While there are some descriptions of Koschei’s appearance, in legend, Koschei is often depicted as ugly. Many say that Koschei has a penchant for riding a magical horse naked while wandering the mountains of Russia.
Koschei the Deathless is also known as a shape-shifter; he can take the form of a monster or a human, but he prefers to transform into a whirlwind to abduct young women. The aspect most often mentioned in mythology about Koschei is his obsession with death. This obsession has led him to make mistakes, and his greatest mistake was using an imperfect spell to protect himself.
Koschei the Deathless is also known as a shape-shifter.
How Did Koschei Become Immortal?
Koschei maintains his life and immortality by abandoning his soul. He has extracted his soul from his body, and it is said that he hides it within a needle, an egg, a chicken, a hare, and locks it in an iron chest or a crystal chest, which he then buries under an oak tree on an island.
Koschei the Deathless even protects his soul by ensuring that the containers can escape. Legend has it that if anyone finds the chest, digs it up, and opens it, the duck will flee. If the duck is killed, the hare will escape.
Only when an enemy reaches the egg is Koschei’s life truly threatened. The egg contains the needle that holds the core power of Koschei. According to mythology, obtaining the egg allows one to control Koschei. If the egg is broken, the needle will also break, and at that point, Koschei will be defeated forever.
Koschei maintains his life and immortality by abandoning his soul.
The Story of Koschei and Prince Ivan
The most interesting part about Koschei lies not in the source of his power but in the story of his confrontation with Prince Ivan Tsarevitch. Both Andrew Lang’s The Red Fairy Book and Alexander Afanasyev’s Russian Fairy Tales mention this confrontation.
The tale recounts that after the death of Prince Ivan’s parents, he witnessed his three sisters marrying sorcerers who took the form of birds. But a year later, Ivan began to feel lonely, so he set out to find his sisters.
On his journey, Ivan met the warrior maiden Marya Morevna and married her. Shortly thereafter, Marya chose to go to battle, leaving Ivan behind to take care of the household, while instructing him not to go near a wardrobe where she had kept a secret for a long time.
Ivan gives him twelve buckets of water. Immediately, the old man revives and becomes lively again.
However, Ivan did not listen; when Marya left, he went to find the wardrobe and discovered an old man locked up with twelve chains. He begged Ivan for water, as he had not eaten or drunk for a long time. Moved by the plea, Ivan provided him with twelve buckets of water. Instantly, the old man revived and became a youthful, powerful, immortal sorcerer—Koschei.
Regaining his strength, Koschei broke the chains binding him and declared that he would capture the warrior guarding Marya, vanishing into thin air, and his magic was restored. Immediately, Ivan set off to rescue Marya; he found his wife and fled with her twice, but both times they were defeated by Koschei.
Koschei captures Marya, Prince Ivan sets off to rescue his wife.
The prince managed to capture Koschei, but the result was that Koschei sliced him into pieces and stuffed him into a barrel, which was then thrown into the sea. However, Ivan’s three sisters had married powerful sorcerers; they sought his body to perform a resurrection spell. Later, Ivan was advised to seek a magical horse capable of running fast, and Marya directed him to find the horse with Baba Yaga. Ivan visited Baba Yaga, fulfilling all her demands over three days before quietly stealing the horse and setting off to rescue his wife.
In this story, the myth of Koschei’s soul containers is not mentioned. He is not destroyed through the egg, possibly because Ivan was unaware of it or the egg had been destroyed beforehand. In both versions by Lang and Afanasyev, Koschei does not capture Ivan and Marya but is beheaded by them, and his body is burnt. In the end, the one who craved immortality like Koschei is brought down by ordinary people. Prince Ivan and Marya live happily together, and Ivan grows closer to his three sisters.
