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The Warlock
The Warlock (Russian: ведьмак) is a Russian folktale from the seventeenth century. This tale was written by an anonymous author. The most widely regarded translation is by W.R.S Ralston, this particular version of the story was published in his book Russian Fairytales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folklor e in 2007.

The Warlock also known as a Vedmak in Russian, is a male witch whose main role focuses on the use of altered consciences to speak or use the spirit world. This is a religious practice of Slavic Paganism known as Shamanism.

A Vedmak can have positive qualities but it was often a name associated with something evil, or of the devil. They were known for the ability to cast curses on people and animals.

In this rendition, the Warlock most certainly possesses negative qualities namely greed.

Plot Summary
This story opens by speaking of a man, a Moujik, meaning Russian peasant, who has lived a long life and has now passed away. He has three sons who are all married and he was looked upon by his village as a Warlock, or Koldun, better translated to wizard.

On his deathbed he requests that his three daughter in laws sit with him one for three nights and he requests that they wear no crosses and speak no prayers. They are to sit and knit a garment for his burial, specifically a caftan.

Night falls and the first daughter in law goes to sit with him. In the middle of the night, he arises and begins to speak to her. After she answers his questions he strangles her and goes back to his previous state. In the morning the sons come in and retrieve her body and that night they send in the next daughter in law. The second daughter befalls the same fate and again the next night they send in the third daughter in law.

The third daughter in law goes in without a fight like the other but she secretly keeps her cross on her and as she knits she whispers her prayers to herself. When her father-in-law awakens and tries to strangle her, the cross protects her. She comes to realize that he was protecting an enormous fortune and did not want to give it up. Only one with a smarter wit than him would be able to survive and receive his fortune, and so she did.

Literary Context
The Russian wonder tale or folk tale is well-known for its many different archetypes. One of these archetypes is the start of each story, according to Faith Wigzell and her commentary on Folklore and Russian Literature, these stories are always started with an initial lack of something important, a parents death, or the desire for a bride. In the case of The Warlock, the starting action is the death of the father in law. This story falls into the everyday life category of the Russian Wondertale. It follows the traditional burial rites of the time that the father in law requests on his death bed.

The Warlock himself in the story closely follows the archetype of the Vedmek, a warlock who uses altered consciousness to speak with the spirt world. He breaks from this archetype slightly as in the story he is not communing with spirts because he is the spirt himself that returns each night. The Warlock also shares qualities from the same archetype as Koshchi, he posses a love of gold as does the Warlock by evidence of him not wanting to give it up. Koshchi is best know for "hiding" his death by way of an egg that is hidden inside a goose that is hidden in a trunk at the bottom of the ocean and so on and so forth. Not unlike a Russian doll with all the pieces fitting inside each other hiding a small center. The Warlock does not hide his death but he does have appear to posses powers of an immortal similarly to Koshchi.

Theme
One strong theme in this story is that of greed. It is greed on the part of the father in law. He dies but is then presented in the story as almost a possessed thing of the man he once was. His greed ran so deep that he could not rest in peace. This comments on humanity itself and how often greed has led to an unhappy life and then an unhappy after-life. The people put stock in the wrong things; things such as gold and valuables but they can not take those with them to the afterlife. The only way his daughter in law could escape the danger of his greed was to possess more cunningness than her father in law.

Along with a stronger sense of faith, which is another theme in this story. The first two sisters willingly and easily give up their crosses and their prayers before their father in law or the warlock, even awakens. Once he does they still do not take up their prayers but sit there in fear. The third not only keeps her cross but keeps to her prayers as she sews and refuses to let her father in law scare or out-wit her. Rolstan mentions at the end of the story that the father in law was using this as a test because he wanted to keep all his gold to himself and only one who could out-wit him could have it. It then comments on how through religion more things are possible because the third sister was the only one who stuck to her faith and she was the only one to survive.

Adaptations
Rolstan includes at the end of this tale in his book that there is one important adaptation or version of this story. Each is a little different but the major themes appear to be the same. The tale is called “The Girl and the Dead Man ”. It is a West Highland tale that relates the story of a young girl taking up the watch of a house where a corpse has been laid. The dead man in this story tries to wake three times but the young girl threatens to hit him with a stick. She ends up calling on the church, which ties in the theme of religion, and unlike the two daughter in laws in The Warlock, the young girl lives.

The theme of greed is not as prevalent in this version of the story however, that is not surprising due to the fact that most of these tales were probably passed on via oral retellings. Things get lost in translation and left out often and easily leading to several different versions of the same story.

Translations
An English translation can be found in W.R.S Ralstons anthology, Russian Fairytales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folktales. (The Project Gutenberg, 2007).