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Rusalka
In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melusine and the Germanic Nixie (water spirit), Nixie. Folklorists have proposed a variety of origins for the entity, including that they may originally stem from Slavic paganism, where they may have been seen as benevolent spirits. Rusalki appear in a variety of media in modern popular culture, particularly in Slavic language-speaking countries, where they frequently resemble the concept of the mermaid. In northern Russia, the rusalka was also known by various names such as the Vodyanoy#Vodyanitsa, vodyanitsa (or vodyanikha/vodyantikha; ; Literal meaning, lit. "she from the water" or "the water maiden"), kupalka (; "bather"), shutovka (; "joker", "jester" or "prankster") and loskotukha (or shchekotukha, shchekotunya; ; "tickler" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as storms, shipwrecks, and drownings (cf. ). In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and reported sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are in folklore generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by the sirens of Greek mythology, which w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vodyanoy
In Slavic mythology, ''vodyanoy'' ( rus, водяной, p=vədʲɪˈnoj; lit. ' efrom the water' or 'watery') is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, he is called ''vodník'' (or in Germanized form: ), and often referred to as ''Wassermann'' in German sources. In Ukrainian fairy tales, he is called “водяник“ (vodyanyk). He may appear to be a naked man with a pot belly (and bald-headed) wearing a hat and belt of reeds and rushes, conflicting with other accounts ascribing him green hair and a long green beard. The varying look has been attributed in commentary to his shape-shifting ability. When angered, the vodyanoy breaks dams, washes down water mills, and drowns people and animals. Consequently, fishermen, millers, and also bee-keepers make sacrifices to appease him. The vodyanoy would sometimes drag people down to his underwater dwelling to serve him as slaves. The ''vodník'' in Czechia or Slovakia were said to use colored ribbons (sometimes impe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melusine
Mélusine () or Melusine or Melusina is a figure of European folklore, a nixie (folklore), female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a Serpent symbolism, serpent or Fish in culture, fish from the waist down (much like a lamia or a mermaid). She is also sometimes illustrated with wings, two tails, or both. Her legends are especially connected with the northern and western areas of France, Luxembourg, and the Low Countries. The House of Luxembourg, Limburg-Luxemburg dynasty (which ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1308 to 1437 as well as Bohemia and Hungary), the Angevin kings of England, House of Anjou and their descendants the House of Plantagenet (kings of England), and the French House of Lusignan (kings of Cyprus from 1205–1472, and for shorter periods over Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Cilician Armenia and Jerusalem) are said in folk tales and medieval literature to be descended from Melusine. The story combines several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nixie (water Spirit)
The Nixie, Nixy, Nix, Näcken, Nicor, Nøkk, or Nøkken (; , ; ; Norwegian ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; or ) are humanoid, and often shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore. Under a variety of names, they are common to the stories of all Germanic peoples,The article ''Näcken''tome 20, p. 317 in (1914) although they are perhaps best known from Scandinavian folklore. The related English ''knucker'' was generally depicted as a worm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically. The German and his Scandinavian counterparts were male. The German was a female river mermaid. Similar creatures are known from other parts of Europe, such as the Melusine in France, the Xana in Asturias (Spain), and the Slavic water spirits (e.g., the Rusalka) in Slavic countries. Names and etymology The names are held to derive from Common Germanic or , derived from PIE ("to wash"). They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Navka
Nav ( Croatian, Czech, Slovak: ''Nav'', , , , , , '' Mavka'' or , ) is a phrase used to denote the souls of the dead in Slavic mythology. The singular form (''Nav'' or ''Nawia'') is also used as a name for an underworld, over which Veles exercises custody—it is often interpreted as another name for the underground variant of the '' Vyraj'' (heaven or paradise). Etymology The words ''nawia'', ''nav'' and its other variants are most likely derived from the Proto-Slavic , meaning "corpse", "deceased". Cognates in other Indo-European languages include Latvian ("death"), Lithuanian ("death"), Old Prussian ("body, flesh"), Old East Slavic () ("corpse, dead body") and Gothic (, "dead body, corpse").Razauskas, Dainius (2011). “Ryba – mifologičeskij Proobraz lodki" he Fish As a Mythological Prototype of the Boat In: '' Studia Mythologica Slavica'' 14 (October). Ljubljana, Slovenija, 296, 303. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v14i0.1614. As souls or spirits The ''nawie'', ''na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undead
