Ruthenian Christianity volkhv is said to have been the son of a serpent and the Princess Marfa Vseslavevna and could transform himself into a wolf and other animals. That, of course, sounds as a fairy tale, however Christianity as a religion while still being challenged by people that followed the older traditions used this misinterpretation to outcast the followers of Slavic paganism. Volkhvs of Novgorod were well known to challenge the well established Christianity in Kiev in the 11th century, which resulted in Vseslav's victory when Mstislav Iziaslavovich fled to Kiev. Not long after that the same volkhvs were calling to uprising against Gleb Sviatoslavovich. Volkh appears in a number of drawings by the late-19th and early 20th-century Russian artist Ivan Bilibin, who was heavily influenced by Russian folklore. See also List of Russian rulers List of Ukrainian rulers References 1030s births 1101 deaths People from Polotsk Grand Princes of Kiev Belarusian rulers Rurik dynasty 11th-century princes in Kievan Rus' Eastern Orthodox monarchs Werewolves