#rusalky

[vyvilha]

rusalki are not mermaids. stop translating the word "rusalka" as "mermaid" and stop calling rusalki "slavic mermaids". it's confusing, it's misleading, and it's simply isn't true. the association of rusalka with a western mermaid and undine began in 19th century, when russian empire poets wanted to adapt a popular western motif of a sorrowful water maid that is unrequitedly in love with a mortal man. this literature character of rusalka has nothing to do with actual rusalki folklore and cult.

rusalki are natural undead spirits that are connected to slavic ancestral worship. they don't have tails. they are not in any way connected to the sea: only lakes, ponds, and rivers. often, they're not even connected to water at all: there are forest rusalki, field rusalki, meadow rusalki, etc. they are in close relationships with their human kin: during the spring and summer, they are used in agricultural rites and are believed to help with farming and raising crops. rusalki were sacred to slavic people. the "week of the rusalki" festival, when rusalki are believed to walk on earth and visit their relatives, is celebrated to this day. to call them "slavic mermaids" is very diminutive of their actual role in slavic cultures.

[lesoldatmort]

| MOKOSH |

The weaver of human's fate.

Mokoš (Mokosh, Mokuša) is another goddess connected to fertility but as a Mother figure - Goddess of earth and soil to which seeds are planted and from which they grow. Surrounded by rusalky and guardian of the seeds and harvest, Simargl, she is a powerful deity that watches over women and childbirth.

More (folk)lore, info and WIPs of this project on my P/treon.

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Konstantin Makovsky - Rusalky, 1879.

[i-like-to-look-at-your-back]

Some of my new Inktobers

[sofysta]

Rusalki Moscow ~ girls

[eyeofthenewt1]

My depiction of Rusalka for the Herbarium 5e supplement by Fez Inkwright.

I was so happy when Fez asked if I wanted to illustrate her for the kicksarter art stretch-goals.

(preorders are still open: https://herbarium.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders )

[thebloodgroove]

What’s a funerary practice to the damned?

His flesh finally mine, though not in the way I wanted.

What’s a prayer through the lips of the cursed?

I moved in human ways once. 

[letsgethaunted]

A Deep Dive into the Horrifying Rusalki of Slavic Folklore

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Welcome to Episode 173: A Deep Dive into the Horrifying Rusalki of Slavic Folklore! Today we will be diving headfirst into the algae-filled ponds and rushing green rivers of the Rusalki, learning about their wants, needs, desires, history, and even - about some modern day sightings of them. What’s a Rusalka, you ask? A Rusalka is the Slavic equivalent of a mermaid, but usually depicted without a tail. She is beautiful, alluring, and above all - dangerous. Join us as Aly walks Nat through the horrifying details that make this sea dwelling creature different from the Disney-fied sirens we’re used to.

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[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Hi! I'm trying to research slavic mythology, especially the afterlife, and I've come across a place called Prav but i haven't found much information on it as a whole, i was wondering if you had any information on it

Hello!

To the best of my knowledge the idea that the cosmos separates into Prav, Yav and Nav comes from The Book of Veles, a famous forgery pretending to describe pre-Christian Slavic history and religious customs.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Prav (or Yav) discussed more broadly outside of that context. However the word Nav/Navia does have real cultural background as a term used for to describe spirits of the dead.

Linguistic evidence implies that the early medieval Slavs may have shared a belief in some form of spirit or soul. In discussing these notions, various scholars point towards the word nav/nawie. This term is sometimes seen as being of pre-Slavic origin, and it is derived from Pre-Indo-European cultural heritage and refers to ‘death’ or ‘corpse’. It holds similar meaning in some of the contemporary Slavic languages, although in various (but not all) languages of the Slavs one may observe a shift in its meaning, whereby it refers to the sphere of demonology. For example, in eastern Polish dialects there are various names for rusałki, forest or water demons: mawki, mauki, nawki, miawki, mauki, mavky, niavky, majki. Another term for the spirits of the ancestors, which is also attributed an ancient origin, is lalka (lelka, łątka). It is noteworthy that after death the human soul went to the land of the dead, whose name is reconstructed as Nawia or Lala. (…) We know very little about the Slavic land of the dead. I have already mentioned that the words nav/nawie, known from textual accounts, referred to dead people or their ghosts and occasionally (in later times) malevolent spirits. The late medieval textual accounts from the Czech area confirm that Navia was the name of the land of the dead among the Western Slavs. ‘To go to Navia’ meant to die and ‘to prepare someone for Nav’, meant to kill

