A quick answer on werewolfs:

 

“Oboroten’” is a generic term for any “shape-shifter” in Russian folklore, not just for werewolf.

Although the wolf shape is the most common, Russian oboroten’ can take shape of any animal, or even a haystack, a stone etc.

“Volkodlak” (volkolak, Ukrainian vovkulaka), however, is an ancient Slavic term specifically for werewolf, not commonly used in modern Russian; “dlaka” (shaggy skin) is not a modern Russian word.   

Volkodlak could be either a wizard taking wolf shape (as Vseslav Polotsky from “Igor’s Campaign”, or folkloric Volkh or Volga, discussed here previously), or a regular man turned into a wolf by wizardry.

A bite of an oboroten was considered damaging for a vampire. However, some oborotens are also vampires (Russian “upyr’), and those are also called “vurdalak”. The origin of this widespread term is unclear; Pushkin used it first in a well-known comical short poem titled “Vurdalak”; it is assumed that Pushkin invented the term by misspelling “volkodlak”.   

Aspen stake (osinovyi kol) or a silver bullet (serebryanaya pulya) are well-known in Russia anti-vampire (but not anti-oboroten generally) weapons.

See:

http://www.tmn.fio.ru/works/67x/311/volkolak.htm,

http://myfhology.narod.ru/monsters/volkodlak.html

 

 

 

 

 

I have a quick question for our Russian-speakers. I understand that in Vera's Russian translation of PF, she translates "versipel" as "Oboroten," the Russian word for werewolf.  But in my research I have also come across the word "Volkodlak," which also seems to indicate a werewolf (and vampire, as well?).  Can anyone explain the distinction, if any, between the two terms? Would "Volkodlak" (volx + dlaka?) roughly translate as "shaggy sorcerer"? Lastly, how well-known is the Slavic tradition that in order to kill a "Volkodlak," one must drive an aspen stake through its heart?  I got some of these notions from Ralston's Songs of the Russian People (1872), where we find:

"A buried werewolf or vampire has to be pierced with an aspen stake. . . . The warm hide of the werewolf is in keeping with his designation Volkodlak, from dlaka, a shaggy fell."  Fell, according to Webster's 2nd, can mean "the skin or hide of a beast."

Thanks,

Matt Roth

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