Have you ever heard writers say something strange like, “My characters have minds of their own”? They go on to complain that although they want their characters to do one thing, they turn around and do something else! You may think this is a special form of author-madness. How, after all, can a fictional character that only exists in an author’s head actually do anything?
Well, all I can say is that you should try writing a story for a while and see what happens. There really is something rather strange about characters doing unexpected things, as though they have a mind of their own. A similar thing happens with settings and themes for me. I’ll writing a book, for example, that I thought was all about the ethics of killing one innocent for the sake of many.
Except it turned out to be a book about the power of the idea of family as a force that can (almost) literally move mountains.
What does all that have to do with water spirits?
A lot, as it turns out. In Slavic mythology, most mermaid or water spirits are drowned young women. Most such cases, at least in the fairy tales, have to do with the power of something like “anti-family.” Unwanted pregnancies outside wedlock, for example. Rape. Adultery. Some young women caught up in these situations, left with no recourse, commit suicide. They become mermaids in the tales.
Combine that with the fact that the setting for The Forge of the Covenant is basically the Russian version of Atlantis (on a smaller scale), and suddenly I have a story that I never expected to write in the first place. It’s also one of the reasons why it’s taken so long to write, but I digress…
Since the story went off in its own direction, I had to do some extra research into mythological creatures associated with water, such as mermaids. Plus all this fits in my blog series about the mythology of water (part 1 and part 2 of this series is here).
Mermaids
The name “rusalka” (Russian mermaid) appeared in Slavic mythology pretty late, probably from the West. From the beginning, they were believed to be the souls of drowned young women. Most of the time, Russian mermaids were represented as physically beautiful, with long, greenish hair. Some of them had fish-like characteristics as well.
They can transform (shape-shifting is a common feature of dark powers) into squirrels, fish, rats, frogs, and birds. If they meet a man, they may sometimes be inclined to tickle him. (Just so you know that the tickling scene in book 1 of my Raven Son series wasn’t just me being childish). But before they tickle him (sometimes to death), they often put him through a kind of ordeal. Sometimes the ordeal involves guessing riddles.
Not all mermaids were beautiful, however. In some West Slavic traditions, there is an ugly mermaid. She is old, hump-backed, cross-eyed, dirty, dressed in rags. In some versions, she has metal breasts, in others, her old withered breasts are so long she has to throw them over her shoulder. She is definitely the most dangerous kind of mermaid. She’s the sort of creature you frighten children with at night.
Water Spirits
These were called “Shilikuny,” and they shared both earthy and watery characteristics. These were spirits of a definite demonic character. Interestingly (this is a point that keeps showing up in Russian mythology), they were associated with both water and fire. Short in stature, their primary place of residence was in cracks in the ice of rivers and lakes. They were said to have cone-shaped heads and horses’ hooves, and they often breathed fire.
They were also not limited to the water, like most mermaids. Travelers could encounter them on crossroads and in the depths of the forest.
Oddly enough, in some areas of Russia, these spirits were considered good spirits. Some young women left their spinning wheels outside at night, hoping to get all their yarn spun by the morning.
Vila
These are similar in some ways to Russian mermaids. The vila exist in the mythologies of nearly all Slavic groups, not just Russians. They were especially beautiful, they lived in water and in forests near the water. Even in ancient times, these were a sort of water nymph with some bird-like qualities. Their bodies, which looked very young, were dressed in white but were almost transparent. They could flash like lightning and had long hair unbraided over their back and chest.
More frighteningly, they often had either horse hooves or goat-hooves (indicative of their evil nature). But they tried to hide them with their flowing white clothes. Vila were supposed to be born of a union of dew with grass (interesting, considering dew was also considered a form of magical water). They also have shape-shifting abilities, something that I include in their brief appearance in The Heart of the World .
They also have beautiful voices and their song is a kind of anti-Sirin song. In this sense, they’re closer to the Classical Sirens than the Sirin. If a man is seduced by them, he loses all joy in life and eventually dies. However, if they are the interested parties, they can be extremely useful. They teach all kinds of practical knowledge.
You definitely get that vibe from the vila in Harry Potter, who are all from Bulgaria, by the way. Slavic mythology FTW!
And… Pharaohs?
This is the strangest of the lot. After Christianity had taken root, a new and very odd form of water spirit appeared in the popular imagination. These were called Pharaohs. They had nothing to do with Egypt, other than the fact that they probably appeared after Russians first heard the biblical telling of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
Basically, someone probably asked the question: what happened to the Pharaoh’s armies who were drowned in the Red Sea? For lack of a better (or more imaginative) answer, the folk imagination took over. They were half-human, half-fish creatures that could also appear on land in the forms of cats and bears. They were, naturally enough, nearly always dangerous.
Some of what I learned here, in particular about vila, is proving very useful for The Forge of the Covenant, book 4 of my Raven Son series, now available here.
Did you know that I created an exclusive audio miniseries on the power of stories? Give it a listen!