Unclean dead in Slavic mythology

Unclean dead^[a] — according to Slavic beliefs, people who died an unnatural death did not find peace after death. It was thought that they returned to the world of the living and continued to exist on earth as mythical beings.^[1]

In Russian ethnography, the term «zalozhny dead» (Russian: заложные покойники) is also used, which was introduced into scholarly discourse in the early 20th century by the ethnographer Dmitry Zelenin, since the «unclean» dead had no single name common to all Slavic traditions.^[1]

It was believed that the soul of a so-called "unquiet" (Russian: неупокоенный, literally "non-calmed down") could not pass into the otherworld and therefore wandered the earth.^[2] According to Slavic folklore, such dead could turn into malevolent supernatural beings.

«Zalozhny» dead in russian ethnography

The term «zalozhny» dead was introduced into scholarly usage in the early 20th century by the ethnographer Dmitry Zelenin, who borrowed it from the Vyatka dialectal lexicon to designate an «unclean», «restless» corpse. He associated the origin of the word “zalozhny” with the specific burial practice itself: the body in the coffin was placed face down, and the grave was sealed with stones and branches (hence the term “zalozhny” — from the verb zakladyvat’, “to block up”). Those typically classified as zalozhny dead included people who had died a violent death, suicides, those who died from drunkenness, the drowned, unbaptized children, sorcerers, and witches.^[3]

Burial practices

Unlike «ordinary» dead, the so-called «parents» — i.e., the community's own), the «unclean» were not buried in the ground and not interred in cemeteries, but rather at road crossings, field boundaries, in forests, swamps, or ravines — that is, outside the churchyard enclosure, since it was believed that they were «cursed by their parents and the earth would not receive them».^[4]

Among the Eastern Slavs, such dead were commonly buried at roadsides, especially at crossroads,^[5] as well as along field boundaries. In ancient Rus’, there was a pre-Christian custom of collecting the ashes of the deceased after cremation into a vessel and leaving it on roadside posts.^[6]^[7]

Despite the Church's opposition to such practices (for example, Serapion of Vladimir condemned the pagan custom of digging up the bodies of drowned or hanged people during times of calamity, while Joseph of Volokolamsk established the practice of performing funeral rites for the «unclean» dead and founded the Bogoradny Monastery, where they were buried), these beliefs were so deeply rooted that eventually separate cemeteries (skudelnitsy — «paupers’ houses») appeared. These were simple plots fenced with planks or stakes.^[8]

Folk beliefs

In Simbirsk Governorate there existed a belief that during a drought «one must certainly find a drunkard whom the earth does not accept, therefore he must be dug out of the ground and thrown into a swamp so that rain may come».^[8] Similar accounts exist elsewhere, except in regions where drought never occurred.^[9]

Apart from drought, unquiet dead could also cause other harm. One legend, for instance, tells of Baturka, who was said to have been extremely greedy; to appease his insatiable hunger, passers-by had to leave an offering, otherwise he might bring illness upon them and their livestock.^[8] Numerous tales survive about «unclean» dead frightening both animals and people.^[9]

In Belarus, places of violent death were regarded as unclean, and passers-by would throw stones, branches, tufts of straw, or handfuls of earth onto such spots «lest the deceased pursue them for a long time».^[10] Beyond Belarus, the custom of throwing something onto the grave of an unquiet dead was also recorded in Vilna, Pskov, Olonets, Saratov, Volhynia, Chernigov, Poltava and Kharkov Governorates.^[11] In Kharkov Governorate, it was believed that the person casting something onto the grave was, in effect, participating in the burial and rendering the deceased proper funeral honors.^[10]

Mythological figures

Rusalka. Dmitry Zelenin equated restless dead with rusalkas.^[12] At the same time, Soviet ethnographer Sergey Tokarev argued that the image of the rusalka as a girl living in the water — or in the fields, or in the forest — emerged in the 18th century and combined elements of the water realm (water spirits such as vodyanitsy, bereginyas, etc.), the «unclean» dead, as well as beliefs associated with fertility spirits.^[3]
Upyr — a «restless» dead person, most often a sorcerer who died and returned as an undead being.
Mavka — a malevolent spirit related to rusalkas and the Carpatho-Ukrainian «forest maidens» or mountain female spirits. It was believed that mavkas were formed from stillborn children, unbaptized infants, or those who died during Green week.

Notes

^ Russian: нечистые покойники, мертвяки, нави, навь, romanized: nechistyye pokoyniki, mertvyaki, navi, nav’; Belarusian: наўцы, наўкі, romanized: naŭcy, naŭki; Ukrainian: мавки, нявки, romanized: mavky, niavky; Bulgarian: навье, навлянци, навои, навяци, romanized: navie, navlyantsi, navoi, navyatsi; Serbian: навjе, romanized: nawje; Slovene: navje, mavje; Polish: nawie.

References

^ ^a ^b Рokоjnik zalozhny / Yelena Levkievskaya [ru]] // Slavic antiquities: An Ethno-linguistic dictionary [ru] in 5 Volumes/ under the general editorship of Nikita Tolstoy [ru]; Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Moscow: International Relations (publisher) [ru], 2009. pp. 118-124. — ISBN 5-7133-0703-4, 978-5-7133-1312-8
^ Moszyński 1928, p. 169.
^ ^a ^b Tokarev 2005, p. 197.
^ Zelenin 1995, p. 50, 89, 90, 95, 256, 325.
^ Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles, I, p. 6.
^ Road / Yelena Levkievskaya [ru]] // Slavic antiquities: An Ethno-linguistic dictionary [ru] in 5 Volumes/ under the general editorship of Nikita Tolstoy [ru]; Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences — Moscow: International Relations (publisher) [ru], 1999. pp. 124-129. — ISBN 5-7133-0982-7
^ Sobolev 1913, p. 85.
^ ^a ^b ^c Zelenin 1995, p. 236.
^ ^a ^b Zelenin 1995, p. 236–237.
^ ^a ^b Zelenin 1995, p. 69.
^ Zelenin 1995, p. 63–64.
^ Zelenin 1995, pp. 59–60.