Crazy Creatures: Mavka

#mythology #slavic #mavka #didyouknow #funfacts #spirit #ghost #halloween #russia

[madhattergodess]

So if someone has supper long hair I should be suspicious. This is my world traveling guide to avoid getting killed by mythical creatures.

[Arijit_Das_]

If Mythological creatures actually existed in real life, imagine the tons of things people would have to carry to ward them off.

[swehumorofficial]

In Sweden, we have a creature known as the Skogsrå, which similarly takes the form of a beautiful woman with a hollow back which she most often conceals. And instead of flesh and bone, her insides have the appearance of a hollowed tree.
She is one of the most powerful and (in pre-Christian times) revered entities in our mythology, a guardian spirit of the forest and all the animals in it who has even been considered something of a local deity for the Norse tribes that settled in the woodlands. Her name literally translates to "Forest-Ruler".

[yevki]

As someone who has had bad experiences with being tickled against my will, being tickled to death is probably one of the worst ways to die that I’ve heard of.

[FreddieHg]

-"Wonder what would happen if you tickle this thing back?.."

-Oh boy…

[AltairTheGamer]

More slavic mythology! It's really interesting.

[satsebeli]

They actually don't tickle you to death. It's a common misconception. It's just that in Ukrainian (mavkas come from Ukraine) "to tickle" and "to kill you magically" is the same fucking word. I don't know why though :/

[ghostx]

My mom told me a story of how her dad encountered something like this, he was driving home on his bike during the middle of the night and all the sudden he saw a long haired beautiful woman on the side of the road. And he got closer he noticed she had a hole in her chest and all the sudden she disappeared. After that he noticed he ended up in the middle of a graveyard. He think it might've been a Sundel Belong, the Indonesian counterpart of the Mavka.

[Myron_The_Wolf]

As someone who comes from a long line of East Slavs, I have a few notes. The Mavka is actually the Ukrainian version of the Slavic water spirit, not the Russian version. The Russian version is called the Rusalka. Rusalki are the spirits of women who drowned themselves due being unhappy in their marriage or having unreturned love for someone. I'm not sure if they have skin on their backsides or not, but they do comb their hair very long. What's interesting is that they usually carry their own combs made of fish bones. They are seen naked or poorly dressed, have pale skin and green hair, and usually dance by rivers and lakes. Rusalki are particularly dangerous during a week in June called Rusalka week or Green week (referencing their long green hair), where they extend their malicious playfulness to the forests in the form of birch and various woodland creatures. Their goal: to avenge themselves by drowning those who get too close to the water. Even Perun, the chief God of Thunder, his enemy Veles, God of trickery and the underworld, and Svarog, God of blacksmithing and Perun's father, couldn't simply ignore the Rusalki. Not all Rusalki are evil incarnate however, similarly to Mavka. There are stories of Rusalki protecting children from wild animals and leading them out of the forest. The creatures could only be controlled by Kupalnista, the goddess of night. She is in control of their connection to the human world... Except when it's time to look for her lover Simargl, the god of fire and Svarog's other son. That's when the Rusalka are free to cross into our world from the waters of the spirit world.

[shellknight]

Mavka: "Do you have a comb, I can borrow?"
Me: no
**Mavka starts aggressively tickling me, so I Tickle back in retaliation!?!**
Mavka: "Wait this isn't a part of the plan!?"
... ... ...
*"We are married now."*

[karolinakuc]

In Slavic myths behaviour of lots creature depends on how you approach them so even scary and wild Baba Jaga can give give one a helpful magic item and teach useful stuff provided they treat her with respect and love

[rcdlylu]

Ukrainian here, and I have some remarks. Interestingly enough, it is implied mavkas also are supposed to have eyes that are constantly changing colours. How do we know? In one of the most famous literature pieces on the subject, a poetic play "The Forest song" by Lesya Ukrainka, one of the main characters, Lukash, amused by Mavka's beauty, spends, like, a big chunk of text trying to figure out her eye colour, quote:

"Why shouldn’t I? But see, you’re just the same

As any girl… no… like a lady fair!

Your hands are white, your figure’s straight and slim,

Your clothes, somehow, are not the same as ours…

Why is it that your eyes aren’t always green?

(He looks at her closely.)

Ah, now, they’re green again… a moment since

They were as blue as heaven… now they’re grey

As thunder clouds… no, now they’re almost black,

Or maybe brown… Why, you are wonderful!"

If this whole eye changing shenanigans are simply changes made by Lesya herself or a thing that was present in the myth - hard to tell. Cause certain changes were made to the appearance of Mavka, nowhere in the text does it mentions the hole in her back, but overall, the play is HEAVILY based on Ukrainian folklore and mostly the portrayal of mythological creatures was faithful enough.
Also-also, fun fact - mavka is mentioned in another Ukrainian literary work, "Shadows of forgotten ancestors" by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. Main character, Ivan, sees mavka after losing the love of his life, Marichka, being forced into a pragmatic marriage, finding out his wife was cheating on him with a local molfar(aka Ukrainian wizard) and, allegedly, getting ill from being bewitched. Mavka appears before him as a ghost of Marichka, though Ivan is clearly aware, that it's not just a ghost, text explicitly mentions him being afraid of walking behind "Marichka" and never letting her take lead, for "otherwise he would see the bloody gap in her back, where, as things are with nyavkas, her heart, guts and other stuff could be seen." He KNOWS it's not his late lover, but, on the brink of mental collapse, lets mavka trick him anyways and plays along till the bitter end, when the spirit calls out to Ivan, making him pursue her down a steep mountain, and she finally claims his life. It has a great film adaptation, if anybody's interested.

[MisterIncog]

Fun fact: mavki are mermaids. Slavic mythology just have a different understanding of what a mermaid is… it’s complicated and involves weird translations of Andersen

[Myron_The_Wolf]

Please do more videos on Slavic mythology it's criminally underrepresented compared to every other mythology on this channel.

[alphamegazulu]

Reminds me of the Huldra or Hulder from Norse myths. Perhaps they both hail from a similar earlier mythological creature or tale

[ocarinagirlandthestories]

The thing about the back kind of reminds me of how skogsrået/skogsfrun/Huldran who in Swedish mythology is the ruler of the forest looks like a young woman from the front but her back is made of bark.
(Unless you’re in the northern parts of Sweden where she has a foxtail)

[j.jnerdamy]

I'm gonna be a Mavka for Halloween! I already have the hair

[zanplesec]

Finnaly someone talks about my people's mythology

[kaiju]

Ah yes, things to do on my mythological bucket list, have a tickle fight with a Mavka.

[Bowler-hat-girl]

I find this so weird, because there is an upcoming children's animated film about the Mavka.