Leshy Stories

How to recognize a warlock? The ancient Slavs used a name “warlock” for someone who acquired advanced knowledge and witchcraft skills through the study of “black magic” books. Russian, Ukrainian and Slovak legends describe the warlock appearance: long (below the waist) uncombed hair, uncut nails and black clothes. Slovaks thought that the warlock lives in a cave where he keeps his books. And from time to time, he turns his disciples into pigeons… North Russia Slavs believed that the warlock must be buried face down, otherwise he would turn into a walking dead. In a Slovak story, after the death of a witch, people threw her book into the oven, and a black crane flew out of the chimney…
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Southern Slovaks believed that a warlock could come into the house and demand milk from a black cow or goat and eggs from a black hen. If he was refused or deceived, he could curse a housewife to illness by pulling a single hair from her. Also, as punishment, he could cast rabies decease on a cow or summon a thunderstorm with lightning to burn the sheaves. For those who welcomed him, the warlock helped to acquire wealth and saved sheaves from thunderstorms in the field.
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What else could give away a warlock in a person, in your opinion? 😉
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Illustration: NI Yipeng www.artstation.com/sawman

A Russian legend says that the Black Book was kept on the seabed, under the Alatyr stone, until one sorcerer got it out of there, and since then the book has been “travelling” around the world. And some believed that instead of letters, there were dots punched on the lines in this book. Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians believed that the Black Book should only be rightfully inherited and must stay within a family.
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In Polish beliefs, sorcerers and shepherds had a magic book written in an incomprehensible language and locked with iron locks (shepherds were considered the “knowing” people). Belarusians believed that a warlock receives a Black Book from evil spirits, signing for it with his own blood, and must fully memorize it. And for the right to possess it, he had to sacrifice someone close. Belarusians in Gomel region used to say: “What a sorcerer without a book?! No, it is just a witch doctor!”. Sorcerers also believed they can use it to find the fern flower.
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Before dying, the warlock had to give the Black Book to someone, along with the demons he controlled with it. Otherwise, he will not know peace after death, and will return to his house with demands to give back his magic book.
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What other legends about the Black Book do you know? Where did it come from? Where is it now?

The Black Book (Čarodějná kniha, Bosorská kniha) is the main magic book of a sorcerer (warlock) who is practicing black magic. The Poles believed that it served to summon the devil, the Slovaks – that it helped in the search for treasures. In the Grodno region, Belarusians believed that the “black book” equally half-and-half contained “good” and “evil” knowledge, and the sorcerer had the ability to both put the curse and reverse it.
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In Slavic tradition, the status of the most powerful warlock was held by the one who had completed the study of the “Black Book”. Though it was not easy and extremely dangerous. First, it had to be studied only at night by candlelight. Second, the reading should be stretched for a whole year or even three years. And third, it was necessary to read chapters in a special order, not in sequence. At the same time, reading the “black book” deprived the warlock of health: he would begin to wither, his hair would turn gray and he could go insane. But if an unprepared person tried to use it, that would lead to the illness or death of the reader and disappearance of the book…
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What have you heard about the “black book” in Slavic tradition?
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To be continued…