Note: The title reads Viy, which refers to a kind of demon, the King of the Gnomes. It is presented by Gogol as an actual character from Ukrainian folklore, but doesn't seem to have existed outside his imagination.

Synopsis: A young Cossack philosophy student in a seminary falls under the spell of an old witch who uses him as a mount to ride the country roads. He eventually manages to throw her off and wound her, only to discover she is a young and beautiful girl. Some time later the dying creature, in fact the daughter of a local squire, asks for him to be brought to the hall and pray for three nights next to her corpse. The reluctant seminarist is forced to come, and soon undestands the reason of this wish...