The Leshy

William Ralston Shedden-Ralston (1828-1889) was a British folklorist and writer who became famous as a translator from Russia. He was in Russia a number of times where he made friends with major Russian writers of those times such as Turgenev and Afanasyev.

This classical Russian fairy-tale that was collected and translated by William Ralston Shedden-Ralston. The plot of the story is a legend of forest creature named Leshy who stole priest's daughter in the forest one day and brang her into his wooden hut. This story would have been remained untold if there were not a bold hunter, who went daily through the thick woods with his dogs and his gun. Only after three years went by, he could find that cryptic creature deep in the wood but there was not priest's daughter near by. Probably she was already eaten by Leshy long ago. Or may be not.