Evil kikimora. Swamp kikimora - Mythical creatures

KIKIMORA

There are brown kikimora, water kikimora and swamp kikimora.

Sometimes they say that Kikimora is a cheerful and playful ghost woman. And this is the true truth. For a ghost, she really is quite playful and cheerful.

LITERATURE. - Why would the kikimors in the swamp do this? Kikimoras are domestic creatures. They sit in dark, damp corners and play dirty tricks over little things. Either the yarn is mixed up, or the kneading bowl is knocked over. And the swamp... What should they do there? Oh, Vysotsky... He lied, but people believe him. So then, in their heads, mermaids with fish tails begin to walk, or kikimoras run through the swamps. A. Prozorov, The Spell of the Ancestors (Vedun-3)

HABITAT: kikimores prefer human houses, choosing secluded places to live: behind the stove, under the threshold, in the attic, behind a chest, in the corner. Kikimoras are often taken as wives. And then - how it goes. Either he will raise her into a decent Housewife, or she will take over and put the whole house on its back.

Sometimes kikimoras appear before people's eyes, foreshadowing imminent misfortunes: if she cries, then trouble will soon happen, and if she spins, it means that soon one of the inhabitants of the house will die. The prediction can be clarified by asking the kikimora, then she will definitely answer, but only by knocking.

- Evil, swamp spirit. Close girlfriend . Lives in a swamp. He likes to dress up in furs made from mosses and weaves forest and swamp plants into his hair. Sometimes she creates confusion and seems very beautiful, but she rarely shows herself to people, because she prefers to be invisible and only screams from the swamp in a loud voice. Kikimora is a small woman who drags unwary travelers into the quagmire where she lives.

ABILITIES: Kikimoras have the ability to become invisible, can move quickly and see well at a great distance. Kikimores also see people’s fears, they always accurately determine what a person fears most, and send exactly this nightmare to sleep.

ENEMIES: Kikimor's enemies are domestic animals: cats and dogs. If they manage to fight back the kikimora once, then it will avoid these animals in every possible way, but if the kikimora manages to gain the upper hand, then it will continue to torment the living creatures.

From the life of swamp kikimoras, Hood.

During the day she likes to spend time at the Russian stove, and at night she goes out to play with the spinning wheel and spindles. She loves to take and move some household things from place to place. She especially likes to play with all sorts of women's trinkets and jewelry, so the mistress of the house can sometimes find her “missing” thing somewhere completely different. Sitting down in the right corner near the stove, Kikimora

often spins the owner's yarn, and sometimes she is even able to weave material and sew ports or a shirt for the owners. However, this is only possible in a good family that respects the laws of the Ancestors and honors the commandments of their Native Gods. Sometimes Kikimora can be married to a lonely Domovoi or Bannik, and sometimes even Vodyanoy or Leshy himself woos her. The water Kikimora leads the life of an ordinary Mermaid: she swims in races with pikes and rides on a catfish. Covered with lily flowers, A kikimora can lure a lonely fisherman, hunter or traveler into its arms. It is quite understandable that Christians are trying to discredit not only our Gods, but even our pagan Spirits. The priests want to present to us dirty, unwashed, covered with scabs and mold, ancient Slavic spirits who never forgive anyone or anything. An ancient Russian wisdom hangs in the air, capable of putting everything in its place: “Don’t spit in the well: you’ll need to drink the water.”

IN THE PICTURES. Kikimora is in the artist’s paintings

(66) Found on the Internet and edited for the site.

Everyone has probably heard the word “kikimora”, seen the swamp kikimora in pictures, and read fairy tales about it. What do authentic Slavic beliefs tell about Kikimora?

Domestic kikimora is a Russian and, to a lesser extent, Belarusian mythological character, mostly female, who lives in a person’s home and other buildings, spins at night and brings harm and trouble to households and people.

Kikimora is a spirit that doesn’t like people very much. The domestic kikimora annoys the residents of the house, spoils their things, interferes with their sleep, and scares them at night. There is a swamp Kikimora, the description of which differs from the domestic one. She also harms people - when she meets her, she can knock her off the road or scare a child walking in the forest.

