{{Expand Russian, Полкан (фольклор), date=April 2010 Polkan or Palkan (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Полка́н or Палкан, from the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

''Pulicane'') is a half-human, half-horse (in some variants, half-dog) creature from Russian folktales which possesses enormous power and speed. In

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

his name is understood as ''полуконь'' (''polukon'' - ''half-horse''). He appears first as the enemy of the hero Bova Korolevich, but after a battle becomes his loyal friend and ally. Polkan is originally based on Pulicane, a half-dog character from

Andrea da Barberino Andrea Mangiabotti,Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age''. Collection: La Pochothèque. (Paris: Fayard, 1992. ), pp. 62–63. called Andrea da Barberino ( 1370–1431''The Cambridge Histo ...

's poem "I Reali di Francia", which was once popular in the Slavonic world in prosaic translations. In the 19th century ''Polkan'' became a popular name for a

guard dog A guard dog or watchdog (not to be confused with an attack dog) is a dog used to watch for and guard property against unwanted or unexpected human or animal intruders. The dog is discerning so that it does not annoy or attack the resident hum ...

See also