Vörsa the Forest-Master

Komi-Zyrian forest-master, the chief nature-'owner' of the taiga, rendered here as deity per schema (a class with one master per forest, but a clearly individuated mythic figure). English 'Vörsa the Forest-Master' leads; native Вöрса (Vörsa) in term. SOLITARY: nature-master with no individuated kin, spouse or parentage in the sources (Holmberg 1927; Konakov 2003).

Domains

• forests and the hunt
• wild animals and game
• moral order of the hunt

Powers

• lead a hunter astray in the forest
• grant or withhold the hunter's catch
• change stature between giant and undergrowth

Sources

• Uno Holmberg (Harva), Finno-Ugric [and] Siberian Mythology (The Mythology of All Races, Vol. IV, 1927), Permian section
• N. D. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies I, 2003)
• Komi mythology, Wikipedia (drawing on Konakov / Holmberg)