Hello everyone, Casimir here! The Skald’s Circle welcomes you to read about some of our favorite myths and their influences on popular culture and actual history! Today, we are talking about one of our most popular myths, The Death of Koschei the Deathless.
I hesitate to say this for those who haven’t listened to the story yet, (though you definitely should since it’s a great story) but Koschei dies — shocking I know. Spoilers aside, Koschei is a fascinating villain. He is an undead being from Slavic mythology, with a penchant for starting fights with whiny Russian princes named Ivan by kidnapping Ivan’s wives. Because I find the details of his name fascinating, I will tell you about them. His name Koschei comes from the the Russian word “kost” and the Polish word “kość” both of them meaning “bone”, which explains Koschei’s skeletal appearance. His title of deathless is unfortunately not explained in the story we have told, though in the future we will be telling the story, The Frog Princess, which does explain it. I digress though, Koschei is called the Deathless because he stores his soul, or his death, depending on the translation, inside of a needle, which is inside of an egg, which is inside of a duck, which will emerge from a rabbit. The rabbit in turn is inside of a chest, which is buried under an oak tree that is on an island in the middle of an ocean. I understand this seems a little excessive, and even a little bit ridiculous, but it is, in fact, in the myth. To be fair, if my immortality were tied to a magical needle I too would go through excessive ridiculous methods to hide this from possible adventures who would want to defeat me. If anyone is to obtain the egg Koschei is weakened, and loses his magic. If anyone breaks the needle, he dies. Folklore is awesome, and ridiculous, and I love it.
Now, that explains Koschei, but I also wanted to go into his influences on the world. For one, I could be making an assumption, but I’m fairly certain the majority of our readers have at least a passing familiarity with fantasy and tabletop games. Koschei is undoubtedly a lich with a phylactery. He is an immortal undead being with magical powers who is instantly killed if you break the object holding his soul. The only difference is that Koschei is slightly less extensive with his measures to protect his phylactery. A certain demonlord is Pathfinder was also named after Koschei (if you can find out who it is and comment on our Facebook post with his name, I will be impressed and give you 500 points which are worth nothing except for my respect).
Beyond tabletop games, Koschei is the antagonist of some video games, namely The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. He is even mentioned in popular comics The Sandman and Hellboy. This is proof that I’m not the only one who finds Slavic myth and folklore fascinating! Take that Mynogan…
Koschei is a fascinating character, and one of my favorite villains to ever come out of folklore. I hope that you enjoyed this article, and if there is anything else you’d like for us to research we would happily do so; all you need to do fill out the contact us form and let us know. Have an excellent day, and never leave the wonderful world of fantasy.
~Casimir