Woland

Woland (Russian: Воланд) is a fictional character in the book The Master and Margarita by the Russian (Soviet) author Mikhail Bulgakov. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling and turns the world upside-down. He appears differently to different people. "he first says that the was short, had gold teeth, and limped on the right foot. The second, that the man was of enormous height, had platinum crowns, and limped on the left foot. The third states laconically that the man had no special distinguishing characters."

Woland's name itself is a variant of the name of a demon who appears in Goethe's Faust: the knight Voland or Faland. This link is made tighter by the quotation from Faust at the beginning of the novel. However, Woland is seldom called by his name. His band refer to him as "messire", a French honorific title meaning "sire" or "master" and given to priests, advocates, etc.

His demonic retinue, which includes witches, vampires, and a gigantic talking cat, his role in the plot, and the fact that Woland was used as a synonym for Satan in (now outdated) German all imply that he is, in fact, the Devil. More controversial interpretations see him as Paul or even the Second Coming of Christ.