This story is, like all good stories, about the one who stood out from the crowd. This is about the rusalka who fell in love. The rusalki lured in men passing by their rivers in the forest and drowned them. But one day, it was not a man who passed by this rusalka’s river, but a woman. Taken by her beauty, the rusalka lured the woman to the river with her beautiful voice, but instead of drowning her, tied a cloth around her eyes so that she would not be scared away by the rusalka’s hideous face and slimy, scaley body. Under the rusalka’s spell, the woman was not alarmed and was still drawn to the rusalka. The rusalka took advantage of the blind trust, not to kill her, but to do something she’d never wanted to do with any of the men she’d seen. The rusalka took the woman by the hand and guided her into the river, beneath the surface, so they could live together forever as the spirits of the same river.
❦
Rusalka = Slavic water spirit
My folklore facts may not all be on point, but guess what- it’s just a story!
❦
Photo credit: @chadmichaelward_photographer