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Overview

In One-Eyed Likho, a prosperous smith and tailor seek the evil they have never encountered. A tall, crooked, lank woman with a single eye receives them in a forest cottage, kills and cooks the tailor, and prepares to consume her other guest. The smith offers to make her an eye, binds her and drives a heated awl into her existing eye. Blinded, she bars the doorway but releases her sheep one by one. The smith reverses his sheepskin coat and creeps out among them. His escape is incomplete: a golden-handled hatchet traps his hand, and Likho approaches again. He cuts off the hand and returns home with visible evidence of his encounter.

Ralston separately summarizes a Little-Russian witness transmitted through Afanasief from Borovikovsky’s 1840 article. There Likho is a huge blind male giant on a couch of human bones in an iron castle; Woes and Care sit around him. A fugitive loses his right hand when the commanded doors slam on it. This is a different body and escape sequence from the one-eyed woman’s sheep trick. Ralston treats Likho as personified evil or misfortune; his comparison with Polyphemus is commentary rather than evidence that the beings share a single identity.

Cannibal encounterOne-eyed female witnessDistinct blind male variant
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Origins & earliest records

The female narrative is Afanasief, volume III, no. 14, from the Voroneje Government (Ralston footnote 225). Separate Little-Russian comparison via Afanasief, Poetic Views III p. 137, after Borovikovsky, Otechestvennye Zapiski 1840 no. 2.

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Records & interpretation

Complete selected narrative and source note directly read in the cached Hurst transcription. Collector and translator mediation retained.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore: One-Eyed Likho and comparison, pp. 186–189, footnotes 224 and 226

    W. R. S. Ralston, translator and commentator, after the collected source specified here · Undated Hurst title page; London edition catalogued 1873

    The female narrative is Afanasief, volume III, no. 14, from the Voroneje Government (Ralston footnote 225). Separate Little-Russian comparison via Afanasief, Poetic Views III p. 137, after Borovikovsky, Otechestvennye Zapiski 1840 no. 2. Ralston’s linguistic and comparative commentary is separate from the narrated encounter.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Primary translated collected narrativeRalston: One-Eyed Likho and comparison, pp. 186–189, footnotes 224 and 226Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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