Kikimora

Kikimora is one of the most ambiguous characters in Slavic mythology. There are a variety of contradictory legends which speak of this creature but they all concur that Kikimora is an energetic creature free from a body but is able to affect the material world. In all legends, she is described as a ghost creature that can dissolve into the darkness. They usually come for children and people with low energy. Their attacks are attended by whip-lashes of uncontrolled fear.

Kikimora is a legendary creature, a female house spirit in Slavic (especially Eastern) mythology. Her role in the house is usually juxtaposed with that of the domovoy, whereas one of them is considered a "bad" spirit, and the other, a "good" one. When the kikimora inhabits a house, she lives behind the stove or in the cellar, and usually produces noises similar to those made by the mice in order to obtain food. Kikimory (in plural) were the first traditional explanation for sleep paralysis in the Russian folklore.

The word kikimora may have derived from Udmurt (Finn-Ugric) word kikka-murt (compare Finnish Kikke Mörkö), meaning scarecrow (literally bag-made person), although other etymological hypotheses also exist. The OED links mora with the mare of nightmare, moreover, inconclusive linguistic evidence suggests that the French word cauchemar might have also derived from the same root.


illustration by Ivan Bilibin (1934)