Koschei

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.

By at least the 18th century, and likely earlier, Koschei's legend had been appearing in Slavic tales. For a long period no connection was made with any historical character