Slavic mythology or Slavic paganism is the religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and the 13th century.
In Slavic mythology, Ognyena Maria is a fire goddess who is the sister and assistant of the thunder god, Perun. Ognyena Maria originates as a conflation of the figures of Margaret the Virgin and the Virgin Mary, both regarded as sisters of Saint Elias.
In Slavic mythology, vodyanoy is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, it is called vodník, and it is considered to be the equivalent creature as the Wassermann or nix of German fairy tales. In Ukrainian fairy tales, it is called “водяник“ (vodyanyk).
Other than the many gods and goddesses of the Slavs, the ancient Slavs believed in and revered many supernatural beings that existed in nature. These supernatural beings in Slavic religion come in various forms, and the same name of any single being can be spelled or transliterated differently according to language and transliteration system.
The samodiva, samovila or vila, are woodland fairies or nymphs found in South and West Slavic folklore.
Rusalka is a fantasy novel by American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It was first published in October 1989 in the United States in a hardcover edition by Ballantine Books under its Del Rey Books imprint. Rusalka is book one of Cherryh's three-book Russian Stories trilogy set in medieval Russia in forests along the Dnieper river near Kyiv in modern-day Ukraine. The novel draws on Slavic folklore and concerns the fate of a girl who has drowned and becomes a rusalka. It is also an exploration of magic and the development of a young wizard.
May Night is a comic opera in three acts, four scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from a libretto by the composer and is based on Nikolai Gogol's story "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden", from his collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1829-1832).
Rusalka is an opera in four acts, six tableaux, by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, composed during 1848-1855. The Russian libretto was adapted by the composer from Aleksandr Pushkin's incomplete dramatic poem of the same name. It premiered on 4 May 1856 at the Theatre-circus, conducted by Konstantin Lyadov, choreographed by Marius Petipa and Nikolay Goltz, but was badly received predominantly by the aristocracy.
Green week, or the green holidays, is a traditional Slavic seasonal festival celebrated in early June. It is closely linked with the cult of the dead and the spring agricultural rites. In Eastern European villages, the seven weeks following Easter have historically been a time of festivity. Green week takes place during the seventh week leading up to the Pentecost, and includes the seventh Thursday after Easter, called Semik.
The asrai is a type of aquatic fairy in English folklore and literature. They are usually depicted as female, live in lakes and are similar to the mermaid and nixie. Rather than originating from folklore, the asrai may have been invented by the Scottish poet Robert Williams Buchanan.
A water spirit is a kind of supernatural being found in the folklore of many cultures:
Kostroma is an East Slavic fertility goddess. Her name is derived from костёр (kostyor), the Russian word for "bonfire".
The Mermaids is an 1871 oil on canvas by the Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi. It depicts nineteen rusalki, who, according to Slavic mythology, were river or lake spirits who appeared at night in the form of young women. Some versions of the myths describe them as spirits who had died unbaptised or unmarried, or had drowned themselves following an unrequited love. They would emerge from the water at night, to sing and dance. They fulfilled a similar folkloric role to sirens; often enchanting young men before luring them to their deaths at the bottom of the water.
Mermaid is a 1996 Russian animated short film directed by Aleksandr Petrov and showcasing the paint-on-glass animation technique for which Petrov is known. The story is based on traditional Slavic folklore about the rusalki, river-dwelling mermaids said to be "born" from the unhappy souls of young women who had committed suicide by drowning—usually after being mistreated by a man. The Russian "mermaid" is, for this reason, a dangerous creature more akin to the Greek sirens than to the American archetype such as Walt Disney Animation Studios' cute and lovable Ariel.
The Apple Feast of the Saviour or Apple Spas is an Eastern Slavic folk name for the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is observed in August.
Folklore of Russia is folklore of Russians and other ethnic groups of Russia.
In Slavic mythology, bolotnik, balotnik, bolotyanik or błotnik is a male swamp spirit. There are many descriptions of bolotnik. Usually he was portrayed as a man or an old man who has big, frog-like eyes, a green beard and long hair. His body is covered with dirt, algae and fish scales. The legends from the Vitebsk Governorate of Russia said that bolotnik is a dirty, fat, eyeless creature that motionlessly sits at the bottom of the swamp. In some accounts bolotnik is also said to have long arms and a tail. Just like the majority of Slavic water spirits, he would lure and drag people into the water if they get close to the edge. It is believed that bolotnik has neither wife nor children; in the other legends he is married to bolotnitsa, a female swamp spirit.
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 Boginki, Navki, Rusalki, and Vily.
Moryana is a female sea spirit in Slavic folklore, possibly a goddess. Moryana was a sea vodyanitsa and daughter of the Morskoy Tsar, and also, according to some beliefs, she ruled the winds. Sometimes the moryany/moryanki were said to be numerous spirits of the sea and a marine kind of rusalki, which posed a great threat to ships, but usually Moryana was represented as a single entity.
Povitrulya is a national Ukrainian mythological positive character.
