The Maiden in the Water: Russia's Rusalka

In old legends from Russia and Ukraine, there is a female water spirit in the rivers called a Rusalka.

Most of them are young girls who drowned themselves after being abandoned by their lovers, or were drowned or killed before marriage, their souls unable to rest after death, turning into water spirits. In some places, unmarried mothers who gave birth by the water and drowned their children also become them.

They wear long green hair, often sitting on the bank, or hanging from willows and birches by the river, combing their hair while singing. Their hair is wet; once it dries, they will die, so they never stray far from the water. Their songs are beautiful, luring passing men into the water, letting them sink, or tickling them until they laugh themselves to death.

In the Russian rural folk calendar, the week after Pentecost is called "Rusalka Week," said to be when the Rusalki come out of the water, onto the shore, swing on trees, and spin in the fields. During this week, one cannot swim in the river, wash clothes, or go to the riverside alone at night. In some villages, at the end of Monday, they send them away: bringing straw dolls to the riverside, throwing them into the water, or burning them.

A similar water spirit in Ukraine is called a Mavka. In the nineteenth century, Pushkin wrote a poem called "The Rusalka," and Czech composer Dvořák wrote an opera called "Rusalka," using this image.

Modern Russians, of course, don't really believe it anymore, but every summer, when people drown in the river every year, this term is still brought out as a warning.

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