Volkhv

The Slavic pagan priest-sorcerer — in a 15th-century chronicle miniature, in Vasnetsov, and alive in a snowy forest with a drum

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Here he stands slightly hunched, shaggy, dreadlocked, grey, bearded like a chort, staff for a walking stick, in a robe, film over his eyes, on his forehead a flowerlike sign, a cluster of O’s stuck together.

In the Primary Chronicle a volkhv foretells the death of Prince Oleg.

Radziwill Chronicle, end of the 15th century

Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich of Novgorod comes to the volkhv — axe up on his shoulder — and kills him. Pen and ink; the original manuscript is in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg. The event is dated to the 1070s.

Radziwill Chronicle miniature: Gleb Svyatoslavich of Novgorod approaching the volkhv with an axe, both men flanked by their followers
Radziwill Chronicle miniature: Gleb Svyatoslavich of Novgorod approaching the volkhv with an axe, both men flanked by their followers

Public domain · unknown illuminator, 15th century · Wikimedia Commons

Viktor Vasnetsov — «Встреча Олега с кудесником» (Oleg meets the volkhv), 1899

State Literature Museum, Moscow.

Viktor Vasnetsov, Oleg meets the volkhv, 1899: a white-robed old man with a staff addressing Prince Oleg and his mounted retinue in a dark fir wood
Viktor Vasnetsov, Oleg meets the volkhv, 1899: a white-robed old man with a staff addressing Prince Oleg and his mounted retinue in a dark fir wood

Public domain · Viktor Vasnetsov (1848–1926) · Wikimedia Commons

One, photographed, 2010s

A volkhv of the Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities (Союз Славянских Общин Славянской Родной Веры), with a frame drum in a snowy wood.

Photograph of a modern Rodnover volkhv in an embroidered tunic and kolovrat pendant, striking a frame drum in a snow-covered forest
Photograph of a modern Rodnover volkhv in an embroidered tunic and kolovrat pendant, striking a frame drum in a snow-covered forest

CC BY-SA 4.0 · Union of Slavic Rodnover Communities · Wikimedia Commons · licence