Rusalka

rusalka

 plural rusalki

In Slavic folklore and mythology, a water nymph who embodies the soul of either a drowned virgin or a child that died unbaptized. Details of rusalkis' appearance and behaviour vary widely, but a common feature is that the nymphs attempt to entice men. In some areas, they are the subject of a festival in the early summer, when they are thought to emerge from the water and dance by night. In Antonín Dvorák's opera Rusalka, a rusalka attempts to marry a human prince but is reclaimed by her element.

---

Rusalka 

a mythological being among the eastern Slavic peoples, particularly the Ukrainians and southern Russians. The image of the rusalka combined features of fertility spirits (field rusalki) and water sprites (river rusalki), and notions of the “unclean” dead (drowned females in particular) and infants who died unbaptized.

REFERENCE

Zelenin, D. K. Ocherki russkoi mifologii, fasc. 1. Petrograd, 1916.