Domovoi- Slavic SpiritSpirit"Grandfather"

Behind the Stove

The Domovoi lives where no one looks: behind the masonry stove or beneath the threshold. He is small, rarely more than two feet tall, covered in thick fur. His face, when anyone catches a glimpse, resembles the oldest man in the family, or whoever first built the house, or whoever first died in it. Most of the time he is invisible. A shadow shifts by the stove. A cat sits too still by the hearth. Someone is there.

At night he walks through the rooms. Sleeping family members feel his hand on their face but cannot see him. If the hand is warm and soft, the household will prosper. If it is cold and rough, illness or death is near. Those brave enough to speak ask aloud: "Grandfather, for good or for ill?" and wait for what comes next.

Bread and Horses

A well-tended Domovoi keeps the house standing. Families left bread and kasha by the stove, and on winter feast days, a cup of beer. No one whistled indoors. The home was kept clean. In return, the fire did not go out, strangers brought no harm, and the family slept undisturbed.

His care extended to the stable. A pleased Domovoi groomed the horses at night and braided their manes into elaborate plaits. He had strong opinions about color. A family might learn that their Domovoi favored bay horses and would not tolerate white ones. A farmer who found his horses sweating and exhausted at dawn, their manes tangled into painful knots, knew the spirit was displeased.

The Angry Grandfather

A neglected Domovoi turned the house against its occupants. Dishes cracked. Doors slammed in empty rooms. If the family still did not listen, he sat on their chests in the dark, pressing the air from their lungs. He pulled hair. He pinched. The fire went out and would not relight.

The remedy was always appeasement: fresh offerings at the stove and spoken apologies addressed to "Grandfather." He could not be driven out. He could not be fought. He could only be asked, with bread and salt and a bowed head, to forgive.

Carrying the Embers

When a family moved, the Domovoi had to come with them. To leave without him was to abandon the guardian to an empty house, where he would grieve until new occupants arrived, and then torment them.

The night before moving, the family addressed him: "Grandfather Domovoi, come with us to the new home." Coals from the old stove were placed in a clay pot and covered with cloth. The pot was carried to the new house with the care owed to an ancestor's remains. At the new stove, the embers were laid inside and the fire was lit. A cat crossed the threshold first. Only then was the building a home.