Vodyanyk
This is the guardian and ruler of the entire underwater world. Vodyanyk watches over and takes care not only of fish, but also of plants, spirits that live in the waters, and simply all living and non-living beings there. He is like a water king, controlling the water element, and it is he who makes floods, tides, and ebbs. All beings in the water obey him, and the rusalkas or water mavkas are almost like his daughters, who always listen to him, and he looks after them.
Appearance of Vodyanyk
According to the descriptions of those who saw him, he is an old man with a greenish skin, covered with bubbles and a mud. His beard is long and reaches his waist, or even lower. His hands are ordinary, like those of people. But his skin is light green. As for his legs, we can hardly say anything, because almost no one has seen him in full height, only up to the waist, so it remains only to guess whether he has a tail or perhaps legs with webbed toes.
Vodyanyk lives in the deepest point of the water. But if the water is disturbed, he immediately feels it, and this can even anger him. In this way, people could bring floods, flooding of fields, bad weather, or mischief of the rusalkas during fishing. Therefore, it was once believed that to avoid the anger of vodyanyk one had to offer him something – bread, wine, herbs.
Special Dates for Vodyanyk
There are dates when vodyanyk is especially active and not in the best mood, namely during Nav Week, Kupala Night, and during the blooming of rye. In these periods he could play various evil jokes on fishermen and people who came to the water.
Like many creatures of the waters, vodyanyk sleeps in winter and wakes up when the ice begins to melt, more precisely on 2 April, and then gains strength and comes out to his place on 8 April, like the rusalkas. People prepared for this and brought him a horse at this time, but not an ordinary horse, the best one at the market. The whole community had to give money for it, fatten the horse for some time, then smear it with honey and bring it tied up to vodyanyk. This was like an exchange for good fishing that year.
There was also 12 July, when girls had to make wreaths from a metre-long whip and give them to fishermen. In turn, the fishermen had to go to the shore and sacrifice a black rooster or a black goose. If the fishermen did not do this, according to legends, the water spirit could even overturn the boat while they were on the water, or simply take away all the catch.
Other Offerings
When it came to appeasing vodyanyk, not only fishermen took part. Beekeepers were the first to come; they sometimes brought wax and honey, thus showing gratitude that the hives had not been damaged during floods. Farmers came almost last in autumn, bringing a black duck or chicken and giving thanks that the livestock had survived the year well without drought. They also called on him to go into winter sleep in a good mood and return with new strength in the spring.
The miller could also come to vodyanyk; he brought a black pig or sometimes a black goat. It was believed that the miller had a special ritual when offering tribute to vodyanyk, during which he could also perform a rite so that the water spirit would not flood his land. That is why there are legends that under the mill they sometimes buried the head of livestock and whispered over it, so that during the worst flood everything would remain intact.
Powers and Tricks
Vodyanyk has a strong bond with the moon. During the full moon he can appear as a lively young man with silver hair and a beard, and at this time his strength may grow slightly. But during other phases of the moon, such as the new moon or the first quarter, he takes on the likeness of a slower, less energetic old man, his hair and beard becoming really messy and darker greenish.
An interesting fact is that vodyanyk has the power of transformation and can become anything – a frog, a cow, a fish, or a human. But when vodyanyk transformed into a human, at least a drop of water had to flow from the end of his trousers, so that when he walked, a wet trace remained behind him.
In other cases, he often used this ability to mock and tease fishermen – for example, he could turn into a fish and tear their nets, or even worse, begin rocking the boat from side to side. Among his jokes there were also times when he turned into a corpse and seemed to come alive in front of fishermans.