The Dead and the Mermaids. Essays on Slavic Mythology

How much do you know about mermaids? Do you know who kupalki, vodyanitsy, chertovki, and shutovki are? And do you know how mermaids are related to the dead? Dmitry Zelinin (1878—1954), a Soviet ethnographer, in "Essays on Slavic Mythology" studies these questions, referring to the beliefs and ritual practices of the Eastern Slavs. In his extensive research, Zelinin focuses on a specific layer of culture — the notions of "tied dead," that is, people who died not by their own accord, most often a violent death. A mermaid was considered a "tied woman," a dead person, an impurity, fundamentally and behaviorally different from a "tied man."