Forest Master
Veps · deity · timeless · Recorded classification
Veps forest-master (the prompt's 'mecanluk'/forest-master); a master-spirit rendered as deity per schema. English 'Forest Master' leads; native Mecan ižand / Mechiine in term (Latin script per Veps rule), mec 'forest' + ižand 'master'. Documented chiefly by Irina Vinokurova, the principal ethnographer of Veps mythology.
Domains
- forest
- game and hunting luck
Powers
- rule the forest and its game
Epithets
- Metsanisand The Master of the Forest; spirit-lord of the woods and their gameVeps (Finnic) folk belief (secondary)
Sources
- The forest-master is the most popular Veps spirit; its names trace a development from the deified forest (mec/tes) to a forest-spirit (mechiine, korbhiine 'forest man') to an anthropomorphic 'forest man' (mecamez) and finally a 'master' (ižand).: Irina Vinokurova, Mifologiya vepsov: entsiklopediya, Petrozavodsk, 2015 (secondary); 'Mythology and beliefs of the Veps', Arctic Megapedia (tertiary)
- The master (ižand) usually has a wife-mistress (emag) and sometimes children (lapsed).: atlaskmns.ru, Veps spiritual culture (tertiary)