for a while, you’ll know that I’m always a bit hesitant to cover. However, for this one - it’s dubious enough with its godly status to feel like it’s open to discussion as a myth monster, so we’ll run with it.
Yes, we are looking at the wonderful Leshy this week. The Leshy is a tree and forest god from Slavic mythology, who’s primary objective is to protect the forest and everything within it, including animals, plant life and swamps. They end up being considered the ruler and guardian of this forest, and the people living around the trees know to pay respect to the woods to respect the Leshy.
They will generally look like a very tall old man, with green tangly hair, covered in twigs and mud from the forest floor. They have barklike, blue skin that matches the colour of their blood, and have stars for eyes. It’s sometimes said that they have a deer skull for a head, cloven hooves and tree-like arms to give him a more spooky look, but this is debated. They are always male, and always have no eyebrows, eyelashes and no right ear - and his head is somewhat conical.
What we do know is that actually, what he looks like doesn’t really matter as his shape can be whatever he wants, as they are known to be shapeshifters - able to change into anything in the forest, but usually it's bears or wolves. You can usually hear them rather than see them, as they sing and whistle their way through the forest - and it’s said that if you whistle yourself, you’re attracting Leshy for disrespecting his song.
Leshy live with their families of other Leshy - but as they are always male, how do they get their female counterparts? These are said to be human women who are either cursed or exiled from the human community and are called Leschachikha. They can have children too called leshonky, but they are also known to abduct children from humans who have not been baptised or have gotten lost in their woods.
They live in enormous palaces, filled with both flora and fauna - and spend the whole winter in hibernation with the animals of the forest. In the summer, they roam the forest, tricking humans - then in fall, they tend to try to scare everyone off from the forest, generally being more aggressive before settling in for winter again.
Whilst their power of shapeshifting and the guardianship of the forest are their most prevalent powers - they are also known as tricksters, which I kind of mentioned a second ago. They are most known for leading people astray when they venture into the forests, getting them horrendously lost. They also love a drink of vodka in any nearby taverns, and playing card games and gambling in their human guises. More maliciously, in the summer, it is not uncommon for women to be raped by Leshy - so they definitely are a mix of good and bad creatures.
It’s said that if you are kind to a Leshy, you are rewarded with gifts such as guidance in quests, cattle or gold. You can also make pacts with them if you’re a farmer for good harvest or to protect their livestock from predators and people still leave offerings to them now, showing their hospitality with bread and salt - items that were scarce back in the day.
If you annoy one, is there a way of getting them away from you? Yes, you can make one laugh by taking off your clothes and putting them back on backwards or putting your shoes on the wrong feet. Or you can pray them away and throw salt in a fire, you know - normal witchy stuff.
ORIGIN:
Now onto etymology, the word Leshy actually comes from the Russian word Leshiy, meaning goblin. However, because this is a Slavic monster, there are so many different names and translations. The usual one we see is Borovoi in Russian, meaning ‘he of the forest’, but there is also Gayevoi, Leshak, Lesnik, Lesovik, Lesovoi or Lesun for example - all meaning around the same thing, all to do with being a forest man.
For this monster's history, there’s actually not much to find I’m afraid - we don’t have any particular dates that it was around. However, what we do know is that this creature was created during the Pagan prevalent times throughout this region of the world which officially was started in 980 CE and ended in around 1530 - so we have a pretty wide berth for when this creature was working its way into Slavic folklore.
The Leshy was most likely inspired by the Slavic god Veles, the god of the earth, forests, water, underworld, magic and trickery - which does make sense if you think about all the Leshy does and stands for. But there is nothing in particular linking the two, it’s just thought that maybe this god was an inspiration for this monster.
The Christians had their own idea of what the Leshy and forest spirits could be, there were actually two explanations - one was that they were fallen angels who made their homes in the woods but kept their holy powers. The other was that they were either the children of Adam and Eve just after the banishment from Eden, forced to live in the wilderness with almost Nephilim-like powers, or that they were the result of the Devil and a witch coming together and creating something evil and malicious to be hid away within the woods.
Beyond anything within ancient pagan mythology and Christianisation, Leshy were and still are blamed for anything wrong with the forests and animals that live within them, due to the lack of understanding of animal migration, such as the actual real life Great Squirrel Migration of 1968 - which was a mass migration of squirrels from the Ural Mountains across Europe. The Slavs of the time believed that this was the work of the Leshy betting way territory and the animals that live on that land in a gambling match, however, it was found that this was due to a food shortage in the mountains in more modern times.
Probably the most reasonable historical justification is that the Pagans of Europe, driven out of regions by Christianity across the continent spread this story from country to country, explaining why it has such a hold on the whole Slavic section of Europe, which was passed on through generations to respect the forest and its keeper. It also makes sense with Pagan values and the worshipping of nature - and teaching their culture to respect the keeper of that nature must have been very intense and I’m glad it was passed on and is still believed within these places in the world.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Now onto modern media, we’ve not got much specifically unfortunately - so most of these are where you can find forest spirits within modern media instead to get a feel for the Leshy.
For art, we have a few bits around painting wise such as Leshy from 1906 with no known artist & Niva by Ivan Yiz hak evych from 1904 - but then I’d have a look at more modern adaptations for some really cool Witcher style art by independent artists.
In movies, we have; Avatar, Epic, FernGully: The Last Rainforest, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke & The Secret of Kells.
For TV, we have; The Witcher for the actual Leshy then Power Rangers Turbo, Robin of Sherwood, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys & Power Rangers: Wild Force for more forest lords.
In video games, we have ones such as; Inscryption, Cult of the Lamb, Leshy, The Witcher 3, Pathfinder for the Leshy specifically. But for more forest kings, Dragon Age Origins, Fate/Grand Order, Etrian Odyssey 1, Love of Magic, The Pathless, Shin Megami Tensei, Elder Scrolls, SMITE, Valheim, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, Gigantic & Neverwinter Nights.
My book recommendation this week is Slavic Mythology: Gods, Goddess and Mythical Creatures by Aruna Mapalagamage for a great summary of all things Slavic mythology, but for something a little more bite-sized about monsters - check out Slavic Mythological Creatures: Daemons, Spirits And Creatures In Slavic Folktales by Trident Books, who have little summaries of all the monsters from this lesser-studied folklore!
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? 1215
With forest monsters, as well as water monsters - I’m never entirely sure if I can definitively say yes or no, because we just don’t know what’s out there or what is buried deep within the foliage of these types of forests. There are still weird things that are unexplained to this day within woodland, and people do still fear witchcraft, paganism and anything that looks particularly occultish - which this definitely falls into.
What I do really like is this monster has encouraged modern day Slavs to respect their forests and the culture that has birthed that notion too - as Slavic folklore is still really upheld and embraced within most Slavic countries to this day which I really love. I spoke to one of my Ukrainian colleagues about this (they live in the US, so I didn’t disturb someone in an active warzone I will add), and she said that it’s still something that the Ukrainians remember and embrace about their historic culture - which I really love.
But what do you think? Did the Leshy roam the forests of Eastern Europe? Let me know on Twitter!
OUTRO:
It’s quite odd to cover a very neutral monster honestly, one that is not entirely bothered by our existence, but interacts with it - I don’t think we’ve ever covered something like this, but I can never be 100% sure - I feel like I’ve covered so many now!
Next week, we’re staying in Europe but heading over to the west in Portugal and Spain for the first time and looking at a terrifying bogeyman figure, Coco. Make sure your kids are behaving this Thursday to avoid this evil spirit!
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.
Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.
But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.