Slavic mythology is the richest cultural layer left by our pagan ancestors. After the Baptism of Rus, the Slavs, not ready to immediately abandon the customary traditions, brought to Christianity the share of the pagan worldview . Therefore, the answer to the question, who are ghouls and ghouls, should be sought in the Old Slavonic mythology.
Who is the ghoul?
If you use modern terminology, a ghoul is a vampire who goes out of the grave at night to quench his hunger. But, unlike the European "bloodsuckers," the real ghouls in Russia did not shun the flesh of the victim. It was believed that if the ghoul did not eat the body of the victim, but only drank all the blood - the killed himself would become a monster.
In the pre-Christian tradition, ghouls are spirits that bring death, drought and pestilence. They lacked one touch to a person, so that he soon died of an unknown disease. After the adoption of Christianity in Russia, the Slavic ghoul is a laid-down deceased who was not given a church burial service and was buried in an uninitiated land. In addition, the chance to become a monster received:
- suicide;
- drunkards;
- wizards;
- inveterate heretics and sinners.
A ghoul woman is a former sorceress and a heretic. Unable to find peace after death, he returns home at night and sorts out the cutlery. The people she hated during her life, she tortures, tries to bring to death, especially often a ghoul mocks the unloved daughter-in-law, pulling them outside the braid.
What does a ghoul look like?
Slavic ghouls were absolutely not similar not only to modern ideas about vampires, but even to their foreign counterparts. Legends describe them as werewolves, capable at will of accepting any form or become invisible. Often the ghoul took on the face of a dead man with iron teeth, whose eyes burned with infernal fire.
If the search for the ghoul reached the digging of the grave, it turned out that:
- The dead man is not putrefied.
- His clothes are torn.
- Hands and feet are bitten to the bone.
Are there ghouls?
It is difficult to say with certainty that ghouls exist, but it is also impossible to refute this belief. The study of this problem in Russia has never been thoroughly studied. But in Europe in the middle of the XVIII century cases of vampirism were investigated at the highest level. The personal physician of Empress Maria Theresa Gerard van Sweeten and the well-known theological scholar Antoine Augustine Calme in their treaties expressed absolutely opposite opinions on this matter. Which of them believe - you decide.
What is the difference between a vampire and a ghoul?
It is now believed that ghouls and ghouls are the same creatures, slightly different in their habits and abilities. The appearance of this error is due to AS Pushkin and his poem "Ghoul". In fact, the poet, most likely, incorrectly recorded the word "wolf", which denoted the werewolf. Literary tradition continued in 1839 AK Tolstoy, who wrote a gothic story "The Family of the Ghoul".
Evidence of ghouls
The first annalistic mention of ghouls is dated to the 11th century and occurred in Polotsk. Then on the streets of the city at night there was a trampling and a man who inadvertently left the street, soon died of an unknown disease. Immediately after the appearance of ghouls in the Polotsk principality, in all of Kievan Rus troubles began:
- epidemics;
- drought;
- attacks of Polovtsian tribes.
Later stories about ghouls appeared in fairy tales and wanderings, the hero of which often acted as a soldier, who with the help of cunning and luck managed to escape from the ghoul. Most of all, these beliefs were common in the southern provinces, on the territory of modern Ukraine and Belarus.
How to deal with ghouls?
Methods of fighting these monsters were similar in many nationalities. If there was a suspicion that the village was being terrorized by a ghoul, the villagers were going to look for a grave on which the earth would have been dug up or there were still some signs that the deceased does not lie quietly in the coffin. Or, if a person recently died, about which they said that he knew with evil spirit, they dig his grave. Then they did the following.
- The corpse was turned face down.
- They drove an aspen stake into the back.
- The tendons were cut and the bones on the legs were broken.
- The tendons were cut above the heels and the bristles were poured into the wound.
- They cut off their heads, drove into it something iron and put them in their feet.
- To completely destroy the ghoul, it was necessary to burn it.
When meeting with ghouls, they defended themselves with a cross or strong abuse, it was believed that evil spirits were afraid of abuse. It was also possible to distract the monster with poppy seeds, rice, wheat - something small and available in large quantities - ghouls in Slavic mythology in which case immediately began to count the grains and could not stop until everyone counted.
To protect the house used:
- Pieces of iron, thrown into the fire or spread out on the windowsill;
- Crosses burned over the window and door openings with a candle, on Holy Thursday;
- Enemies of evil spirits were dogs born first or having spots above their eyes, reminiscent of another pair of eyes.
Books about ghouls
- "Ghoul" A.K. Tolstoy . The story of a young nobleman who visited a ball at the ghouls.
- "Ghoul" A.N. Afanasyev . Processing a Russian folk tale about a girl who married a ghoul.
- "Revolving city" Andrey Belyanin . The book is written in the genre of humorous fantasy and tells about the Cossacks guarding the order in the city, where witches and ghouls live.
Cinema about ghouls
- "Viy" . The screen version of the novel by N.V. Gogol, who earned recognition in the USSR and abroad.
- "Ghoul" . A Russian and very unusual movie about ghouls and ghouls that intimidated criminal authorities.