In our world, which has been studied, it would seem, far and wide, inexplicable phenomena are still encountered. And, although the existence of paranormal phenomena has not been scientifically proven, many still believe in them. Perhaps because people are naturally curious, and ghosts are an amazing chance to at least look behind the veil of mystery of the otherworldly. Here is a selection of the most famous ghosts in the world.
1. The Ghost of the White Lady
The White Lady is a collective name for ghosts. As a rule, eyewitnesses describe long-haired women in a white dress, with dark sad eyes and a thin, pointed face. Sometimes they also talk about bloody hands and face, and Mikhail Rosenberg, during his trip to the Czech Republic, saw a Lady in black gloves.
This ghost is one of the most famous in the world. According to legend, the Czech White Lady is none other than Perchta Rozmberk, who is considered the guardian of the Rozmberk family and families close to it. Her story could have happened to any noble young woman who lived in the Middle Ages: young Perchta was forcibly married to a man much older than herself, the aristocrat Jan Lichtenstein. He turned out to be a villain, a pervert and a sadist, often raped and beat his young wife, and also, not embarrassed by her presence, organized orgies in the castle. The unfortunate woman endured bullying for 20 years, because the morals of that era did not allow her to leave her despot husband and return to her family, and the church would not give permission for a divorce.
They say that before his death, Count Liechtenstein asked his wife for forgiveness, but she could not forgive him. Then the count cursed his wife with the words: “May you have no peace after death!”
Since then, Perchta has appeared in the former possessions of the Rožmberks: the old castle of Sovinec and the nearby town of Cesky Krumlov. It does not harm anyone, but for the descendants of the family it can mean a warning about the imminent death of one of the relatives. Her portrait with a signature in an unknown language has survived to this day. There is a legend that the White Lady in person will appear to anyone who can decipher the signature and tell where the huge treasure is hidden.
2. Anku
The word “Anku” itself is translated as “skeleton” or, in some interpretations, “Messenger of Death.” This ghost has been seen on the roads of Brittany. It always appears on old country roads and never near busy highways or populated areas. However, the ghost did not disdain small villages and, according to legend, visited them often.
Anku looks like a corpse or a skeleton with long white hair. He is wrapped in a dark cloak with a hood thrown over his face, hiding the greenish putrid light in his sunken eye sockets, with a scythe on his shoulder. He is always followed by a funeral cart drawn by a skeletal horse. His appearance was accompanied by the ringing of funeral bells, gusts of icy wind and the dull loud clatter of horse hooves.
It was believed that whoever was lucky enough to see the anka would die within the next two years. Some sources say that an eyewitness, when meeting a ghost, was certainly knocked down by an unknown force, and earth was stuffed into his mouth, perhaps the same one that would soon be thrown on his coffin. If a person encountered anku at midnight, he would certainly die within a month.
However, anku is not just one mysterious entity. The previous messenger of death was replaced every year by another unfortunate man, who happened to be the last to die of the year. There is another opinion: anku is none other than the biblical character Cain, the first person to commit murder.
The last time Anka was allegedly seen was about 50 years ago. It is possible that there is simply no place left for such ghosts in our enlightened age.
3. Shivering boy
There is a strange place in Ireland - Gripmain Castle. Now no one lives in the castle, but it is well preserved and is open to tourists. And, of course, like most respected European castles, it has its own ghost, known throughout the world as the “Trembling Boy”.
They say that if you stay in the castle overnight, then around midnight a pale translucent silhouette of a child with dark hair falling into his eyes will appear next to your bed. The boy will whisper, “It's cold, I'm so cold,” and may even touch your face with his icy fingers. Eyewitnesses said that after they woke up, the boy did not leave, but continued to stand by the bed and complain about the cold. He got away only after the unfortunate visitor to the ancient castle turned on the light. At the same time, the ghost did not leave the room, did not evaporate, no - it simply disappeared, as if it was not there, which, however, is quite possible.
According to legend, the boy was the heir to a rich old family of Northumbrian earls and received the castle from his father, who died when his son was only six years old. His guardian uncle decided to get rid of the rightful owner and appropriate the castle for himself, so he took the child to the field on a winter night and left him there alone. By morning the boy was frozen, and his uncle finally received the coveted castle. True, together with a ghost: some sources describe that the boy “returned” the very next night after his burial and tormented his uncle for the rest of his life.
