Bestiary · Slavic · Spirit of fate
Dolya
Also known as: Dolia
A person's own fate as a living being: she works for the lucky man and sleeps for the poor one, and can be met, fed or beaten.
In Russian and Ukrainian tales and sayings Dolya ("lot, share") is each person's own fate, a living being who follows him. The lucky man hardly works, because "his Dolya works for him". In a Serbian tale the rich brother's Dolya is a beautiful maiden spinning golden thread beside his flock, while the poor brother's is a grey old woman asleep under an oak, whom he beats with his stick. Her opposite is Nedolya.