skogsrå, the Foxy forest nymph

 

The northern forest's of Scandinavia are cold and dark, they are also home to many mysterious creatures Gnomes, Trolls, Giants, elves ect.

But there's another creatures that haunts these wood, as deadly as she is beautiful...

The skogsrå.

The skogsrå is a swedish version of the huldra.

,............

She most often  appears as a beautiful young woman with  a friendly attitude. 

From the front she looks like a normal woman but  from behind she usually has ether a fox or cow tail sicking out of her skirt/dress and a hollow back (but not always).

More often than not, the men that follow her into the forest are never seen again.

 In some folktales any man  that had sex with her and returned would be like a hollow shell of his former self as his soul remained with her.

 However if the  man is a hunter or someone that was kind to her, he may be rewarded with good luck in the hunt or fishing trip but should he ever be unfaithful to her, he will be struck with extreme bad luck and  accidents. In some cases the bad luck may end if the hunter fires a shot into the woods.

 Nyland, Finland Folklore says firing  silver bullets  can kill a skogsrå

In Norway, the word huldrefolk or huldre (plural)  comes from Old Norse huldr meaning ‘hidden’ it's used for all kinds of supernatural creatures. Hulder, or Huldra in the singular, signifies a female forest spirit, though she may also appear in mountains.

 These forest spirits act alone, instead of in.large group's or families like other supernatural beings, like the vittra. In northern Sweden, the name vittra refers to a group of supernatural beings that lives underground that have many traits in common with fairies from folklore of the British Isles, as well as with the ellefolk in Danish tradition or the huldrefolk /Hilda folk in Norwegian tradition.     

 Finland also has a version of the Huldra/ skogsrå, Some names in the Finnish language, mainly from the west coast, also show a link to the Swedish traditions, metsänpiika ‘forest girl’ or metsänneito ‘forest maid’ are the most often used names for the female forest spirit. However, there are also other localised names such as haapaneitsyt ‘aspen-maid’ or sinipiika ‘blue maid’.          

 

Her other Swedish names are  skogsrå, skogsrådan, skogsråa ‘forest ruler’, råan, rådande ‘the ruler,/the ruling spirit’, skogsjungfru ‘forest maiden’, skogsfru, skogssnuva ‘forest woman’, skogskäringen ‘the forest hag’, or with a nickname such as Grankotte–Maja ‘Spruce cone-Maja’, Talle-Maja ‘Pine tree-Maja’. She is also known by many different local variants like.. Gonna, Besta, Rånda, Skogela, Lanna-frökna ‘The lady of Lanna’ or Ysäters-Kajsa ‘Kajsa of Ysäter’. On the island of Gotland, there are records of a female troll called Torspjäska that plays the same role and has the same function as forest spirit on the mainland.      Germany has a legend of a long-haired beautiful fores spirits too,.  Called  Holzfräulein ‘the tree lady’, who was dressed in leaves, or as Moosweiblein ‘the moss woman’. 

If you're heading into the woods soon, be weary of any beautiful strangers that may approach you ...... 

 🖤💕Also Happy Valentines Day.💕🖤

Monsters, cryptids and yokai: The Rusalka..

                                           
 Rusalka by daekazu on deviantart https://www.deviantart.com/daekazu/art/Rusalka-187551820
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The Russian Mermaid ...
She is as dangerous as she is beautiful 

Rusalka or Pusalka is commonly described as  a water nymph^..

The Rusalka is a female spirit in Russian / Slavic folklore and their  equivalent of a mermaid. though she has two leg's insted of a finned tail and in some versions can walk on land and even climb tree's..


She has different names in various cultures: rusalka (in East Slavic cultures) vila (Czech, Slovak), wiła (Polish).

According to most accounts the rusalki were a type of fish-women, who lived at the bottom of rivers and lake's.

In some legends she would leave her watery home late at night together with other Rusalki she would walk out to the bank and dance in meadows. If they saw handsome men, they would  enchant them with songs and dancing, mesmerize them, then lead them away to the river and to their inevitable  death.

                               

                                               Art by Anna Vinogradova Kransndar 1975
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A Rusalka most often  appears as a beautiful young women, she will site by the shore of a lake usually coming her hair or sometimes singing this is done as a means to lure in her prey..

In some version's she is a type of water spirit in other's she is a young woman that was ether murdered by her lover of  who committed suicide by drowning due to an unhappy marriage or who were violently drowned against their will (especially after becoming pregnant with unwanted children), and now  must live out their time on Earth as rusalki.

However,in some  Slavic versions  not all rusalki encounters were linked with death from water It is accounted by most stories that the soul  of a young woman who had died in or near a river or a lake would come back to haunt that waterway.

Though this version of a  rusalka is not invariably malevolent or evil, and would be allowed to rest in peace if her death is avenged.
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In some versions she has green sea week like hair....

