The Rusalki

Hello readers!  Today we're taking a look at a creature out of Russian legend and folklore.  Though their first appearances were as relatively peaceful beings, in later centuries they evolved into haunting presences which lure men to their deaths.  Without further ado, let's dive into the tale of the rusalki!

A rusalka is a water spirit, usually associated with lakes and ponds, but occasionally with rivers and streams.  Rusalki are described as incredibly beautiful women.  Most accounts credit them with long hair, sometimes green.

Originally, rusalki were somewhat associated with fertility.  They were beneficial to nature and minded their own business.  They could be mischievous, luring men to the water and then tickling and sexually teasing them until the man was exhausted.  However, rusalki in the early legends were not deadly.

There's a few Russian folktales about a rusalka who fell in love with a human man.  He was so entranced by her beauty when he saw her bathing that he proposed to her on the spot.  She lived with him in mortal lands for a time, but missed the water greatly.  Her husband, noticing her sorrow, asked her what was wrong.  The rusalka explained everything, and begged him to return to the lake with her.  She took him under the surface, where they lived for long years in the kingdom of the rusalki.  Eventually, however, he began to long for the mortal world.  The man made the sign of the Cross - something pagan creatures in Russia were powerless against - and opened his eyes to find himself back in his village.

Later iterations of the rusalki completely changed the creatures.  Instead of being spirits of water, they became literal spirits of water - unquiet dead, haunting lakes.  These female ghosts are said to be the victims of violent drownings, or the souls of women who committed suicide.  The lore paints men as the reason behind their deaths; in the first case, it was a man who murdered them; in the second, it was because of a man that they killed themselves.

This gives a reason to the viciousness of the rusalki, who lure men to their watery graves.  Akin to a Greek siren, a rusalka will call out to men with an alluring voice.  Sometimes her whispers target a man, luring him to her with her knowledge of him.  In other stories, the rusalka calls out men's names, until at last she stumbles upon the name of a wanderer near her pond.  Upon hearing his name, he is drawn inexorably to the waiting rusalka.  The man is then lured into the water, where the rusalka tangles him in her hair and drowns him - or, in a perverse twist on the original stories, tickles him until his lungs give out.

I find the differences in these two iterations of the rusalki fascinating.  The first seems more reminiscent of a naiad or mermaid, a water maiden not dangerous, merely beautiful.  The stories of men descending to the underwater kingdom and living parts of their lives there echoes tales around the world.  One such is the Chinese story of the Dragon King's Daughter.  The idea of an inhuman woman being seen naked in a body of water, and taken for a man's bride, also appears across multiple cultures.  Selkies and kelpies, crane maidens, and buffalo women are some examples.

However, the second version of the rusalki also has parallels in other cultures.  The Latin American legend of La Llorona is one of the most famous, having been featured in the TV show Grimm.  There's also a more recent Egyptian legend called El Naddaha (which may or may not have originated on Creepy Pasta).  Both of these examples, along with many other creatures from all over the world, are females who died by drowning, and whose spirits lure and drown others.

It makes me wonder if the two different descriptions of the rusalki are actually describing two different creatures.  What do you guys think?

I'll be back next week with another post!  See you then.