Vasa the Water-Master
Komi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Komi-Zyrian water-master, the chief nature-'owner' of the rivers and lakes, rendered here as deity per schema. English 'Vasa the Water-Master' leads; native Васа (Vasa) in term, Permian Vais'. Wired as ally of komi_omol because the water-master shares the malevolent water-and-death domain of Omöl/Kul' (the kul' water-demons are Omöl's spawn).
Domains
- water and rivers
- fishing and the catch
- drowning and the watery dead
- mills and watercraft
Powers
- draw people and animals down to drown
- grant or withhold the fish-catch
- break the dams of a mill
- appear as fish-tailed man, a great pike, or a fair woman
Relations
- ally: Omöl the AdversaryVasa belongs to the malevolent water sphere of Omöl/Kul': Holmberg describes the water-master as malicious 'like Kul'', and the Komi kul' water-demons (va-kul') are the spawn of Omöl, lord of water and the dead — the dangerous lower-world water powers stand with the adversary against En's order.Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric [and] Siberian Mythology (1927), Permian section (the water-master 'could be malicious, like Kul'') (secondary); Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies I, 2003) (secondary)
Sources
- Vasa (Васа; Permian Vais') is the master/'owner' of the water among the Komi-Zyrians, dwelling in an underwater house and presiding over rivers, the fish-catch and drownings; the counterpart of the Russian vodyanoy.: Uno Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric [and] Siberian Mythology (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. IV, 1927), Permian section (secondary); N. D. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies I, 2003) (secondary)
- He is pictured as a man, a man with a fish tail, or a man with a large pike; he can be malicious like Kul', drawing people to drown, yet is the friend of millers, demanding a 'head' at a new mill or breaking the dams on his wedding journey, and receiving bread, butter and eggs before the catch.: Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric [and] Siberian Mythology (1927), Permian section (secondary); Komi mythology, Wikipedia (tertiary)