Ukrainian author Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809–52) wrote “Viy” in 1833, at the age of 24. It first appeared in his 1842 story collection Mirgorod, published ten short years before his death from anemia, a condition brought on by fasting. (Something of a religious zealot in his later years, Gogol had stopped eating in an effort to purge the Devil from his being.) The story’s enigmatic title refers to the iron-faced “chief of the gnomes, whose eyelids reach down to the ground,” and which, when raised, expose unholy eyes capable of peering through any barrier. According to Gogol translator and biographer David Magarshack, there are no grounds for the author’s introductory assertion that “Viy” was based on a Ukrainian folk legend, un- changed and “told almost in the simple way I first heard it.” 6 Considered a minor work and men- tioned only in passing by most Gogol studies, “Viy” warrants a detailed syn- opsis to help us determine how freely it was adapted by Bava and his fellow screenwriters. After an introductory description of the Bratsky Monastery in Kiev and the rollicking crudities that distin- guish its playful seminary students, Gogol isolates three of these scoun- drels as his protagonists. They are Khalyava the theologian, Khoma Brut the philosopher, and the rhetorician (and kleptomaniac) Tibory Gorobets. The trio are returning on foot to their homes for summer vacation, hiking along the open highway and enjoin- ing villagers for handouts of food and drink along the way. Night falls swiftly over the roads and they entertain the thought of camping in the open air only briefly, as late night hunger, in- creasing sobriety, and fear of wolves compel them to continue walking till the next cottage appears. This is owned by an old woman who, know- ing of the loutish and drunkenly ways of young students, refuses them hos- pitality. The three comrades swear through her bolted door that there will be no mischief and, should there be, “then may our arms be withered and
PRINCESS ASA is fitted with the Mask of Satan in this Italian fotobusta.
