Login
Login

Nocnitsa

{{short description|Nightmare folklore spirit}}

{{refimprove|date=August 2017}}

In Slavic mythology, notsnitsa ({{Langx|be|начніца|translit=načnica}},{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/162264332 |title=Belaruskaja mifalohija : ėncyklapedyčny sloŭnik. |date=2006 |publisher=Belarus· |isbn=985-01-0624-7 |edition=2. vyd., dapoŭn |location=Minsk |oclc=162264332}} {{Langx|pl|nocnica, płaczka}},{{Cite book |last=Podgórska |first=Barbara |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62151653 |title=Wielka księga demonów polskich : leksykon i antologia demonologii ludowej |date=2005 |publisher=Wydawn. KOS |others=Adam Podgórski |isbn=83-89375-40-0 |location=Katowice |oclc=62151653}}{{Cite book |last=Baranowski |first=Bohdan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1135421613 |title=W kręgu upiorów i wilkołaków !: demonologia słowiańska |date=2019 |publisher=Replika |others=Wydawnictwo Replika |isbn=978-83-66481-00-8 |edition=Wydanie I w tej edycji |location=Łódź |oclc=1135421613}}{{Cite book |last=Baranowski |first=Bohdan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1241634070 |title=Pożegnanie z diabłem i czarownicą |date=2020 |publisher=Replika |others=Wydawnictwo Replika |isbn=978-83-66481-16-9 |edition=Wydanie I w tej edycji |location=Poznań |oclc=1241634070}} {{Langx|bg|горска майка, ношно|translit=gorska majka, nošno}}, {{Langx|sr|шумска маjка, бабице, ноћнице|translit=šumska majka, babice, noćnice}},{{Cite book |last=Kulišić |first=Špiro |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40323818 |title=Srpski mitološki rečnik |date=1998 |publisher=Etnografski Institut SANU |others=Petar Ž. Petrović, Nikola Pantelić |isbn=86-7587-017-5 |edition=2., dop. izd |location=Beograd |oclc=40323818}} {{Langx|hr|mrake, vidine}}, {{Langx|sl|nočnine, mračnine }}, {{Langx|uk|нічниця|translit=nichnytsia}},{{Cite web |title=Dictionary of Ukrainian Language by Boris Hrinchenko |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12153747 |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=www.wikidata.org |language=en}} {{Langx|ru|ночница|translit=nochnitsa}}{{Cite book |last=Vinogradova |first=L. N. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51817673 |title=Narodnai︠a︡ demonologii︠a︡ i mifo-ritualʹnai︠a︡ tradit︠s︡ii︠a︡ slavi︠a︡n |last2=Виноградова |first2=Л. Н. |date=2000 |publisher=Izd-vo "Indrik" |isbn=5-85759-110-4 |location=Moskva |oclc=51817673}}), often referred in plural, is a nightmare spirit or demon that torments people and especially children at night. Other names for notsnitsa in East Slavic languages include kriksy, plaksy, plachky, plaksivicy, kriksy-varaksy, kriksy-plaksy, night hag, night maiden.

Folklore

{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2018}}

In Russian and Slovak folklore, notsnitsa are known to torment children at night, and a stone with a hole in the center is said to be a protection from nocnitsa. Mothers in some regions will place a knife in their children's cradles or draw a circle around the cradles with a knife for protection. This is possibly based on the belief that supernatural beings cannot touch iron.{{cite book| title=Encyclopedia of Legendary Creatures |author=Tom McGowen | publisher=Rand McNally| year=1981| pages=43| isbn=978-0528824029}}

Nocnitsa is known to sit on one's chest, drawing "life energy". Because of this, many refer to nocnitsa as a type of vampire. Nocnitsa will often continue visiting. According to some folklore, night hags visit when one sleeps on one's back, with the hands on the chest (a position allegedly called "sleeping with the dead"). According to some folklore, night hags are made of shadow. She might also have a horrible screeching voice.{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}} She might allegedly also smell of the moss and dirt from her forest of origin.{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}}

Nocnitsa is linked to the common apparition seen during the hypnagogic state of sleep.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In popular culture

  • A creature, considered by the characters to be a nocnitsa, is depicted in a 2017 horror movie Slumber.{{cite news|last1=Murray|first1=Noel|title=Routine thriller 'Slumber' boasts Maggie Q, but little else|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mini-slumber-review-20171130-story.html|access-date=28 February 2018|work=Los Angeles Times|date=30 November 2017}}
  • There is a nocnitsa in the supernatural novel Night Terror by John Passarella.
  • In the book Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, a Nocnitsa poses as Coraline's alternate dimension mother. Coraline, however, has a stone with a hole in it which protects her.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
  • It is often believed throughout the Middle East that this mythological creature came into people's homes at night, and would watch their children sleep if they did not behave.
  • In the Iron Druid Chronicles book Staked Protagonist, Granuaile MacTiernan alongside Slavic Thunder God Perun and the Orisha Shango are attacked by a group of Nocnitsa.

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Slavic mythology}}

Category:Slavic legendary creatures

Category:Female legendary creatures

Category:Sleep in mythology and folklore

{{Europe-myth-stub}}