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's own Energy (esotericism), life force or that of a supernatural being (such as a demon, or other evil spirit). The undead may be Incorporeality, incorporeal (ghosts) or Human body, corporeal (mummy (undead), mummies, vampires, skeleton (undead), skeletons, and zombies). The undead are featured in the belief systems of most cultures, and appear in many works of fantasy fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. The term is also occasionally used for real-life attempts to Resurrection#Technological resurrection, resurrect the dead with science and technology, from early experiments like Robert E. Cornish's to future sciences such as "chemical brain preservation" and "cryonics." While the term usually refers to corporeal entities, in some cases (for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iwan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoj 002
An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting from the facade of a building, usually decorated with calligraphy bands, glazed tilework, and geometric designs. Since the definition allows for some interpretation, the overall forms and characteristics can vary greatly in terms of scale, material, or decoration. Iwans are most commonly associated with Islamic architecture; however, the form is pre-Islamic Iranian in origin and was invented much earlier and fully developed in Mesopotamia around the third century CE, during the Parthian period. Etymology ''Iwan'' is a Persian word that was subsequently borrowed into other languages such as Arabic and Turkish. The New Persian form is ''eyvān'' and its etymology is unclear. A theory by scholars like Ernst Herzfeld and Walter Bruno Hen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unclean Spirit
In English translations of the Bible, unclean spirit is a common rendering of Greek ''pneuma akatharton'' (πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον; plural ''pneumata akatharta'' (πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα)), which in its single occurrence in the Septuagint translates Hebrew ' (). The Greek term appears 21 times in the New Testament in the context of demonic possession. It is also translated into English as spirit of impurity or more loosely as "evil spirit." The Latin equivalent is ''spiritus immundus''. The association of physical and spiritual cleanliness is, if not universal, widespread and continues into the 21st century: "To be virtuous is to be physically clean and free from the impurity that is sin," notes an article in ''Scientific American'' published 10 March 2009. Some scholarship seeks to differentiate between "unclean spirit" and "evil spirit" ('' pneuma ponêron'') or "demon" ('' daimonion''). The concept of ''pneuma'' In the Christian scriptures, the word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units. Biography Vladimir Propp was born on 29 April 1895 in Saint Petersburg to an assimilated Russian family of German descent. His parents, Yakov Philippovich Propp and Anna-Elizaveta Fridrikhovna Propp (née Beisel), were Volga German wealthy peasants from Saratov Governorate. He attended Saint Petersburg University (1913–1918), majoring in Russian and German philology.Propp, Vladimir. "Introduction." ''Theory and History of Folklore.'' Ed. Anatoly Liberman. University of Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. pg ix Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German. His ''Morphology of the Folktale'' was published in Russian in 1928. Although it represented a breakthrough in both folkloristics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pagan
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the Roman Empire, individuals fell into the pagan class either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population, or because they were not '' milites Christi'' (soldiers of Christ).J. J. O'Donnell (1977)''Paganus'': Evolution and Use, ''Classical Folia'', 31: 163–69. Alternative terms used in Christian texts were '' hellene'', '' gentile'', and '' heathen''. Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". During and after the Middle Ages, the term ''paganism'' was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a belief in f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explanatory Dictionary Of The Living Great Russian Language
The ''Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language'' (), commonly known as ''Dal's Explanatory Dictionary'' (), is a major explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. It contains about 220,000 words and 30,000 proverbs (3rd edition). It was collected, edited and published by academician Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (; 1801–1872), one of the most prominent Russian language lexicographers and folklore collectors of the 19th century. ''Dal's Explanatory Dictionary'' of the Great Russian language was the only substantial dictionary printed repeatedly (1935, 1955) in the Soviet Union in compliance with the old rules of spelling and alphabet, which were repealed in 1918. History and features The author shows his specific understanding of the Russian language on the cover, using the old spelling ''Толковый словарь живаго великорускаго языка'' (with single "s" in "Russian"). However, this is a unique ''spelling'' deviation from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
