The Slavic Forest Spirit That Wants to Tickle You …To Death
So I usually try my best to gather my info from a variety of sources and cobble it together with a bit of snark as glue… but this one of those situations where I’m pretty sure there’s no way I’m improving on the Wikipedia entry, so I’m just going to borrow it word for poorly translated word from here and thank whoever pieced it together.
“The Leshy or Lesovik is a male woodland spirit in Slavic mythology who protects wild animals and forests. He usually appears as a tall man, but he is able to change his size from that of a blade of grass to a very tall tree. He has hair and a beard of living grass and vines, and is sometimes depicted with a tail, hooves, and horns. He has pale white skin that contrasts with his bright green eyes. A Leshy has a close bond with the gray wolf, and is often seen in the company of bears as well. He is the Forest Lord and carries a club to express that he is the master of wood. He has blue blood, which gives his cheeks a blue tinge. Legend describes him as having a red scarf and his left shoe on his right foot. He also, is known to have no shadow. Leshy protects the animals and birds in the forest and tells them when to migrate.
A person who befriends a Leshy can learn the secrets of magic. Farmers and shepherds would make pacts with the Leshy to protect their crops and sheep. The Leshy has many tricks, including leading peasants astray, making them sick, or tickling them to death. They are also known to hide the axes of woodcutters. A person gets lost in the woods when a Leshy crosses their path. To find the way out, you have to turn your clothes inside out and wear shoes on opposite feet.”
Our Judge this week is Scott Anderson, all purpose and very talented creative gun for hire. When i first met him, it was during his nearly 15 year run as the dude doing the “cool spreads” in Playboy mag. Since then, I’ve watched him design shoe and clothing lines, star in movies, create an improv troupe, start his own… sh*t you get the point… Dude has more creative juice than he knows what to do with and it’s kinda fun to watch cause he’s a little bit like a super ball in a very small room. You can see his portfolio here or follow his instagramming here . He’s always looking for new projects and directions to grow/learn, so if you’re in the market for someone who officially knows their sh*t, I will stand by him being your guy.
A note from our Judge – “I made my choices for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd based purely on emotional aesthetics [how the artist used compassion for this hidden forest dweller] since all renditions are the obvious results of god-given talent, their years of drawing skills overflowing on the empty canvas, the likes of which MYTHICAL BEAST WARS have never seen. Ye are blessed.”