The ghost of the child is still seen in the castle, and some impressionable tourists have talked about his appearance during the daytime. In some cases, entire groups of people who have never met before and visited Gripmain Castle for the first time in their lives speak about his appearance with one voice.
4. Lady from Echt
The lady from Echt can be found in Holland. The ghost is not tied to any specific place and can appear anywhere. The lady from Echt looks quite impressive: a torn dark dress, a thin cloak thrown over her shoulders, her head lying in her thin, emaciated hands, and blood oozing from the stump of her neck. However, this ghost is quite harmless for the casual traveler.
You can meet the Lady, as usual, only at night. In some cases, the headless female figure may simply walk by, and in others, it may stop in front of the person and speak to him. If for some reason a strange ghost likes you, it will take you to the place where the treasure is buried, but will ask you not to take a single coin for yourself, but to distribute everything to those in need. If the one who received the treasure does not fulfill this condition, then the gold coins found and appropriated by him will turn to dust.
One day the Lady from Echt met a young man on the road returning home at night. She showed him the place where the treasure was buried and said that he could take it for himself if only he dug up the treasure without making a sound. But the stupid young man, seeing a chest full of gold, could not resist a joyful cry, after which both the chest and the ghost literally fell through the ground. Since then, no one has seen the headless ghost. Apparently, the Lady finally became disillusioned with people and left for another world.
5. Black Lady of Nesvizh Castle
The Black Lady is the ghost of Barbara Radziwill, a representative of one of the most noble families of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Previously, she could be found in one of the rooms of her family nest - Nesvizh Castle. The ghost looked like a beautiful blond woman with sad brown eyes in a rich black dress and pearls on her slender neck.
It so happened that, while still alive, the young and beautiful princess met the heir to the Polish crown, Sigismund Augustus. As usual, passion arose between the young people, they became lovers and eventually got married secretly. Soon after this, Sigismund's first wife Augusta died of epilepsy, and Barbara was presented to the court as the king's legal wife. Unfortunately, Queen Mother Bona Sforza hated all the offspring of the Radziwill family, and therefore Barbara was soon poisoned on her orders and died in terrible agony. They did not bury her in the tomb of the Polish kings, but took her body to her native castle.
Oddly enough, this is perhaps the only ghost whose origin can be explained by anything other than the rich imagination of the people who saw it. Barbara, for example, was seen by many people during a spiritualistic seance arranged for the inconsolable king by the famous “magician and spellcaster” of that time, Pan Tvardovsky. He summoned the spirit of the deceased queen using the so-called magic mirror, having previously agreed with the king that he would not try to touch his wife. Of course, the king could not stand it, tried to hug her, and she disappeared with a loud ringing sound. The secret of its appearance lies in the mirror that Pan Tvardovsky, who left Nesvizh Castle in a hurry, left there. Behind a thin layer of amalgam is engraved the appearance of Barbara, exactly as she was in life. If the light hits the mirror at a certain angle, then a ghost appears in the room.
Agree, this is an amazing trick in its execution, and explains quite a lot. It is quite possible that other ghosts seen by people in other parts of the world and under other circumstances appeared due to some completely understandable reasons. Another thing is that these reasons are still unknown.
6. Ghost Ship
Surprisingly, the world's most famous ghost is not a man, but a ship - the Flying Dutchman. It is observed off the southern coast of Africa to this day, although always at a great distance. It is described as a battered old sailing ship. Previously, until the 20th century, sailors allegedly managed to get close to the ghost ship, and then it was possible to discern the ghostly silhouettes of emaciated men (according to another version, skeletons moving along the deck).
Fata Morgana According to legend, the captain of the ship, Philip Van der Decken, fell in love with a girl, but she did not reciprocate his feelings, and then the stern sailor killed her fiancé. The girl did not survive this and threw herself off the cliff into the sea, and Van der Decken had to flee. While trying to go around the Cape of Good Hope, his ship was caught in a strong storm, but the ambitious captain did not want to wait out the bad weather in some bay. Instead, he began to blaspheme and swore that none of his crew would go ashore until they had rounded “that damn cape,” thereby bringing a curse upon himself and his crew. Since then, the ship has been forced to sail across the ocean, and none of the crew is able to go ashore. There is a version that a captain can step ashore once every ten years for exactly one day, and if during this time he finds a girl who voluntarily agrees to become his wife, then the curse will disappear.