Swamp and domestic kikimors become “hostage” dead people, dead or ruined small children, stillborns, and miscarriages. The domestic Kikimora could have been planted by builders in order to harm the owners who had not paid them, or by sorcerers as a form of damage. To do this, they placed a doll, a rag, or a picture in an inconspicuous place. To get rid of the evil Kikimora, it was advised to find such a lining at home.

My father was building a house, and the carpenters were angry about something. They placed a kikimora doll in the last row, under the beam. At night, let’s scream: the child roars, it’s almost heartbreaking. There was no way we could sleep in this house. The old men judged. I had to remove and expose the roof and this row of logs. We found a doll. It's so small, made from rags.

In the swamp, and sometimes at home, Kikimora could start on its own, for example, at a place where someone, especially a child, tragically died, a crime or suicide was committed. Kikimoras are often found in abandoned houses.

What does it look likeKikimoraswamp?

No one has yet taken a photo of the swamp Kikimora, but there are many folk descriptions of it. The swamp kikimora in pictures and in life, as they said, resembles a small, hunched old woman, covered with grass and moss, dressed in dirty, torn rags. Although swamp and domestic Kikimora is shown to people only in exceptional cases, usually foreshadowing misfortune, sometimes you can try to see it:

The owner waylaid Kikimora early in the morning and saw: a small woman in a shamshur sitting on a horse and riding around the manger.

However, if you believe the fairy tales about Kikimora, she is able to take on any form - a familiar person, an ordinary woman or man, a beautiful girl with flowing hair. The spirit of the swamp and the house was reincarnated into different animals.

The housewife went to get firewood, and there was a pig in the hut. She came - he was on the bench, on the table, everywhere. And then a dog began to loom in this house.

What could be the danger of meeting withTOIkimora in the swamp or at home?

What are the ways to protect yourself from Kikimora? At home, Kikimora ruins the life of all its inhabitants - he hides things so that no one will find them, knocks and makes noise at home, spoils and confuses the yarn. They said this is because the domestic Kikimora also wants to manage things, but doesn’t really know how.

Swamp Kikimora scares travelers with scary sounds. She lures hunters into the thicket by quacking like a duck, for example. They protected themselves from the swamp Kikimora with a talisman, as well as from the pranks of Leshy. Do not go into the forest or near the swamp at odd times.

It is more difficult to get rid of domestic Kikimora. Fairy tales and beliefs about Kikimora say that if your home is “scaring”: strange sounds are heard, things are spoiled, in a word, everything that we call “poltergeist” happens, you need to look for a doll or other thing unnoticed by ill-wishers, and get rid of it with a special ritual. They said that Kikimora could be caught, the hair on the back of her head cut into a cross, and she would turn into a human, but in some way inferior.

The swamp kikimora is afraid of amulets - “chicken gods” (stones with a through hole), they carried it with them, hung it at home; juniper, fern.

February 16 They performed a ritual of getting rid of kikimoras. It was believed that on this day they were especially peaceful. Sorcerers performed rituals against annoying household spirits.

Tales aboutKikimoraswamp

Swamp kikimora is a more popular character these days. They tell stories about her and draw pictures. It was said in such fairy tales that the swamp Kikimora kidnaps children in villages, replacing them with her own or even with logs.

In some fairy tales, Kikimora appears as a good-natured character, rocking children, trying to help the mistress of the house, which makes her similar to the brownie.

In some places it was believed that Kikimora was the wife of a brownie, or they compared her image with Domakha (a female brownie). The swamp kikimora, which can be seen in modern pictures, is often compared to a mermaid. She acts as a real spirit-embodiment of nature.

Homemade Kikimora and Swamp Kikimora are two different characters. If the domestic Kikimora is a more ancient character, fairy tales about her have been preserved since ancient times, then the swamp Kikimora is more of a heroine modern cartoons, stories.

Kikimora is a famous character Slavic mythology. To understand the world of Slavic beliefs, the worldview of our ancestors, it is useful to study the stories and myths that have been preserved about the spirits of nature, home, and all things. Plus, this activity is extremely fun!

