Koschei the Deathless
Slavic · numen · modern collection · Recorded classification
The nested hiding of the soul is one of the most widely distributed motifs in Eurasian folklore and this is its most famous instance, which is reason enough to hold the record. He is entered as a numen and not a deity because no source treats him as one; he has no cult, no prayer and no festival, and the record does not manufacture him any. No relation is recorded to Baba Yaga. They appear in the same tale — in 'Marya Morevna' the hero wins from her the horse that can outrun his — but the sources make them neither allies nor enemies, and this programme does not draw an edge because two figures share a page.
Domains
- deathlessness
- abduction
Epithets
- Бессмертный The Deathless; it is part of the name in the tale titles and is the whole of his characterisation.Reference treatment of Koschei Bessmertny, 'Koschei the Deathless', as the title under which the tale is collected. (secondary)
Sources
- Koschei the Deathless is the immortal antagonist of the East Slavic wonder-tale whose death is hidden in a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside an iron chest buried under an oak on the island of Buyan.: Reference treatments of Koschei and of Afanasyev's 'The Death of Koschei the Deathless'. (secondary)