concept
Melnik (miller)
miller
also: мельник
A watermill operator who typically leases or owns the mill and the milling rights to a stretch of river; the trade carried a folkloric reputation in rural Russia for solitude, sharp dealing, and semi-mythic menace, millers being popularly associated with the devil and with economic power over the surrounding peasantry.
Reading notes
- At the Mill §1 Мельник
A melnik is a watermill operator, typically leasing or owning the mill and the milling rights to a stretch of river; in rural Russia the trade carried a folkloric reputation for solitude, sharp dealing, and (as here) semi-mythic menace -- millers were popularly associated with the devil and with control over the surrounding peasantry's grain.