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Velnias
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Also called:
Velinas, Vels, or Velns
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Velnias

Baltic religion
Also known as: Velinas, Velns, Vels
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Velnias, in Baltic religion, the god of the Lithuanian vėlės or Latvian velis, spirits of the dead. He is a one-eyed, prophetic trickster capable of raising whirlwinds and leading the host of the dead through the skies. Velnias is akin in type to the Germanic Wodan or the Scandinavian Odin and is identical with the god Patollo, or Pickollos, of early Old Prussian and Lithuanian sources.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Charles Preston.