In many, including academic works, the character of the Gogol story is described completely differently from what Viy looks like in the writer's work. Researchers claim that the author, in the image of the famous monster, combined the ancient Roman Niy with the human age, although N.V. Gogol himself wrote that he sets out the legend exactly as he heard.
And the reader believes, because, in addition to this story, he created several more works of a similar genre in which the characters of folk
Slavic mythology are described with the ironic style inherent to Gogol
.Wise Veles
This is how they call this god in ancient Slavic myths. He is the master of the bodily, organic life of all people and animals. He knows when the body asks for rest for sleep, and when for eternal rest. Veles tirelessly makes sure that everything that is taken from the earth returns there. Nor is he a servant of death. Veles does not look at all like Wii. In the view of our ancestors, Veles is a man of about 50, strong and perfectly built, wise and balanced.
He is a kind of controller of bodily existence, as the old times expressed, bestial truth. Veles did not interfere in the spiritual, and even more so the spiritual activity of man. This god did not condemn or punish gluttony, sexual licentiousness, animal killing for entertainment, not for food. He simply took off his protection from the bodily
nature of man, and this nature of man fell into the hands of Wii.
Viy. Short description
What does Viy look like? He is an ugly creature, with many bodily flaws and vicious spiritual strength. This monster draws to itself all the musty, corrupted, corrupted and unbridled. Without others, he cannot satisfy his bodily needs; he cannot even lift his eyelids. But he lives a powerful spiritual life. And monster beings are drawn to him, for his spiritual strength ready to serve. This is exactly the little thing. The writer points to this three times in the story: twice in a hint, and the third in clear text, putting the words about it in Thomas’s mouth: “it’s clear that she has done a lot of sin for life, since evil is worth it”. And she is about Thomas: “Let Brutus read three nights. He knows".
Some exact details from the story of N. V. Gogol
Three women came to the farmhouse - the rhetorician Tiberius Gorobets, the philosopher Thomas Brutus and the theologian Freebie. Gogol three times, as expected, speaks of the bodily promiscuity of Thomas. And the one who lives "according to Viy" comes to him precisely. They are similar in their passions, and therefore are not under the protection of Veles. Pannochka saddled the philosopher (what a subtle detail!), And he feels the sweetness of flying with a witch on himself. But he has his own soulful life, which defeats the spell of his own body, and not the spell of the panel, which in this situation is only a means. Already morning, the roosters sang. But Thomas kills the little girl. And Veles does not protect his body. Viy gets it in Kiev, in the divine institution, through the bodily depravity of the rector.
Around Thomas Brutus are constantly walking the servants of Vij and, invisibly, Viy himself. The description of the meeting between the philosopher and the centurion is striking in the realistic details. “It’s not so with me,” the centurion says, “Do
you know
what leather kanchuk is?” “With a large amount, the thing is unbearable.” “I won’t get up.”
That's where the philosopher got (what a detail!). That is why he died of fear.
Viy is an evil spirit, and Koschey is an ordinary evil man
Some authors, who, without reading the whole work, cite “The Word about Igor’s Regiment” and claim in their writings that Koschey and Viy are kindred images. Yes, this is nonsense. The "Word ..." specifically indicates that Gzak, Konchak and the father of Gzak Bonyak are Slavic nomads and Koshcheis, that is, owners of cattle (in Old Slavonic: bones, koshchei). A.S. Pushkin directly points to this: “... he is languishing over gold. There the Russian spirit, there it smells of Rus. " You need to be deaf and blind, so as not to distinguish between what Viy looks like in mythologists, but how - Koschey.
Resident Wii
Wii is constantly located in the depths, in the bowels of the earth, where the bodies of his servants rot warmly, moistly and endlessly. He has sisters - Villas, who sometimes fly out and scour the villages of people, looking for servants for their terrible brother. They compete with another character of our mythology, the Fiery Serpent, for the souls of fallen people.
And it’s not hard to imagine what Viy looks like. The photo of the artist who was represented and painted by Wii and his servants is known to the whole world. One can argue with some details, but in general, the artist correctly understood the essence of this character. This is the decaying flesh, which its powerful but evil soul does not want to return to the earth, that is, it does not submit to the wise Veles.
There is no fight between Veles and Wii
The struggle takes place in the souls of men. The soul of Thomas Brutus flew off with the triumphant song of the roosters, who welcome the rise of Yaril and the light that he brings to the world. And souls should not return to dead bodies, as was the case with the panel. This contradicts the canons observed by the bestial god Veles.
Thomas returned to the earth what he so carelessly used in this bright world. And therefore, two friends commemorate him - the philosopher Tiberius Gorobets and Freebie, who is drunk hiding in the weeds.