Forget the singing fantasy princess. In Slavic folklore, the original mermaid was the Rusalka, the restless spirit of a young woman who died tragically in or near the water, and who lured men to their deaths by drowning or, in many regional accounts, by tickling them to death while laughing. This episode traces the biography of the myth from its pre-Christian origins as a benevolent spring fertility spirit, as described by folklorist Vladimir Propp, to its nineteenth-century transformation into an unclean spirit tied to suicide, abandonment, and violent death.

The conversation examines the Rusalka's anatomy and hunting methods, from slippery skin to loose unbound hair as a symbol of a woman outside societal control, and how her habitat shifts from Ukrainian rivers to Belarusian forests and fields. It covers Rusalka Week in early June, the e ...