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Baba Yaga is an enigmatic or ambiguous character from Slavic folklore who has two opposite roles. In some motifs she is described as a repulsive or ferocious-looking old woman who fries and eats children, while in others she is a nice old woman who helps out the hero. She is often associated with forest wildlife. Her distinctive traits are flying around in a wooden mortar, wielding a pestle, and dwelling deep in the forest in a hut standing on chicken legs.
Devana, Zevana, less often Zievonya is the goddess of wild nature, forests, hunting and the moon worshiped by the Western Slavs. In the sources, she was first mentioned in the 15th century by Jan Długosz, who compared her to the Roman goddess Diana. Dziewanna is also a Polish name for Verbascum, and the etymology of the word is unclear. After strong criticism from Aleksander Brückner, researchers rejected her authenticity, but nowadays it is accepted by an increasing number of researchers. Sometimes, in folk rituals, she performs together with Morana.
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In Slavic folklore, the rusalka is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melusine and the Germanic Nixie. Folklorists have proposed a variety of origins for the entity, including that they may originally stem from Slavic paganism, where they may have been seen as benevolent spirits. Rusalki appear in a variety of media in modern popular culture, particularly in Slavic language-speaking countries, where they frequently resemble the concept of the mermaid.
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Nav is a phrase used to denote the souls of the dead in Slavic mythology. The singular form is also used as a name for an underworld, over which Veles exercises custody—it is often interpreted as another name for the underground variant of the Vyraj.
In Slavic paganism there are a variety of female tutelary spirits associated with water. They have been compared to the Greek Nymphs, and they may be either white (beneficent) or black (maleficent). They may be called Navki, Rusalki, and Vily.
The Plague Maiden, is the name given to an apparition from a Lithuanian-Polish folktale. She was said to appear before a plague befell a town. She is often described as waving a red handkerchief through victim's doors, either because it is dyed that way or because it is soaked with blood. Some folktales say that she wears white and has a fiery wreath across her temples. Another such description of her shows that she is an older woman, haggard and tall. Her ailing frame is draped by a decrepit white robe.
Zorian Dołęga-Chodakowski, born Adam Czarnocki, was a Polish ethnographer and archaeologist. A Slavophile, he became known for his ethnographic field research and theories about the ancient Slavs, which did not convince academics but have influenced Polish cultural life. For much of his adult life he travelled the countryside without any money, collecting folk songs and other material.
References
- ↑ Alanna Muniz, The Survival of the Neolithic Goddess in Polish Folklore, Myth, and Tradition. Master of Arts in Women’s Spirituality, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Palo Alto, CA. 2010.
- ↑ Barber, Elizabeth J. W. “On the Origins of the vily/rusalki.” Varia on the Indo-European Past: Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Ser. 19). Ed. Miriam Robbins Dexter and Edgar C. Polomé. Washington D.C.: Study of Man, 1997.
- ↑ R. M. Romero, The Dollmaker of Kraków. Delacorte Press. 2017.
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