Leshy: The Slavic Forest Spirit

The Leshy (Russian Леший, Polish Leszy, Czech Lesní muž, in some dialects Leshii or Leshak) is the spirit of the forest in the Russian and broader Slavic folk tradition. He is one of the largest and most consistently described of the forest spirits of world folklore, and he is the figure of the boundary between the cleared land of the village and the uncleared wood of the deep forest. A tall man — sometimes the height of a tree, sometimes the height of a child — with hooves, a mossy beard, the ability to change his size and his shape, and the habit of leading travellers astray.

The Leshy is a member of the wider forest spirits family, and is closely related to the household spirit Domovoi, the Vodyanoy of the water, the Poludnitsa of the field, the Kikimora of the bathhouse, and the Rusalka of the river. The Leshy and the Domovoi together cover the whole of the Russian rural cosmos: the inside and the outside, the house and the wood, the kitchen and the deep forest.

The shape of the Leshy

The Leshy is described, in the older Russian tradition, as a tall man with hooves on his feet, a beard of moss and grass on his face, eyebrows of moss and grass over his eyes, a long green mantle, and a habit of changing his size. The Leshy can be the height of a tree in a deep wood, and the height of a child in a field. He can be a man in a wood, a man in a field, a man in a village, a man in a barn. The Leshy’s hooves are sometimes the hooves of a goat, sometimes the hooves of a horse, sometimes the hooves of a deer; the sound of his passing — the crack of a branch, the rustle of leaves that are too far away to rustle — is the trace of his presence in the older wood.

The Leshy’s beard of moss and grass is the forest that the Leshy wears, and the forest is the older world that the new village has not yet entirely replaced.

The Leshy as master of the animals

The Leshy is the lord of the bear, the wolf, the deer, the hare, the fox, the squirrel, the bird, and the fish of the streams of the wood. The Leshy’s mastery is a mastery of the boundary of the village and the wood. The Leshy is the lord of the animals of the wood, and the animals are the gift of the Leshy to the hunter who respects the Leshy. The hunter who cuts a tree without asking, or who leaves the game ungrateful, is in danger of the Leshy’s displeasure: the Leshy may break the hunter’s gun, lead the hunter into a thicket, or send the game away from the wood for a season.

The Leshy’s gift of the animals is a gift of the boundary, and the gift is the older world of the wood that the new village of the hunters has not yet entirely replaced.

The Leshy as leader of travellers astray

The Leshy has the habit of leading travellers astray, and the leading is a leading of the traveller away from the path and into the deeper wood, the thicker wood, the older wood. The Leshy’s leading is a leading of the traveller into the wood, the wood of the older world, the wood of the Leshy. The traveller is lost in the wood, and the traveller is the gift of the Leshy to the wood.

The way back is a ritual way. The traveller, in some districts, must turn his shirt inside-out, or put his shoes on the wrong feet, or recite a prayer backwards, to confuse the Leshy. The Leshy’s leading is a leading of the boundary of the village and the wood, and the leading is the older world of the wood that the new village of the travellers has not yet entirely replaced.

The Leshy and the Domovoi

The Leshy is the brother of the Domovoi, the household spirit, and the two together cover the whole of the Russian rural cosmos. The Domovoi is the spirit of the kitchen, the living room, the barn, the stable, the bathhouse, the boundary of the house. The Leshy is the spirit of the wood, the field, the stream, the boundary of the village. The Domovoi is the inside, the Leshy is the outside, and the Domovoi and the Leshy together are the whole of the Russian rural cosmos.

The Domovoi is inhabited by the ancestors of the family, and the Domovoi is the gift of the family to the house. The Leshy is inhabited by the older world of the wood, and the Leshy is the gift of the wood to the family. The Domovoi and the Leshy together are the whole of the Russian rural cosmos, and the whole is a whole of the boundary of the house and the wood.

The rituals of the Leshy

The Leshy is propitiated by the rituals of the entering of the wood. The hunter, in many Russian districts, would greet the Leshy on entering the wood, would leave a small offering (bread, salt, a coin) at the foot of an old tree, would ask the Leshy for a good hunt, and would thank the Leshy for a good hunt. A bad hunt was a sign that the Leshy was displeased, and a small propitiation was in order: a libation of vodka poured at the foot of a tree, an apology for a broken branch, a promise to do better next time.

The rituals of the Leshy include the entering of the wood with a greeting, the leaving of the wood with a gift, the asking of the Leshy for a good hunt, the thanking of the Leshy for a good hunt, the propitiation of the Leshy for a bad hunt, and the apology of the Leshy for a broken branch or a killed animal.

The Leshy and the wild man of the German tradition

The Leshy is closely related to the Wild Mann of the German tradition, the Homme Sauvage of the French, the Woodwose of the English, the Uomo Selvatico of the Italian, the Hombre del Bosque of the Iberian, the Skogsfru of the Scandinavian, the Huldra of the Scandinavian, the Metsänväki of the Finnish, the Metsik of the Estonian, the Meža māte of the Latvian, and the Medeine of the Baltic. The Leshy of the Russian tradition is a member of the wild-man of the European tradition.

The Wild Mann of the German tradition is a hairy, naked, mute man of the deep wood, who is sometimes hostile and sometimes benign. The Wild Mann is a figure of the boundary of the village and the wood, and the Wild Mann is a figure of the older world of the wood that the new village has not yet entirely replaced.

The Leshy in modern Slavic folk horror

The Leshy is a figure of the modern Slavic folk horror, and the Leshy is a figure of the older world of the wood that the new village of the modern Slavic horror has not yet entirely replaced. The figure has been taken up in the modern Russian horror film and the Slavic folk revival. The Leshy is, in the twenty-first century, one of the most recognisable figures of the Russian folk revival — a being of the older world who has not yet been entirely replaced, and who is, for that reason, all the more frightening.

Sources and Further Reading

Ivanits, Linda J. Russian Folk Belief. M. E. Sharpe, 1989.
Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Indiana University Press, 1993.
Afanasiev, Aleksandr N. Poetic Views of the Nature of the Slavs in their Legendary Songs and Lore (Russian). 3 vols. 1865–1869. The classic nineteenth-century collection of Slavic folk material in Russian.
Warner, Elizabeth. Russian Myths. British Museum Press, 2002.