Little demons and a steel-clawed “scientist’s cat”: 8 Slavic myths and legends that will surprise you

As it turned out, Slavic mythology is rich in stories that can form the basis of good horror films. What is the value of Cat Bayun, known to everyone by Ruslan and Lyudmila, who actually turned out to be an iron-clawed cannibal – we would appreciate such a remake of the classics with pleasure. We tell these and other incredible stories from the pages of myths and legends!

cat Baiyun

“The oak is green by the sea; gold chain on oak; Day and night the cat is a scientist. Everything revolves in a circle”, remember these lines from Pushkin’s work “Ruslan and Lyudmila”? In fact, the cat that Alexander Sergeevich wrote about is the Bayun cat, famous in Russian folklore, distinguished by its huge size, magical voice and … eating people. He speaks, as Slavic myths say, and puts travelers to sleep with his chatter, and kills those who do not have the strength to resist magic with iron claws. Only he who can catch the cat will find salvation from all diseases and ailments – Bayun’s tales are healing. Agree, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” immediately played with other colors?

mermaids

If after watching one of every three girls dreams of becoming Ariel from the Disney cartoon, the same cannot be said for mermaids from Slavic mythology. The fact is that in Russian legends mermaids were described as dangerous creatures that could tickle a person to death or drown him in water. They also say that they dragged the victims into the water and made numerous abuses on it, and if the unfortunate man suddenly managed to escape, then he would be tortured in night dreams. But legends say that mermaids were so beautiful that in the Middle Ages, ugly girls allegedly drowned themselves to incarnate in river beauties.

Igosh

East Slavic mythology, of course, is rich in truly scary characters. For example, Igosh was called a minor demon – the spirit of an unbaptized child who was stillborn or died before the age of two. He has no name, soul, gender, and appears to be an “armless and legless freak” who often attacks pregnant women, where they can get sick or even die. By the way, the image of Igosha is used even in modern culture – for example, she appears in the game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, where she has almost complete immunity and attack speed.

boginka

“A woman gave birth to three children and strangled them and buried them under the porch. At one point she came out, stopped, and the three snakes started rubbing her and sucking milk. He went crazy and settled on the edge of the village. It was terrible, it hunched over. She stole the children, it was necessary to hide them so that the goddess did not kill or change the child. The ancestors of the Western Slavs imagined the goddesses in the form of naked, ugly, lame old women (limp, by the way, is an indispensable attribute of evil spirits). They can transform into animals, appear as a vague shadow, or remain completely invisible. The goddesses became sinful maidens who poisoned the fetus or killed their illegitimate children, as well as those who died in childbirth, perjury, suicides. According to legend, they live in the most desolate and disturbed places – in valleys, forests, near ponds and swamps. Some goddesses disturb children at night, torment them with terrible dreams, send damage. The goddess acts like this because she has become an unclean spirit, as she was during her lifetime.

viy

One of the coolest in the Slavic Pantheon, with the ability to kill with a glance. It is believed that the legends about the evil eye came from the legends about the Wie. They say that from a bad glance everything is destroyed and spoiled. Yes, in Russian folk tales this talent passed to the one-eyed Lihu, but the legends about Viy are so deeply rooted in Russian traditions that they remember him to this day. The expressions “the devil is deceived” and “a kind of devilishness” are also from Viy.

Anonymous

Nameless – a ghostly twin of a person or a ghost that can appear before death. He looks like a man in everything but has no looks of his own and looks like whoever he wants to be. To see this is to cause trouble. There are cases when Empress Anna Ioannovna and Catherine the Great saw their couple, foreshadowing their imminent death. In conspiracies, meanwhile, sorcerers seek anonymous help, wanting to harm someone.

double hearted

The Double Spirit, as the name suggests, has two spirits: human and demonic. Moreover, during the day you cannot distinguish him from another person, but at night the evil spirit lurks somewhere in the guise of dogs, rabbits, horses and other animals, and if you try to detain or unintentionally capture him, the hypocrite can set off a terrible, irresistible wind and kill him.

Kidnapping Day

If you think that Slavic holidays are only about the worship of nature, saints and good forces, then you are wrong. And Abduction Day, which is still celebrated on January 12 every year, is a clear proof of this. Yes, the gods of the pantheon were not always distinguished by high moral values, and the roots of this holiday, for example, go back to the legend of the fertility goddess Diva Dodola. According to the legends, she chose Perun as her husband, but Veles, who fell in love with her, planned an insidious kidnapping and deceived her with the help of an enchanted flower of the valley. And – boom! The gods have a son. By the way, a similar scenario arose between Koshchei and Dazhdbog – he was the first to kidnap his wife Marena from his rival, who gave birth to the Snow Queen from Koshchei.