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The Borda is a legendary creature that belongs to the culture of the Emilia-Romagna and other areas of the Po Valley in Italy. It is a sort of witch that appears, blindfolded and horrible, both at night and on foggy days and kills anyone who has the misfortune to meet her. It is a personification of the fear related to
swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
and
marshlands A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...
, and to ponds and canals, invoked by adults to scare children and keep them away from such potentially dangerous places.


Name

The Borda, known by this name especially in Modenese, is also known as ''Bourda'' in
Bolognese Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nati ...
, ''Bùrda'' in Ferrarese, ''Bûrda'' or ''Burdâna'' in Emilian. The masculine form takes the name of ''Bordón'' in Parma, ''Bordö'' or ''Bordoeu'' in Milan (meaning Ogre), ''Bordò'' in Bormiese (with a generally derogatory connotation). In Milanese, as well as in the dialects Cremasco and Bormiese, the word ''borda'' means fog. In Bergamasque the name has the meaning fog as well as that of paper mask.From the essay "La Borda" by Anselmo Calvetti published in the magazine La Ludla (number 1, Year XIV , pag.12), Magazine of the Association "Instituto Friedrich Schürr" for the enhancement of the dialectal heritage of Romagna, published by the Publishing Company Il Ponte Vecchio in January 2010 Some scholars of local folklore trace the etymology of the term Borda to the root "''bor-''" which can be traced back to
Borvo Borvo or Bormo (Gaulish: *''Borwō'', ''Bormō'') was an ancient Celtic god of healing springs worshipped in Gauls and Gallaecia., s.v. ''Borvo''. He was sometimes identified with the Graeco-Roman god Apollo, although his cult had preserved a high ...
, of
Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a ...
, who presided over thermal and spring waters, and would be found, in a vast area united by an ancient Celtic presence, in toponyms and terms related to the water element. Examples being: the river Bormida, Spa resorts such as
Bormio Bormio ( lmo, Bormi, rm, italic=yes, , german: Worms im Veltlintal) is a town and '' comune'' with a population of about 4,100 located in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy. The centre of the upper Valtellina ...
,
Bourbon-Lancy Bourbon-Lancy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a rural town on the river Loire with a walled medieval area on the dominant hill. It has an authentic medieval belfr ...
,
Bourbon-l'Archambault Bourbon-l'Archambault is a spa town and a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France. It is the place of origin of the House of Bourbon. Population Personalities In 1681, Louise Marie Anne de Bourbon, ...
, words in
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
such as and ''brume'' (meaning fog) or (slime).


Origin and diffusion of the myth

Italian




Emilian-Romagnol Emilian-Romagnol is a linguistic continuum part of the Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It is divided into two main varieties: Emilian and Romagnol. While first registered under a single code ...





English ''
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'' Some lullabies in Romagnol are dedicated to the Borda, which kills children who are not good and do not want to sleep by strangling them with a lasso or a rope. Some scholars point out that this peculiar way of killing can be traced back to the human sacrifices practiced in ancient Germanic cults and would be known by the discovery, in some Danish and British peat bogs, of bodies of people suffocated with a rope tied around their neck and then drowned, such as the
Tollund Man The Tollund Man (died 405–380 BC) is a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 5th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, near ...
. The legend of Borda is central to the novel ''Mal'aria'' by Eraldo Baldini, from which the ' TV miniseries was created.


See also

* Marabbecca *
Grindylow In English folklore, grindylow or grundylow is a creature in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.''The Nineteenth Century and After, Volume 68'' (1910). Leonard Scott Pub. Co. p. 556. The name is thought to be connected to Grendel, a name or t ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * {{cite book , last=Guerrini , first=Olindo , title=Alcuni canti popolari romagnoli , language=it , trans-title=Some folk songs from Romagna , publisher=Zanichelli , location=Bologna , date=1880 Italian legendary creatures Female legendary creatures Mythological aquatic creatures Water spirits