{"product_id":"unholy-devils-demons-and-folk-belief-in-belarus-nikolai-nikiforovsky","title":"Unholy: Devils, Demons, and Folk Belief in Belarus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery thunderclap strikes a devil. The forest spirit's laughter carries forty versts. And an unholy spirit avoids any word with the letter r.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the villages of Vitebsk Belarus, the unholy were everywhere. The house spirit cleaned and spun at night for the family he loved, as long as they called him grandfather. The water spirit rode about on a catfish. The forest spirit, with a face as white as birch bark, led travellers astray and laughed when they were lost. Nikolai Nikiforovsky (1845–1910) spent decades writing down what the people of the region told him about them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eUnholy\u003c\/em\u003e brings three of his works together in one illustrated volume, now in English:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Unholy Ones\u003c\/em\u003e (Vilna, 1907).\u003c\/strong\u003e His compendium of village tales about the unholy: Liutsypyr chained in hell; the spirits of the house, byre and bathhouse, and of the field, forest, water and bog; and the witches, sorcerers and shapeshifters who live among people. Complete.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e“The Bagpiper and the Fiddler” (1892).\u003c\/strong\u003e Village musicians, the lore of their instruments, and the devils said to dance on a fiddler's fingers. Complete.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFrom \u003cem\u003ePopular Omens and Beliefs\u003c\/em\u003e (Vitebsk, 1897).\u003c\/strong\u003e The wedding, with its tales of whole wedding parties turned into wolves, and “Toward Evening—No Longer Early”: charms against sickness, a sorcerer's hard death, the funeral, and Dziady, when the dead return to the family table.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA new translation into modern English, for general readers and scholars alike. Printed in black and white, with plates from 19th- and early 20th-century engravings and drawings of Belarusian villages, forests and marshes, and of the spirits themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In general, an unholy spirit avoids words with the letter r in them.” \u003cem\u003e(The Unholy Ones)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“…unholy spirits dancing around the fiddler's fingers, hooking their tails around his fingers and their claws onto the strings.” \u003cem\u003e(The Bagpiper and the Fiddler)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“As a precaution, all the memorial dishes at Dziady are served cold.” \u003cem\u003e(Popular Omens and Beliefs)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated from Russian and Belarusian by Olya Ianovskaia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA companion to \u003ca href=\"\/products\/remnants-of-the-ancient-worldview-among-belarusians-an-ethnographic-essay-adam-bahdanovich\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRemnants of the Ancient Worldview among Belarusians\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (Hrodna, 1895).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Nikolai Nikiforovsky (Мікалай Нікіфароўскі)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOriginal titles:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eНечистики\u003c\/em\u003e (Vilna, 1907); “Дударь и музыка” (1892); \u003cem\u003eПростонародныя примѣты и повѣрья\u003c\/em\u003e (Vitebsk, 1897)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormats:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback, 6 × 9 in; EPUB; audiobook\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN (paperback):\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-1-0658448-4-6\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN (EPUB):\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-1-0658448-5-3\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Grunwald Publishing, Canada\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2027\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Nikolai Nikiforovsky","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":68076741066984,"sku":"978-1-0658448-4-6","price":35.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false},{"title":"EPUB","offer_id":68076741099752,"sku":"978-1-0658448-5-3","price":10.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":68076741132520,"sku":"UNHOLY-AUDIO","price":14.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0812\/9760\/4840\/files\/unholy-nikiforovsky_front_1200w.jpg?v=1793493694","url":"https:\/\/grunwald.ca\/products\/unholy-devils-demons-and-folk-belief-in-belarus-nikolai-nikiforovsky","provider":"Grunwald Publishing Inc","version":"1.0","type":"link"}