Koschei (Russian: Коще́й, tr.

Koshchey, IPA: [kɐˈɕːej]), often given the epithet "the Immortal", or

"the Deathless" (Russian: Коще́й Бессме́ртный), is an archetypal male antagonist in Russian
folklore.
The most common feature of tales involving Koschei is a spell which prevents him from being
killed. He hides his soul inside nested objects to protect it. For example, the soul (or in the tales,
it is usually called "death") may be hidden in a needle that is hidden inside an egg, the egg is in a
duck, the duck is in a hare, the hare is in a chest, the chest is buried or chained up on a far
island. Usually he takes the role of a malevolent rival father figure, who competes for (or entraps)
a male hero's love interest.
The origin of the tales is unknown. The archetype may contain elements derived from the 12th-
century pagan Cuman-Kipchak (Polovtsian) leader Khan Konchak, who is recorded in The Tale
of Igor's Campaign; over time a balanced view of the non-Christian Cuman Khan may have been
distorted or caricatured by Christian Slavic writers.