Today is the 205th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish master of fairy tales and author of my most favorite children’s story, The Little Mermaid. Among his other works, which have kindled the imagination of children all over the world, are Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Princes and the Pea, The Snow Queen, and The Wild Swans.
Andersen’s anniversary and the beginning of spring are a good occasion to tell you more about my favorite Bulgarian folk tale.
As a child, I thought that the two most enchanting mythological creatures of all were Andersen’s mermaids and the Bulgarian samodivi.
In the Slavic tradition, the samodivi are forest spirits that take the form of beautiful young women. They are forever young, with long fair hair, long white robes, and bewitching eyes that can sweep a man off their feet and even kill him. All samodivi are sisters. During nights in the spring, when the moon rises, they get together in open glades deep in the forests of Rila and Pirin mountain and dance the horo barefooted. Nothing is more beautiful than the song and dance of a samodiva.
The samodivi are in fact invisible. Only exceptional people can see them: those who were born on Christmas Eve or in the Saturday before the Bulgarian Orthodox Easter.
Nothing is more beautiful than a Bulgarian samodiva, or more dangerous
Sometimes a samodiva would kidnap a young shepherd and make him play his kaval (a wooden flute) while her sisters dance the horo. She might kill him, but if he does her a favor, she might also become “his sister”: become his protector and even give birth to his child. One of our greatest legendary heroes, Krali Marko (King Marko) was nursed by one samodiva and had another one as a sister-protector.
Thus the samodivi, like the mermaids, are beautiful but treacherous. They take merciless revenge on any man who wrongs them or on any woman they envy and send them a deadly disease.
A samodiva is in the human world from early spring (March 25th) to the late summer (August 29th). She spends the cold months in the secret village Zmeikovo together with the zmeiove (zmei – a Slavic dragon), rusalki (rusalka – a Slavic mermaid), and vili (vila or samovila – another Slavic female forest spirit).
Listen to Samodiva by Balkandji. Their music is “metal with folk motives.” The lyrics speak of a “wild” samodiva who goes out at night when the forest is dark and men start singing songs. She is beautiful but the look of her eyes is as poisonous as a snake.
Zikata's Blog 
3 comments
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May 28, 2010 at 3:24 am
Paulette Burks
Haha am I really the only reply to this great article.
February 19, 2011 at 10:01 am
eastpines
I was familiar with Hans Andersen’s tales as a child but have never come across the Samodiva before – it was really interesting reading about them. I think there must be vast amounts of folklore and legend from Eastern Europe that is unknown to those of us in Western Europe.
February 20, 2011 at 9:21 pm
zikata
I’m glad you found about something new that you liked!
The zmei (or the female version lamia) are other very famous Slavic mythological creatures: they are similar to dragons who live under public fountains and prevent the water from flowing to the village. They release the water only if they are fed with beautiful youths 🙂
Baba Yaga is the famous Slavic old witch who cooks children in her cauldron. Torbalan is another old and nasty fellow who steals kids in his big bag (like an evil Santa Claus ).
Keep looking up Slavic legends!