RUSALKI

A poetic image of girls who held round dances along the banks of rivers and lakes on summer evenings. It is known in the folklore of all the peoples of Europe. In regions bordering large rivers, stories about rusalkas were told in every riverside village. The Slavs considered rusalkas to be half demons and half dead people.

It was believed that young, beautiful girls who had drowned in a river, brides who had died before marrying, and infants who had died unbaptized became rusalkas. Since rusalkas were considered visitors from the world of the dead, people believed they were seeking a place for themselves on earth. This gave rise to stories about a person who, while in the forest, caught a rusalka and brought her home. She lived there for a whole year and escaped only in spring.

Rusalkas were believed to spend most of the year at the bottom of a river, or to appear on earth during the so-called Rusalka Week (the week after Trinity). At this time, the ancient Slavs celebrated a special festival, Rusalii: people held round dances on high ground, while costumed participants walked through the village singing songs of the rusalkas. The central event of the festival was the ritual burial or sending-off of a rusalka. The participants chose a rusalka, usually the most beautiful girl, and adorned her with numerous wreaths and garlands of greenery. The procession then passed through the village; toward evening, the participants led the rusalka beyond the village, most often to a riverbank.

As special songs were sung, the wreaths and garlands were removed from the rusalka and thrown into the water or onto a bonfire (if there was no river nearby). When the ritual was over, everyone scattered, and the rusalka tried to catch one of those who had accompanied her. If she caught someone, it was considered a bad omen, foretelling future illness or death.

It was believed that during Rusalka Week, rusalkas could be seen near rivers, in blooming fields, in groves, and, of course, at crossroads and in cemeteries. People said that during their dances, rusalkas performed a ritual connected with protecting the crops. They could also punish those who tried to work during the festival: trample sprouting ears of grain, bring a crop failure, downpours, storms, or drought.

An encounter with a rusalka could bring untold riches or end in misfortune. Girls and children were supposed to beware of rusalkas. Rusalkas might draw a child into their round dance and tickle the child to death. During Rusalka Week, girls and children were strictly forbidden to go out into the fields or meadows. If children died during this period, people said the rusalkas had taken them away.

Like other evil spirits, rusalkas appeared after sunset and fled at the crowing of the first roosters. People had a distinctive system of protective charms to guard against rusalkas. In particular, rusalkas were believed to dislike strongly scented plants: wormwood, horseradish, and garlic.

When going out into the fields after Trinity Day, one had to take a leaf or sprig of wormwood. A rusalka encountered along the way would ask: “What do you have in your hands?” On learning that it was wormwood, she would flee, crying: “Hide under the fence!” If a person had no protective charm in hand, the rusalkas might tickle them to death.

Rusalkas feature widely in the works of Romantic poets. In these works, however, the figure is usually that of a drowned girl, a beautiful water maiden. She lives at the bottom of a river in a crystal palace and, on summer evenings, comes ashore with her companions. They comb their hair and look for someone who might love them (A. S. Pushkin’s drama “The Rusalka”; A. S. Dargomyzhsky’s opera of the same name).

F. S. Kapitsa, Mysteries of the Slavic Gods.