Description
Kriksa (derived from rus. крик (krik) - scream) aka nochnitsa (derived from rus. ночь (noch') - night) — is an evil spirit in west-slavic mythology. It is believed that kriksa appears from a transformed soul of a witch, in case if she died childless. Apart from the image of long-armed woman in black, nochnitsa could turn into a bat, a worm or any kind of nocturnal birds. Their main trait is to crawl into a house at night and torture the children in various ways, which resulted in cries, insomnia and nightmares. To protect their children from nochnitsas, mothers avoided carrying a child out of the house after the sunset, washing diaper sheets in a water that stayed in a tub for a night and to rock an empty cradle.
Крикса (Ночница) — злой дух в западно-славянской мифологии. По поверьям, криксами после смерти становятся бездетные ведьмы. Помимо образа черной длиннорукой женщины ночницы так же могли принимать облик летучей мыши, червя, ночных птиц. Основное их занятие — ночью пробираться в дом и всячески мучить детей, от чего у тех появлялись не прекращаемый плач, бессонница, кошмары. В качестве защиты от ночниц матери старались никогда не выносить ребенка из дома после захода солнца, не стирать пеленки в простоявшей ночь воде и не качать пустую колыбель.
Comments: 19
redrubberducky22 [2019-03-20 02:38:57 +0000 UTC]
Creepy! Thanks for contributing to my nightmare library! Fascinating history and folklore. Keep em coming!
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mipochka [2016-03-15 19:52:11 +0000 UTC]
very frightening rendering! I love your art, I could get lost here like in a forest
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InkYami In reply to mipochka [2016-03-31 16:53:47 +0000 UTC]
Thanks a lot, glad to hear that the effort pays off XD
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InkYami In reply to HelevornArt [2015-11-10 06:53:53 +0000 UTC]
Thanks for your interest in them
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Leopold002 [2015-08-15 16:45:55 +0000 UTC]
Interesting! Can't help but wonder what was the basis in reality for this myth?
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InkYami In reply to Leopold002 [2015-08-23 15:31:46 +0000 UTC]
Thank you!
Attempts to find an explanation for the children's insomnia and non-stopping cries, perhaps. It is a common (and often unsolvable) problem, after all)
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DuszanB [2015-07-20 18:10:29 +0000 UTC]
This is interesting, in Serbia we have creatures called "babice" (grandmothers) that are similar to witches, they would also wore black clothes and came by night to torture newborns and their mothers.But also every serious illness have it's personified form, and it would always be female. Like Лихорадки among Russians. Most notable among Serbs is "Chuma" which is personified plague. It also is described as old woman that can shapeshift into various nocturnal animals.
Here I could argue that main reason for female form of these illnesses is that the death itself have female form in goddess Morana. And by analogies death would be domain of female in the same way as the birth is. Female would be the one witch brings person into this world, but also the one that carry away from it.
btw. I love your interpretation of creatures from Slavic myths, really beautiful illustrations.
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InkYami In reply to DuszanB [2015-08-04 12:36:31 +0000 UTC]
It is not uncommon when there are some creatures in mythology similar in appearance, habits or legends, especially in cultures so close as ours. Thank you for the information, most of it was very new for me)
It's hard not to agree with that, I just had to avoid some explanations to make the text simpler for those who are not familiar with slavic mythology and cosmology.
Thanks a lot, your words mean a lot to me)
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DuszanB In reply to InkYami [2015-08-13 16:11:30 +0000 UTC]
Thank you for creating this beautiful artwork and writing those nice informational descriptions.
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Morphicelus [2015-07-12 22:36:31 +0000 UTC]
Lovely work, as always.
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BrandonLoucksArt [2015-07-12 01:22:27 +0000 UTC]
Excellent work! I'm particularly struck by that beautiful moon!
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InkYami In reply to BrandonLoucksArt [2015-07-13 21:53:13 +0000 UTC]
Thanks! Glad I didn't spent time on it for no reason XD
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fuchskauz [2015-07-10 08:55:58 +0000 UTC]
uh, creepy. Thanks for your great work and Information
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InkYami In reply to fuchskauz [2015-07-13 21:54:02 +0000 UTC]
Glad it looks so) You are welcome!
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Huncwotek [2015-07-06 11:05:06 +0000 UTC]
I know so little about slavic mythology, that it makes me so ashamed :C But through your art I found Polish version of it- it's "nocnica"
Great info, and amazing graphics. She's indeed scary :0 I'm waiting for more!
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InkYami In reply to Huncwotek [2015-07-13 21:57:22 +0000 UTC]
Oh, guess I should change transcription then, thank you. Sometimes it is rather difficult for me to figure out how to spell slavic word in Latin script)
Many thanks!)
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