- Slavic Journeys to the Otherworld. Remarks on the Eschatology of Early Medieval Pomeranians by Kamil Kajkowski

A mention of navias can even be found in the Tale of Bygone years, where they serve as a personification of the plague that fell on the town of Polotsk in 1092.

Something very strange occurred in Polotsk, a hallucination: there was a noise during the night: demons were running through the street like people. If anyone came out of their house to look, they were immediately and invisibly wounded by the demons, and died of it, and they did not dare leave their houses. Then they began to appear during the day on horseback, and they themselves could not be seen, but only their horses’ hooves were visible. And this is how they wounded the people of Polotsk and of the region. And this is why the people said: “Navias (навие) are slaying the people of Polotsk”.

- Tale of Bygone Years as found in Sources of Slavic Pre-Christian Religion, red. Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa

Andrzej Szyjewski in Religia Słowian explores some more cases of navias appearing as malevolent spirits in Slavic folklore, citing bulgarian „twelve nawi”, evil spirits that suck the blood of lying-in women and bring diseases as well as broader Southern Slavic belief in navije/navje, bird-shaped spirits harassing women during pregnancy and in childbirth.

Overall, as you probably can guess I highly recommend reading „Slavic Journeys to the Otherworld. Remarks on the Eschatology of Early Medieval Pomeranians” and then continuing your search from there.

[dark-water-siren]

Rusalki by art-by-nemesis

[vyvilha]

"rusalki are by definition no man’s women in this perspective, they are stuck between the maiden-phase and bride-phase forever [...] washing, moistening, and combing of their hair might thus be a symbolic representation of the endless wedding preparation that will never occur"

"a narrative representation of the desperate desire to fulfill the role that was denied to them in a real life."

From "Rusalki: Anthropology of time, death and sexuality in Slavic folklore" by Jiří Dynda

[gayspacezombie]

Mythology aesthetic: Rusałka

It was believed that girls who drown themselves because of unhappy love become rusalki. According to some beliefs, a man could also become a rusalka: for example, in the Sosnytsia Raion of the Chernihiv Oblast is believed that people of any sex can be converted into these spirits if they died on Trinity week. Apparently, they retain their gender and become rusalki.

[corntort]

i keep going i Must draw a pony and then i forget

[i-like-to-look-at-your-back]

My OCs (♡-_-♡)

[alexanderpearce]

z rusały wymoczku będziesz tańczyć // a playlist for rusałki

zaczątek // volkman rusalka, rusalka / wild rushes // the decemberists dni błogie // dola rusalki // lumin lubelska kolęda // volkman chodź // księżyc wiszące skały // ifi ude, bart pałyga, marcin lamch ballada o głupim wiesławie // żywiołak kiedy deszcz zaczął padać na zawsze? // wędrowcy~tułacze~zbiegi obrona włości biełgorajskiej przed janem zamoyskim // królówczana smuga ile me lat? // księżyc

[bam-stroker]

FOLK MUSIC HELP

OK! My lovely folk music people! I am desperately trying to find folk songs about Rusalki, but the language barrier has left me blocked ToT

I've found an absolutely stellar album, from Kitka's The Rusalka Cycle - Songs Between the Worlds

I'm pretty darn close to just reaching out to them directly, but I'm wondering if any of y'all know of any folk songs about Rusalki????

It's really rare to get folk music about a monster like this and I am chomping at the bit to learn some and talk about them in my own folk music circles

Also if you know the english translations of the ones you know, I would thank you 1 million times to know what those songs are about 😭