Kikimora
Also called Kikimara, Shishimora.
In Russian folklore, the Kikimora is a malevolent female household or swamp spirit, often described as the domovoi's wife or counterpart, whose presence in a home is read as a sign of coming misfortune.
At a glance
- Tradition
- Slavic folklore
- Region
- Marshes and Bogs (unspecified) (habitat)
- Trait family
- The False Guides
Near this figure
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Form
- Wife or husband counterpart with inverse power
why
Where the domovoi is generally gruff but paternal, the Kikimora is consistently the more malevolent or unsettling presence of the two
- Chicken legs
why
She is typically pictured as a small, disheveled old woman with a hunched back and unkempt hair, sometimes with chicken legs or other bird-like features, and in her swamp-dwelling form she is described as living among reeds and marsh grass, luring or misleading travelers.
Behaviour
- Tangles unfinished needlework
why
Her characteristic behaviors center on domestic disturbance rather than the guardianship the domovoi provides: she tangles or messes with unfinished spinning and weaving left out overnight, breaks dishes, disturbs sleeping children, and makes noises in the night, and in some tellings her presence or the sound of her at the spinning wheel was taken as an omen of death or misfortune in the household.
- Confuses travelers into losing their way
why
Her swamp-dwelling counterpart, sometimes distinguished as a separate "Kikimora Bolotnaya," is credited with leading travelers astray in the marshes, paralleling the leshy and other malevolent nature spirits of the same tradition.
Omens
- Domestic disturbance omen
why
Her characteristic behaviors center on domestic disturbance rather than the guardianship the domovoi provides: she tangles or messes with unfinished spinning and weaving left out overnight, breaks dishes, disturbs sleeping children, and makes noises in the night, and in some tellings her presence or the sound of her at the spinning wheel was taken as an omen of death or misfortune in the household.
Curses
- Death omen
why
in some tellings her presence or the sound of her at the spinning wheel was taken as an omen of death or misfortune in the household.
- Mischief pranks
why
she tangles or messes with unfinished spinning and weaving left out overnight, breaks dishes, disturbs sleeping children, and makes noises in the night
- Confuses travelers
why
in her swamp-dwelling form she is described as living among reeds and marsh grass, luring or misleading travelers.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.