The appearance of the Flying Dutchman is often explained by the phenomenon of Fata Morgana - a mirage that appears in the sea above the surface of the water.
7. The Ghost of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn is another ghost that is not tied to a specific place. According to history, it can be found anywhere in the UK. Most often, eyewitnesses claim to have seen her wandering the corridors of the Tower of London, sitting near a window at the Priory of Dean in Windsor, or on the estates of Blickling Hall. She is described as a tall, beautiful woman dressed in white, carrying a severed head in her hands. She was sometimes seen riding in a carriage drawn by headless horses and driven by a headless coachman.
The story of Anne Boleyn's ghost originates in another legend of unhappy love. Anne was the second wife of the English king Henry VIII. For her sake, he founded the Anglican Church. This was necessary in order to divorce the previous wife: the Papal Throne at that time was categorically against divorce proceedings, especially when it came to monarchs. One way or another, the king married Anna, she bore him a daughter, but then the king’s love ended, and he became interested in his new favorite. Henry accused the unfortunate Anna of treason, took him into custody and subsequently executed her. Since then, Anna has been forced to wander through the expanses of her native country, unable to find peace.
Interestingly, no one has ever seen the ghost of the treacherous Henry. At least, there is nothing about this in written sources. As for Anna, her frequent appearances are written about in every guidebook of a more or less famous castle.
8. The Brown Lady from Ryman Hall
The Brown Lady is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, according to official sources, the wife of Viscount Townsend II who died in 1726. Her father did not consent to their marriage for a long time, and when Dorothy finally married the Viscount, she very soon fell in love with another man. Her angry husband locked her in one of the rooms of their castle, Ryman Hall. It is believed that she died of smallpox, but some historians are inclined to believe that the cause of death was depression from separation from her lover. There is also a version that a jealous husband pushed her down the stairs.
Since then, the Brown Lady has been seen more than once in the corridors of the estate. It is believed that she cannot leave Ryman Hall until she finds her children, whom she did not see until her death due to her husband’s ban on visiting them. She looks like a blurry female figure in a strict brown dress. This is a rather "peaceful" ghost. The lady never tried to make contact with eyewitnesses, did not speak to them or even look in their direction - she simply wandered along the corridors of the house and disappeared as suddenly as she appeared.
Surprisingly, there is even one photograph of this ghost, taken in 1936 by respected photographers Captain Provand and his assistant Indra Shira. These people had an impeccable reputation, so most ordinary people of that time did not question the authenticity of the photograph. It was published in the authoritative magazine “Rural Life” and served as excellent advertising for the old estate. However, it is inappropriate to talk about the authenticity of the photo these days: firstly, even in the first half of the 20th century it was easy to make such a fake, and secondly, there is no longer any documentary evidence of the existence of a ghost.
9. Black dogs
Black dogs are traditionally described as shaggy, calf-sized dogs with glowing red eyes and a grinning mouth with huge fangs. They were seen only in Great Britain and Ireland, most often near river and sea shores or in cemetery graveyards. Otherwise, legends about creepy black dogs vary greatly. According to some sources, meeting a dog means inevitable death, either immediately from its fangs, or soon from an incurable disease. According to other beliefs, dogs were considered, despite their appearance, to be good messengers and could guide home lonely girls walking along the road at night or lead a lost child out of the forest, and were dangerous only for sinners or criminals.
Some esotericists explain the appearance of black dogs by the fact that certain magnetic parallels supposedly pass in these places (a controversial version). Others believe that dogs are the energetic imprint of dogs that lived in these places in the past, and their appearance is caused by meteorological phenomena. Still others say that these are just ordinary dogs appearing at a distance from you, and fear, as you know, has big eyes.
It was never possible to film a black dog, so there is no documentary evidence of their existence. Of course, even a century and a half ago, in the vastness of Great Britain, corpses were found with obvious traces of fangs on the body, but ordinary wolves could do this to a lonely traveler.
