The Mavka of the Forest
In the forests of Ukraine, people say a beautiful girl in green laughs and sings among the trees. Seen from behind, she has no back.
What was reported
A mavka is a forest spirit of Ukrainian folklore: a young woman with long, loose hair, crowned with flowers, who lives in the woods and fields. She sings, laughs and dances, and can lure young men into the forest, where they lose their way, or tickle them until they can't breathe.
From behind she gives herself away: she has no back, and you can see straight into her, hollow like an old tree. In some traditions mavkas are the spirits of girls who died before they could be married.
Explanations offered
Mavkas are related to the rusalky of wider Slavic folklore. The poet Lesya Ukrainka made one the heroine of her 1911 play The Forest Song, set in the forests of Volyn, and the mavka has since become a gentler symbol of Ukrainian nature and culture.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Volyn, Ukraine
- Witnesses
- Ukrainian folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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