Main characteristics of the creature

Kikimora is a character who can be both good and bad. Many contradictory legends do not clarify her image. Only in mid-19th V. researchers managed to structure scattered information about this creature.

Features of the name

Philologists consider the word “kikimora” as a compound word. It has two parts: “kick” and “mora”.

The “kick-” part has the following meanings:

is traced back to the ancient Balto-Slavic root “kik-/kyk-/kuk-”, which means hunchbackedness, twistedness;
derivative from the verb “kick” - scream, howl;
from the Proto-Indo-European word “kukan” - swamp spirit.

The second part of “mora” also has several meanings:

a derivative of the independent word “mora/mara”, denoting female demons;
cognate with the word “sea” - death or what brings it;
goes back to the Proto-Indo-European root “ma-” - wave your hands, nod your head, fool, deceive;
or which originally meant swamp and standing water.

You can find the word “kikimora” spelled as “shishimora”. This is the same spirit, but its name is derived from the Russian dialect:

shishit/shishit - to fuss around, to do something unnoticed;
shish, shishiga - the name of a small unclean swamp or forest force.

However, it is impossible to accurately determine its specific meaning due to the large number of options.

Classification

Like other evil spirits, it has several varieties. Depending on your place of residence, there are:

Forest shishimora. It lives mainly on forest edges, but can also look into people's houses.
Bolotnaya. The homeland of such creatures is swamps or any bodies of water with standing water. He leaves his shelter at night and walks freely wherever he wants.
Homemade. It settles in people's homes or in outbuildings.

Lesnaya

One of the varieties of kikimora is called forest due to its place of residence. According to legends, this is a small evil spirit that lives in the roots and large hollows of trees.

Like other kikimoras, the forest one loves to scare lost travelers at night. She creaks with branches, howls with terrible voices and sends troubles. However, if a person is kind and courteous to her, she will help him find the right path out of the forest and protect him from other evil spirits.

Some researchers of Slavic folklore find legends according to which the forest shishimora was considered the wife of the devil.

Bolotnaya

Swamp kikimora is the most terrible and evil representative of the shishimora. These spirits did not help, but only destroyed people. They frightened travelers with their screams and forced them off the path, and then dragged them into the quagmire.

She is considered a close friend of the goblin and the wife of a merman or swamp. She is the mother of forest creatures - foxes, small, gentle spirits who confuse paths and frighten travelers, but cannot cause much harm.

According to its name, it lives in swamps, but can settle in reed thickets, rivers and lakes. There are legends that mention shishimoras living in abandoned wells.

Swamp kikimora - the most dangerous variety

Home

A creature that lives in houses built in places with bad energy. This could be a site where a cemetery used to be located or where people died en masse.

The villagers believed that an improperly buried person, and especially a child, could return to the house in the form of a shishimora.

The domestic kikimora is a gentle spirit that sleeps during the day and plays pranks at night. These creatures love to do household chores, especially spinning and embroidery. However, they do it very poorly, and housewives have to redo everything for them.

They trade in petty dirty tricks, love to scare people and send them bad dreams. But if they get angry with one of the family members, they begin to cause serious problems: breaking furniture, breaking dishes, mocking domestic animals.

History of appearance

How the real swamp kikimora or the first of the genus appeared is unknown. Researchers believe that this was the child of one of the water goddesses, who drowned in a swamp or was kidnapped by evil spirits.

According to legends, only children who died under certain conditions or were associated with a dark force during their lifetime became kikimoras.

The following options exist:

children who commit suicide become kikimores;
unbaptized babies, stillborns or miscarriages, which their mothers disposed of by drowning them in a swamp;
children from the connection of earthly women with the fiery serpent;
babies kidnapped by dark forces;
children who were cursed by their parents before birth.

Appearance

What a kikimora looks like depends on its habitat. Some imagine her as an old woman, others see her as a beautiful maiden. There are legends where she is mentioned in the form of a chimera with a human body and a fish tail.

However, we can identify generalized concepts that occur more often when describing her appearance:

Small height, not exceeding 50 cm.
Long, unruly hair that stands on end. Usually black, sometimes with a greenish tint.
Thin, wrinkled body and disproportionately long limbs.
Knotty and crooked fingers.
Its paws are furry, which allows it to move quickly and silently.
Big eyes and a long nose.

