#slavic folklore

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Snake. Victoria Denisova, 2024

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In Bohemia is known the Melusine (bóža łošć in Lusatia) is a woman dressed in white, with long, loose hair. She is known for her lamentations in the wind, in bushes, or on fresh graves, and is considered the mother or patroness of the wind.

The legends about the Melusine originated primarily in France. In Germany, she was known as Gottesklage.

Her crying is mostly a sign of misfortune, death, and natural disasters, but it also has a moral aspect: it warns against sin and mourns the fall of young women. Therefore, sacrifices were made to appease her: flour or salt was placed on the windowsill, and nuts and apples were placed on the chimney. Those who hear her crying on Christmas Day will be blessed with good fortune.

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[yurodivus]

Continuing my humanization of slavic creatures.

Sirin, Gamayun and Alkonost.

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The Russians imagined the wind as an old man with a chained mouth, who breathed only through his teeth. If he opened his mouth, it would lead to the end of the world. Next to him, his sisters, the storm, the blizzard, and the snowstorm, bathed in their power to do both good and evil, and especially their mighty brother, the whirlwind.

According to the Bulgarians, the wind takes the form of a white horse, while the Slovenians tell stories about people in long cloaks who create the wind by flying through the sky.

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In Croatian, Serbian, and Bulgarian folklore, there is no image of a water spirit. On the Dalmatian coast, only sea people (morski ljudi), half-fish and half-human, were known. Those who encountered them were lucky for the rest of their lives.

In Croatian folklore, the role of the water spirit was played by a witch who lived in the water. In Bulgaria, it was the elements that lured people into the depths of rivers and lakes, while the Serbs knew only water fairies, whose influence was more favorable to people.