Just recently, at the beginning of January, we moved into a new apartment - a large, three-bedroom one. And a few days later my family left for Thailand, and I was left alone at home...
...I will say briefly: I love horror films and partly believe in all this supernatural, but not if I am connected with this “something” - I have a rich imagination, anything can seem like it!..
The first five days everything was fine, I enjoyed being alone and surfing the Internet. Until one time, when I was entering my room, I imagined a man of my height standing very close to me and looking at me... I shuddered, but was not very frightened - it seemed to me in the darkness, which never happens to anyone. But I’m terribly impressionable, so after that I began to be paranoid for the rest of the time before my relatives arrived.
Evening, I’m sitting in complete silence, drawing in a notebook because I have nothing to do, next to me there’s a mirror that covers the entire wall. So I got bored and started staring at it (in the mirror) - it was still reflecting the dark corridor and the entrance to the living room... Suddenly, something coming from the living room began to move quietly.
Well, again it seemed like something else. I closed the door to my room, suddenly I heard the door creak, I opened it again and looked into the corridor - but the doors to the other rooms didn’t even budge. Another creaking sound - not a single door moves. The neighbors upstairs?.. But the sound of creaking seems to be very close!..
... Continuation of the strangeness - a silhouette in a white dress in the dark, again from the living room... Of course, I didn’t take it seriously, it seemed - well, that’s all it seemed!
Time passed, the relatives returned. I’ve completely forgotten my voice - I’m talking, and it doesn’t sound like mine. More childish and “sweet” or something...
That same night I go to bed... and suddenly the sound of something dripping! I didn’t open my eyes... After a while, the “drip!” sound again, right under my ear!... Well, well...
... And this happened last night: I was lying in bed, suddenly I turned around to face the mirror, there seemed to be a suitcase next to it, and where the suitcase was, I clearly saw something white and semi-luminous!
... After that I fell asleep and had a stupid dream: I was sitting, watching Tom and Jerry, as if I was in kindergarten and still little. There are children sitting nearby, and one of them is in a white dress... and that’s me.
P.S. Yes, yes, either I’m crazy or I made it all up, but actually only 10% maximum. I swapped some things and put them in a different order, but the facts and situations themselves are not made up... Oh, yes, fail: “something white” - there was my jacket (white, yeah), lying on the suitcase, and the silhouette that initially appeared to me – was my own reflection on the lacquered cabinet.
...The only thing that remains incomprehensible is the creaking of the door out of nowhere. And not only me, but also everyone else in the house hears it from time to time... so what is it, huh?
Rolf MEISINGER, Germany
“...Do you hear someone’s cautious tread? And the rustle of a silk dress? Isn't this the ghost of the White Lady?! The world's first White Lady coin was released at the Royal Canadian Mint in early June. This is the famous ghost of the tragically deceased bride from the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. But this is not the most interesting thing!..”
A real medieval castle without its own ghost causes me sincere regret. And neither tapestries darkened by time, nor dusty hunting trophies, nor dimly shimmering knightly armor will change the situation. Well, seriously, it is the thought of the presence under the echoing arches of halls and corridors, in the creaking twilight of stairs and passages, in the musty emptiness of dungeons and dungeons of something mysterious, perhaps even sinister, that gives the family nests of the European nobility a thrilling human imagination charm.
Shhh... Do you hear someone's careful steps? And the rustle of a silk dress? Isn't this the ghost of the White Lady?!
Coin "Ghost Bride"
It can be called the numismatic event of 2014! The world's first White Lady coin was released at the Royal Canadian Mint in early June. Its reverse features a holographic image of a girl in a wedding dress. This is the famous ghost of the tragically deceased bride from the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. But that's not the most interesting part! Thanks to the lenses used in its manufacture, the phantom... “comes to life”! When the coin is tilted, the girl either opens or closes her eyes. It looks creepy, but very impressive!