Depending on where she lives, she may wear different clothes.

The forest one is dressed in tree bark and leaves. There may be a wreath of dried flowers or a mushroom cap on the head. She carries a box behind her back where she collects pine cones, poisonous mushrooms and berries. She likes to put them in people's baskets when they don't see it.

Homemade looks tidier. She wears a simple white or gray shirt and may tie a scarf on her head. If she is angry with her owners, she appears before them in the form of an old woman in a torn, dirty dress.

Legends describe differently what the swamp kikimora looks like. However, most sources claim that this creature is more terrible than its relatives. From a long stay in the water, the evil spirits become completely covered with mud and acquire a characteristic swamp smell. Her skin is green and covered big amount warts Moss and algae serve as her clothes. She often decorates her hair with fish bones and water flowers.

A domestic kikimora may look like an unkempt old woman

Capabilities

Shishimora of any type has a number of supernatural abilities. These include:

The ability to become invisible. In this form, kikimoras are carried out most time.
They move quickly. The human eye is not able to track the speed of their movement.
The ability to see people's fears.
They can create illusions and send nightmares.
They can transform into animals and birds.
They have excellent eyesight. They can see over long distances and through objects.
They have an extraordinary voice with which they can lure unwary people.

Fighting kikimora

Depending on the type of shishimora, people have developed several rituals to appease the raging creature or drive it away.

Forest and swamp

Sorcerers' or Volkhov's conspiracies helped to overcome the evil spirits that lived in the forest or swamp.

They also used many amulets that the swamp kikimora was afraid of:

The Chicken God is a stone with a hole in the center.
Canvas incense bags in which juniper or dried weeping grass were stored.
or ordinary wooden ones, previously soaked in fern decoction.
Travelers carried holy water and salt with them, with the help of which they fought off the naughty kikimora.
Bunches of dried wormwood, which they carried with them and laid out in secluded corners of the house, also served as amulets.

People believed that with the help of gifts they could call shishimora husbands - a goblin or a merman - and ask them to calm down their wives.

Homemade

Methods of dealing with the domestic species of kikimora differ depending on how it got into the house.

If she came on her own, this is a sign that not all is well in the family and household. To prevent it from bringing problems, it was necessary to sprinkle every corner of the house with holy water, throw away old and broken things, and maintain an atmosphere of spirituality and purity in the family.

If it was sent by sorcerers or envious people, then it is not easy to expel it. It is necessary to find the source of its power. Usually it was a small doll, which was buried near the threshold of the house or on the path leading to it. The doll had to be sprinkled with salt and burned over an open fire.

Natural enemies of an evil spirit

The enemies of kikimoras are domestic animals: cats, dogs and roosters. If they can rein in the raging creature, then the shishimora would admit defeat and behave quietly, or even leave the house altogether.

But if she gained the upper hand, then the livestock had to constantly endure her attacks. In this case, it was possible to rein her in only with a special ritual.

The rooster is the natural enemy of the kikimora

Prototypes in other cultures

In the mythology of other peoples there are references to creatures similar to kikimora.

The Swamp Girl is the sister of the mermaid who lives in the swamp. He has a beautiful appearance and a charming voice, thanks to which he lures people into the swamps.
Eleinoma - in the ancient Greek mythology of swamps.
Timi are creatures that live in forests or bodies of water. They look like people, but their appearance is disfigured by numerous wrinkles and warts.
Ochertyanyk is a swamp spirit in Ukrainian folklore that lures unwary travelers into a quagmire.
Loima is a swamp kikimora in Belarusian mythology, an insidious spirit of swamps only female.

Does Kikimora Bolotnaya exist? Of course, a lot of questions revolve around this old woman. Previously, it was believed that Kikimora appeared where a child was killed or drowned, thus the dead children became Kikimoras. Or children who were cursed by their parents. And in some sources, there is information that Kikimora Bolotnaya was the wife of a goblin and the mistress of the swamps.

Girls born from a fiery serpent also became kikimoras. He chose his victim and traveled through the air to her house in the form of a fireball. The fruit of this love was cursed. And if you believe the Slavic myths, even in the womb such a child was taken by evil spirits and raised at home. Therefore, can Kikimora be called an old woman?