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Her main purpose is, however, to lure young men, seduced by either her looks or her voice, (Similar  to a Siren or a Succubus)  into the depths of the waterways where she would entangle their feet with her long hair and submerge them. Her body would instantly become very slippery and not allow the victim to cling on to her in order to reach the surface.

                                           

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She would then wait until the victim had drowned, or, on some occasions, tickle them to death, as she laughed. 



 It is also believed, by a few accounts, that rusalki can change their appearance to match the tastes of men they are about to seduce  although a rusalka is generally considered to represent universal beauty, therefore is highly feared yet respected in Slavic culture.

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                                                Ivan Kramskoi, The Mermaids, 1871
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In some of the older stories the Rusalka was a symbol of fertility and not consider evil in the old pagan beliefes



 They came out of the water in the spring to transfer life-giving moisture to the fields and thus helped nurture the crops.



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Celebrations: Rusalka Week..
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The Rusalki  are believed to be at their most dangerous during the Rusalka Week in early June. At this time, they were supposed to have left their watery depths in order to swing on branches of birch and willow trees by night. Swimming during this week was strictly forbidden, lest these  mermaids would drag a swimmer down to the river bed.
                                             

                                                    

                                                       Rusalka by Ivan Bilibin - 1934
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A common feature of the celebration of Rusalnaya was the ritual banishment or burial of the rusalki at the end of the week, which remained as entertainment in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine until the 1930s


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Other mediums ..
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 The Rusalka trilogy of novels by C. J. Cherryh feature and revolve around a rusalka named Eveshka.

 Rusalka is an opera by Alexander Dargomyzhsky. - 1856

"Rusalka" is a poem by Mikhail Lermontoy 1831.


Nikolai Medtner's Third Piano Concerto is based on Mikhail Lermontov's ballad.

A Rusalkas is the main character in "The Surface Breaks", a YA novel and retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" by Louise O'Neill.

 Rusalkas appear as monsters in the Action Role playing game The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.


 "The Last Wish " by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish novel from the Witcher series, in which Geralt briefly encounters a Rusalka that has fallen in love with a cursed man.

 "Fatima Rusalka", a single by alternative metal band Alesana  ..

There are many many other examples of Rusalka in modern media  bedside's the one's i mentioned here.. :)
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The Naiad; Water Nymph

                                                                      Naiad


The Greek word is Ναϊάς  Naiás, pronounced na͜a.i.ás, plural Ναϊάδες  Naiades,  (na͜a.i.ád.es) It derives from νάειν (náein), "to flow", or νᾶμα (nãma), "running water". "Naiad" has several English pronunciations.. ˈneɪæd neɪəd,  naɪæd, naɪəd.

In Greek mythology, the Naiads (Ancient Greek: Ναϊάδες) were a type of water nymph (female spirit) who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.  They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid.

Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the (Oceanids) were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily.

                                               It is considered a bad omen to capture a naiad

They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshiped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansing were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.

Naiads could also be dangerous,  Hylas of the Argo's crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty...

 The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies. Theocritus' story of naiad jealousy was that of a shepherd, Daphnis, who was the lover of Nomia or Echenais; Daphnis had on several occasions been unfaithful to Nomia and as revenge she permanently blinded him. Salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him.  The water nymph associated with particular springs was known all through Europe in places with no direct connection with Greece, surviving in the Celtic wells of northwest Europe that have been rededicated to Saints, and in the medieval Melusine.

Walter Burkert points out, "When in the Iliad  Zeus calls the gods into assembly on Mount Olympus, it is not only the well-known Olympians who come along, but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; Okeanos alone remains at his station  hearers recognized this impossibility as the poet's hyperbole, which proclaimed the universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: "the worship of these deities," Burkert confirms, "is limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality.


In another legend a mythic king is credited with marrying a naiad and founding a city: it was the newly arrived Hellenes justifying their presence. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves' readings, record the supplanting of ancient local cults by Olympian ones (Graves 1955, passim). Fountain of the Naiads, Piazza della Repubblica, Rome, Italy  So, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene.

 Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to consult them. His aunt Arethusa invited him below the water's surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice.   

St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street.       

                                              Gioacchino Pagliei The Naiads 1881




Types of Naiad
 
Crinaeae (fountains)   
Eleionomae (marshes)   
Limnades or Limnatides (lakes)   
Pegaeae (springs)   
Potameides (rivers) 

Diferent kinds of Nymph         
Alseid   
Auloniad   
Aurai   
Crinaeae   
Dryads   
Eleionomae   
Hamadryads   
Hesperides   
Limnades   
Lampads   
Meliae.   
Naiads   
Napaeae   
Nereids   
Oceanids   
Oreads   
Pegaeae   
Pegasides   
Pleiades   
Potamides  
  

Other Water Types  
   
Camenae   
The Lady of the Lake   
Melusine   
Mermaid   
Nix   
Ondine   
Rusalka   
Siren