They say that in the 1930s, in a hotel located in the mountains of Canada's Banff National Park, a young bride died during a wedding ceremony. She stumbled on the stairs. Since then, the ghost of the unfortunate woman has been shown to guests and hotel employees every now and then. A girl in a wedding dress is seen either dancing alone in the corridors of the hotel, or thoughtfully going down the ill-fated steps. True, the hotel administration does its best to deny rumors of visions. By the way, you don’t have to go to Canada to admire Fairmont Banff Springs, which looks like a medieval castle. The moment the phantom on the coin opens its eyes, the mysterious hotel appears beneath it in all its glory.
The Ghost Bride coin opens the Ghosts of Canada series. There will be five coins in total. These coins are presented as postage stamps on the souvenir booklet for the first 25 cents in the series.
Restless souls from the German notgelds
European legends are replete with references to ghosts. And the White Lady plays an important role in them. She was often found where someone's life was unnaturally cut short. Something similar happened at Dreifels Castle in the German town of Berg...
The structure, founded in the 12th century on the tops of three rocks, could be admired at the end of the 20th century. Until a terrible fire happened on March 8, 1994. The castle was badly damaged, and most of it was demolished during restoration work in 2012. It was then that they remembered the ghost of a woman in white, which had terrified the inhabitants of Dreifels for centuries. It seems that it was his fault that the castle burned down several times before. According to eyewitnesses, the ghost was enormous. As shown on one of the town’s notgelds, printed back in 1921.
It should be mentioned that German ghosts do not wear wedding dresses, but funeral attire. In the old days, noble women were buried in white clothes.
An extremely rare image in the world of money on 75 pfennigs is accompanied by the quatrain:
Seeing a ghost in the castle,
Everyone lives in fear and confusion.
Know that someone will die there soon...
This is how it has been done since time immemorial.
All night long the ghost of the White Lady wandered around Drifels, slamming doors and sighing sadly. Knowledgeable people claimed that her baby was stolen from her and sacrificed, walled up in the base of the main tower. Dying, the unfortunate woman cursed the owners of the castle and vowed to visit them after death.
By the way, on the notgeld you can also see the silhouette of the murdered man. The artist depicted him as a ghostly man. Matches our brownie. That is, we can assume that a poltergeist was also playing pranks in the castle chambers...
An equally interesting picture adorns 25 pfennigs of the same series. Where another ghost of Berga is presented - the Headless Horseman.
And the corresponding poem on the boom:
Headless at a crossroads.
From dark night to dark night,
He guards the milestone stone,
It’s impossible to remove the curse from yourself.
Here he fell in battle when he tried
He will take the castle by force,
He remained on the battlefield,
We don't know his name.
Legends involving a beheaded man have been known in Germany for centuries. This creepy character played the role of a kind of omen, appearing to someone who intended to commit a crime. They say, don’t even dare to sin, otherwise they will not treat you in the best way! It is interesting that the milestone stone immortalized on the notgeld and mentioned in the poems has survived to this day. It is located at the base of the mountain. On the road leading to Dreifels Castle.
Poor, poor Countess Orlamünde
Today, at least six paper coupons are known, the drawings on which illustrate one or another story about the adventures of the White Lady. All of them were printed in Germany in the 1920s, during a time of severe inflation. Hence their name - notgelds. That is emergency money. This circumstance is unique. For nowhere else in the world were banknotes dedicated to people from the other world issued.
The most famous are the Notgelds of the town of Orlamünde in Thuringia, who tell the most popular of the legends about female ghosts in Germany. The widowed Countess Cunegonde von Orlamünde fell in love with Count Albrecht von Nuremberg, nicknamed the Handsome. Marriage to one of the Hohenzollerns would solve many of her problems. But Albrecht hinted that “two pairs of eyes interfere with this.” The Count had in mind his parents, who would not be very happy with such a daughter-in-law. However, Cunegonde decided that her two children were to blame. Desperate, she killed both of them. When the monstrous crime was revealed, Albrecht the Handsome turned away from Cunegonde forever. And then the Countess cursed the Hohenzollerns, turning into a fatal omen after her death. Since then, she allegedly more than once foreshadowed the death of the offspring of this dynasty of German electors, kings and emperors.
On one of the bonds with a face value of 50 pfennigs, the ghost of the countess is depicted hovering over the outskirts of the family estate of the Frankish Hohenzollerns - Lauenburg Castle.
