Slavic mythology identifies the Vodyanoy or Vodyanoi as a water spirit. A creature similar to the Wassermann and nix of German fairy stories appears under vodka in Czech and Slovak fairy tales. Vodyanoy is often called “grandfather” and “forefather” by the locals, who describe him with a green beard and long hair, whose body is covered in algae and muck, generally covered in black fish scales. He can’t use his hands since webbed paws have replaced them; he also has a fish’s tail and eyes as fiery as embers. In his river, he frequently travels on a partially sunk log, creating a lot of noise as he goes. The Vodyanoy is blamed for the local drownings.
Vodyanoy can change into various forms, including a fish, a log, and a lovely woman. Also, like the western Merman, he is sometimes shown with a fish’s tail. A Vodyanoy can pass for a human in a hamlet, but his real nature is exposed by the water that oozes from the left side of the coat, and the patch on the ground where he sits becomes wet immediately. The Vodyanoy revealed himself as a fat, chubby old guy. At other times, he’d have a potbelly, swollen cheeks, a reed hat, and a rush belt. His appearance was a green monster with pimples, warts, and slime covering his skin. The Vodyanoy were technically immortal, but they experienced the effects of ageing and tiredness, much like humans.
The Vodyanik rules the ocean but is utterly helpless on dry land despite possessing tremendous strength and power in the sea. The oceans are entirely under his control. He helps fishermen by luring fish into their nets and directing them to safe harbours during storms, but he sends them careening toward perilous shores when he’s in a bad one. If the miller wants to be successful, he should bury a living creature—a calf, a sheep, or a man—in the mill’s foundations and then rip the spike out of the mill wheels, redirect the water, and flood the mill.
Many people also think the Vodyanik kills anyone who bathes at noon or midnight. His daytime routine involves lounging just at the bottom of the deep pond, but at night he can be found sitting on the shore, combing his hair, or engaging in water sports, such as diving with a splash and emerging from the water at a great distance. Occasionally, he will also battle with the wood sprites, the sounds of which can be heard from great lengths. Market visits are a favourite pastime for Vodyanoy while he is on dry land, and his presence is a reliable indicator of the price of corn. If he buys expensively, a poor harvest is on the horizon and vice versa. In the swamps, he enjoys a good ride on a sheatfish or a horse, bull, and cow, which he will ride until it dies. He wants to revel and play cards and is a heavy drinker.
Legend has it that whenever a water mill was constructed, a Vodyanoy would take human life as payment since they preferred the calm of the millpond. Every mill needs at least one Vodyanoy, potentially more if it includes more than one set of wheels. Therefore, millers must have a solid grasp of the occult because disaster will strike without knowing how to appease the water spirits. Before jumping into the water or a bath, millers and peasants would cross themselves in case Vodianova were angry and attempted to drown them. Vodka, however, was not infallible and might be fooled.
When the initial swarm of the calendar year arrives, it is traditional to place it in a bag and then toss it, stone in hand, into the nearby river as a gift to Vodnik, who is also considered a patron of beekeeping. If you take honey from a colony on St. Zosima’s Day and throw it into a mill stream at midnight, you will succeed as a beekeeper. Not only does he reign supreme in his aquatic domain, but he also wields considerable sway over the fortunes of fishermen and sailors. He helps them out in some cases, but in others, he leads them straight to disaster. Occasionally, he becomes entangled in fishermen’s nets; nevertheless, he quickly rips them apart, releasing every fish inside. The Vodyanoy hibernates during the colder months, but when spring arrives, he becomes angry and hungry and acts out in petty ways.
In some regions, the locals will buy a horse and feed it well for three days to appease him. After that, they’ll tie the animal’s legs together, smear honey on its head, decorate its mane with red ribbons, and hang two millstones around its neck before throwing it into an ice hole or, if the frost has torn up into the centre of a river at midnight. The Vodyanoy has been waiting for his gift for three days, and his impatience is clearly shown by the groans and upheavals of water he is producing. After getting his due, he stops talking.
At the same time every year, fishermen pour oil into the water to appease him, pleading with him to be kind to them, while millers offer up a black pig as an annual sacrifice to ensure a prosperous year. As a thank you for watching the farmer’s ducks and geese over the summer, he is often given a goose about the middle of September. Ukrainians traditionally buried a horse’s head in a dam to make it solid and impenetrable against Vodnik.
Once upon a time, a fisherman pulled a body from the water and brought it aboard. And then, to his surprise, the corpse sprang to life, laughed hysterically, and leapt over the side. That was a practical joke pulled by the Vodyanoy. Once upon a time, a sportsman waded into the river to retrieve a hurt duck, and the Vodyanoy grabbed him even by the neck and nearly dragged him underneath if he hadn’t freed himself with his axe. When he came home, Vodyanoy’s fingers had left blue stains all over his neck. Farmers sign a line on the river with a blade or scythe to scare away the Vodyanoy so their horses don’t get jumped by the monster and drown when crossing a river.
Bathing during the week of the Prophet Ilya feast is especially risky because the Vodyanoy is actively hunting for victims. They say he frequently sits on the coast with a club in his side, from which hold ribbons of various colours: with all these, he allures kids, including those whom he gets a hold of, he drowns. Fishermen in Bohemia are reluctant to help a drowning man out of fear that the Vodyanoy will be affronted and drive the fish away from their nets. Vodyanoy retains his victims’ souls and turns them into servants but lets their corpses wash up on shore. It is believed in Ukraine that these half-human, half-fish “marine people” rise to the sea’s surface during storms to sing.