Journal of John Winchester (Supernatural)

August 18

Other water spirits I’ve read up on:

Vodyanoy. Russian male water spirit, sometimes said to

be a shape-shifter but more often appears as an old man, skin

freckled with scales, a green beard tangled with muck and

underwater plants. May live in whirlpools. In larger bodies

of water, often lives in sunken ships, served by the drowned

ghosts of the ships’ crews. Drowns people to serve him as

slaves, but also protects shermen who appease him by giving

him the rst sh of their catch. Likes butter and tobacco.

Also likes the rusalka, and often either marries one or

takes several as servants or concubines. Rusalki are spirits

of women who are murdered or die by suicide in water—

sometimes children who were drowned by their mothers. (See

Woman in White.) The adult versions sing to seduce passersby

or sailors, then draw them underwater to become their spirit lovers. Lore sometimes suggest vampiric qualities. Some rusalki

will vanish if their deaths are avenged. Can also be dispelled if

kept out of water long enough for her hair to dry completely. The child versions can be dispelled by baptism with holy water. Have heard of vodyanoy from hunters in Alaska. Never seen one. Shoshone legends

from Wyoming tell of Water Ghost Woman, who beguiles hunters and travelers with sexual attraction, also shoots them with spirit arrows.

The Germanic Nix combines attributes of vody rusalka. In human form, the Nix is usually male and handsome, and dangerous to unmarried women and unbaptized children.

Most active at summer and winter solstice (Christianized versions of the legend say Christmas Eve). Plays music to beguile

its target. Also an omen of drowning—similar to banshee—

can be heard screaming from the water, signaling that someone

is going to drown there. Like vodyanoy, the Nix likes tobacco,

and also vodka. Can be made to appear by dripping blood into

water, or by sacricing a black animal.

Once, in Pinckney, Michigan, I suckered a Nix by using

a Black Shuck as the sacrice. That was a show, a demon dog

tangling with a water spirit. The Shuck won, and I sent it back

to Hell for its trouble.

Sometimes the Nix appears as a horse called Bäckahästen, which, if ridden, will leap into the nearest body of water,

drowning the rider. Overlap here with Celtic/Scottish stories

of the kelpie and each uisge. Kelpies appear from the fog near rivers, and, if ridden, drown their riders. The each uisge can be

ridden safely as long as it can’t see or smell water. The minute

it does, it drags the rider in and devours him, leaving only the

liver.

This last detail I thought was just storyteller’s elaboration

until I tangled with an each uisge at the Quabbin Reservoir in

Massachusetts. That one took human form, too, and looked

like a handsome young man who always had weeds in his hair.

I was lucky to get out with my liver.

I used to like swimming, but that’s one more thing I lost to

the job. Water spirits don’t need much water, either. See British legends of Jenny Greenteeth or Peg-o’-the-Well. Egyptian

El Nadaha (“the caller”) lures children into canals to drown

them.

Also have heard from other hunters about a haunted old

racetrack in Goshen, NY. A horse and rider who drowned

right after the turn of the century come back and ride across

the lake, sometimes chasing or threatening people in the area.

Bäckahästen, sounds like? But I haven’t seen anywhere else

that a human could be transformed into one.