Soviet folklorist Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tales, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personae, of which one was the villain, and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian tales. The actions that fell into a villain's sphere were: * A story-initiating villainy, where the villain caused harm to the hero or his family, * A conflict between the hero and the villain, either a fight or other competition * Pursuing the hero after he has succeeding in winning the fight or obtaining something from the villain.