But several inaccuracies crept into the image of the next notgeld! The inscription on it tells that the ghost of Countess von Orlamünde appeared to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia - (1772-1806) before the famous battle of Saalfeld on October 10, 1806. As you know, he was killed in that battle with the French. But, firstly, eyewitness accounts do not report that the White Lady was the harbinger of the death of the son of the last German emperor. Many saw a strange woman in white, along with others, accompanying Prussian soldiers to the war. Her face was hidden by a veil, from under which sobs could be heard. The prince was the first to notice her and pointed her out to his adjutant. And, secondly, the evening before, the ghost of the White Lady had already visited Louis Ferdinand at his residence. Lieutenant Nostitz (depicted immediately behind Ferdinand on the notgeld) pursued the ghost along with the prince through the corridors of the palace until the phantom disappeared into the wall. “So, this is not a dream! - said the pale Ferdinand. “I really saw her... A white woman!” And, having taken the adjutant’s word to remain silent, he returned to the interrupted party.
Nowadays, the ghost of a White woman is mainly present in the stories of truck drivers and car enthusiasts who spend a lot of time behind the wheel. Almost always in such stories events unfold in the dark. An eerie phantom suddenly throws itself under the wheels or onto the windshield, voices on deserted stretches of roads, or floats like a foggy silhouette in the headlights. At the same time, drivers all over the world are complaining about frightening road mirages!
In the meantime, while ghost hunters and scientists are breaking spears in an irreconcilable dispute about whether paranormal phenomena and phenomena should be considered something real, let's once again admire the ghostly creatures that have firmly settled in the world of money.
Rolf MEISINGER, Germany
Show maximum care for everything that concerns you, because your life and your property are in great danger;
to see a ghost or angel suddenly appearing in heaven - the loss of a close relative or some other misfortune;
a female ghost appears in the sky to your right, and a male one to your left, and both look joyful - a rapid rise from obscurity to glory, but your star will not shine for long, for death will come and take you away;
the ghost of a woman in long robes moves calmly in the skies - you will achieve progress in scientific pursuits and become rich, but nevertheless there will be a tinge of sadness in your life;
the ghost of a living relative - your friends are planning something evil, be careful in concluding business contracts;
the ghost looks exhausted - this person will die soon;
a ghost haunts you - strange, unpleasant events;
runs away from you - there will be little concern;
for young people - be careful in relationships with representatives of the opposite sex.
Also see Clothing.
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WHITE (BABA, GIRL, WOMAN) - the phenomenon of death in the form of a woman, girl, deceased, harbinger of misfortune, water spirit, vision, ghost threatening human life.
“A white woman in a white shroud appears to one of the family who will soon die” (Raven), “After the bath it grew dark - she appeared white and tall. I read the resurrection prayer, and everything disappeared” (Murm.), “There is a white man standing with a sheet thrown over it like this” (Novg.).
“The Harbinger in White” (in white robes, a white robe, most often very tall) is one of the most popular characters in superstitions in the 19th and 20th centuries. In a story from the beginning of the 20th century. from the Arkhangelsk province, the appearance of a woman in white in povet precedes the death of a girl. In a modern narrative, a woman dressed in white goes out onto the road and predicts the future: “Someone started a rumor... As if one driver was driving, suddenly the car stopped abruptly, he sees: a woman is walking. Dressed in all white. She came up and asked him to buy half a meter of white material.
- When you buy it, come here. Then we'll pay it off. He went and bought it.<...>And as we passed that place, the car stopped again. Asks him:
- Bought? — He gave the material. “Now ask whatever you want, I’ll do it.”
He got scared and doesn’t know what to ask. Then he said the first thing that came to mind:
— Will there be war?
She answers:
“There will be no war” (East Sib.).
A tall figure, “covered with all white,” appears to a father and daughter on the way to the fair: “A woman stands... and reads everything in a voice. Tall - oh-tall this woman is! That's how she cried in her voice. And then two years later the folder died. Mom kept saying that it was Death that came to him” (Novg.).
The image of a tall white woman seems to combine the personifications of death and fate in the guise of a white, wavering figure, similar to a deceased person in mortal clothing. The deceased, according to legend, can come for the living and “take away”, destroy them - he brings death with him, embodies it.