Why was this creature called that?

Kikimora, Kukimora, or they could call it Shishmora. The word itself consists of several parts. The first kick means humpbacked, crooked. And the second part of the pestilence comes from the Slavic root “death”, from the famous goddess of death Mora. And she appeared where the child died. So it turns out that it only appeared in bad places.

Kikimora Bolotnaya takes on the image of a hunchbacked, crooked, unattractive, ugly woman, with small eyes, thin lips and a hooked nose. She is small in height, her body is no thicker than a straw, her head is the size of a thimble. There may be warts on the face and body. And the hair is long and tangled, with mud and marsh plants. When exposed to the sun's rays, it turns green. Runs quickly both in the sky and on the ground, becomes invisible, but sees over very long distances.

Where does Kikimora Bolotnaya live?

There is an opinion that during the day she is in the forest in the swamp, and at night she comes to the house. In the old days, Kikimora tinkered with yarn in the house, signed, jumped up with pleasure, thereby frightening the owners. After her, all the things in the house were scattered, she tangled the yarn, stained it, rattled and broke the dishes. Consequently, people could not live peacefully in such a house.

At night you can not only hear people signing, but also the cry of a child. Or he starts doing little dirty tricks. Doesn't let you sleep at night, scares you, ruins things, breaks dishes. Tortures livestock, tears out hair from domestic animals or residents of the house. It’s simply not possible to stay in the house at night.

But there is a belief that evil people could have deliberately placed Kikimora in the house. And then, everyone suffered from such a neighbor; animals seemed to be in the house, suites, noise and crying. This could lead to a sad end for the owner of the house.

And attempts to move from the house in which Kikimora lived are becoming unsuccessful. She and her owner will move to another house. Unless, of course, they find a doll or something resembling a person. Only burning this item will help get rid of it.

During the day, people rarely see her, unless, of course, she intends to intimidate and get lost in the forest. And if it happens that a person is drowning, then she definitely will not give him the opportunity to escape.

When winter ends and spring begins, the day of Maremyana the Righteous was celebrated, the day of Mary-Morena (Morana) is February 16 according to the old style or March 2 according to the new style. the day of the vernal equinox, and among the people the name day at Kikimora Bolotnaya. Morena is the goddess of death, winter and night.

From the stories of ancient legends you can learn that Morana, following her villains, tries every morning to steal the sun so that spring does not come. But every time it doesn’t work out and they move away from the power and beauty of the sun. And after Kikimora Bolotnaya leaves, spring always comes. That is why there is still a spring ritual of burning an effigy on Maslenitsa, which hurries up winter so that spring can come faster.

And on this day the old people cajoled the kikimora so that it would allow people to live in peace. They cleaned the house, washed the walls and floor, threw out old clothes and broken dishes. They swept all the paths in the yard to the nearest water, it could be a well or a pond. After cleaning, all rags and brooms were thrown away or burned.

Of course, there are many questions about whether it really exists. In the forest, she emits the cry of a child, laughter, the cry of a person, she is not visible, she does not appear on the eyes, but there is a feeling that you are being watched. In the forest, sounds can occur when methane escapes from the depths of the soil. But human crying is difficult to confuse with anything.

As usually happens, a person hears a child screaming or crying and runs to save him. He falls into a green trap that pulls him down, and the more he resists, the faster he goes into the depths. This is how Kikimora entertains herself, and only before the very end does she appear from the edges of the moss. Kikimora Bolotnaya is described as a scary, green woman with warts on her face, tangled long hair, with moss on his head. Her ominous laughter and terrible appearance frighten and deprive a person of his last strength.

In the forest, the swamp kikimora can still confuse and lead people astray. It forms glowing lights. They resemble the light from the windows at home. People follow the light of the lights, as if they were the light of a home, and go astray, falling into its trap. And they will never find their way out of the forest again.

When walking through the forest, be careful not to fall for the tricks of Kikimora Bolotnaya. She is an evil character in Slavic mythology, which is why harmful and nasty people have come to be called that in our time.