White color in one of its main meanings is the color of death, non-existence; it characterizes the inhabitants of another world. The personification of “death-fate” in the guise of a woman is also traditional: she gives life and can take it away (the image of a woman in a black or red robe sometimes acquires a similar meaning).
In the beliefs of the 19th-20th centuries. the figure in white is named not quite specifically (“white”, “tall”) and is directly called death and, for example, in modern stories from the Novgorod region it is interpreted as “a dead man wrapped in a sheet.”
The image of a white woman also suggests slightly different interpretations. In the beliefs of a number of Russian provinces, it is associated with the element of water. The white woman in the stories of Vologda peasants resembles a mermaid: “In rocky rivers, she sometimes comes out of the water, sits on a stone and combs her hair.” A woman in white appears at the ice hole: “...We just approached - there’s a woman standing there!” All in white, like a snow maiden. Everything around her head is on fire. The horse stands at this ice hole and wags his finger: “Do you know that you can’t go to the ice hole at twelve o’clock?” At least ask your neighbor for a ladle of water, but don’t go” (East Sib.).
In a story from the Kostroma province, a white woman is a dead sorcerer, the “river friend” of a half-crazed girl: “...we had already gone to bed, I heard someone knocking on the window, she got up, looked,<...>and she was frozen with fear: Aksinya was standing at the window, all wet as she was, and there was something missing in her hem: crayfish, and frogs, and some kind of water grass...<...>I woke up my man little by little, told him what was the matter, he took the stick, and I took the icon, a parental blessing, and we went with him out of the hut to see what would happen. As soon as we approached the corner, a woman, all in white, rushed towards us, yes, that’s right, my blessing got in the way - she turned back and disappeared around the corner. Only the enta disappeared, out of nowhere Aksinya turned around, lashed out with her teeth, looked at us and said: “Graffenushka, let me spend the night, I’m so cold.” And I say: “Why are you coming to me? After all, your hut is over there, nearby.” And when she started laughing, she started running down there, to the river, and wailing: “Marya!” Marya!“ “It was she who called this guy, her friend, and this guy from the river... well, it was he who turned into a white woman and was waiting for her around the corner...”
A white girl can also appear in the forest, driving out the peasants who have come to tear their tusks: “Come on, I say, Lavrush, let’s fight that tusk!” He walked away from me, cut down a birch tree, picked a bast, and so did I. Suddenly he screams at the top of his lungs! He barely came to his senses and said: “A girl came to me, she said, tall, white, her braids were loose, and she grabbed my tie (scarf) with her hand and tore off the tie.” I looked, and there was a huge purple spot on his neck... “Well, I say, Lavrush, let’s run home quickly, this devil is joking with us, so that he doesn’t do something bad, apparently, the birch forest is his”” (Volog. )
In the vicinity of Semipalatinsk they said that, according to legend, a treasure was hidden in one of the mounds near the Irtysh: “Sometimes at night a white woman on a white horse appears above this mound. None of the people used the treasure.”
Women in white often represented illnesses: “There are people who claim to have seen a woman in white clothes enter a hut at midnight and, walking through the hut, disappear to God knows where, or stop in front of someone from the family and stare intently for a long time. looked at him. The next day this man fell ill" (Raven.)<Селиванов, 1886>.
It is obvious that the polysemantic (like the entire circle of characters who “seem” and at the same time take on a female form - MARA, MERMAID) image of a white woman is still most consistently correlated with the omens of fate - failure, illness, death.
In the beliefs of Russian peasants, a man in white can also be a harbinger of misfortune. On the Tersky coast of the White Sea, a story was recorded about the appearance of a tall man in white, with a ribbon over his shoulder, in the forest. He predicts imminent war and death to a peasant he meets in the forest.
In peasant stories of the late 20th century. a white woman more often than not does not pursue a person and does not even enter into a conversation, but cries or laments, or simply stands motionless, as some kind of manifest sign of impending trouble (sometimes the appearance of the Virgin Mary, who also predicts disasters and changes, is described in a similar way).
Marina Vlasova. // Marina Vlasova. Russian superstitions: Encyclopedic Dictionary. St. Petersburg, 2000.
