Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. This week’s Femme Fatale Friday post is about Marzanna, the Winter Goddess from Slavic folklore, in honor of the first Friday post of December! To clarify, her name is different depending on the specific Slavic region. Here is a list of her many alternate names which I found in this article (https://www.thoughtco.com/marzanna-4774267): Marzena (Polish), Marena (Russian), Morana (Czech, Bulgarian, Slovene, and Serbo-Croatian), Morena or Kyselica (Slovak), Morena (Macedonian), Mara (Belarusian and Ukrainian), but also variously known as Marui or Marukhi, Maržena, Moréna, Mora, Marmora, More, and Kikimora. This list of names shows just how widespread the tales of Marzanna are in Slavic countries. To make things less confusing, I will be referring to her as Marzanna throughout this post.
Marzanna is known as the Goddess of Winter and Death, which is very common for Wintery Goddesses. In many ways, we can view Marzanna as an example of the traditional Crone as the Tomb figure within the Womb and Tomb dichotomy. Marzanna is the one who brings Death in the cold months and is feared for the role she plays. To be more specific, she is seen as a fearsome (or even evil) figure, as a Goddess connected to Fate, but with her arrival signaling great misfortune! Marzanna has relevance as a Kitchen Goddess (relating to the hearth that is so important in Winter), but even this aspect of her nature is said to be used to create nightmares, and she is known to fiddle with the knitting housewives do, to cause mischief. The connection to nightmares and knitting, along with her connection to fate, very much reminds me of the Greek Fates and Norse Norns, both of which act to weave the web of fate and destiny and choose when to cut the thread of life! Clearly, Marzanna has deep resonance with many other Goddesses and Divine figures who rule over fate and death.
It is said that Marzanna was married to her twin brother, named either Jaryło, Yarilo, or Gerovit. He is known as a God of Spring, an Agriculture God, and a War God. This certainly brings about balance with Marzanna’s Winter Death Goddess nature. It is said infidelity in the relationship on Yarilo’s part that caused Marzanna to go from being a more benevolent Nature Goddess to the feared Death Goddess she is known as today. In fact, their relationship is a story of killing each other at the turn of the Seasons, with Marzanna killing him in Autumn and he killing her (with the aid of another Goddess of Spring) in the Spring to herald the turning of the Seasons! That leads into my next section perfectly, as I want to discuss the Seasonal Festival tied to Marzanna.
Interestingly, the Seasonal Festival with the most significance to Marzanna is the Feast of Maslenitsa, which is described as something like a Russian Mardi Gras, taking place as a celebration of both the coming of Spring and the beginning of Lent (combining both Pagan and Christian elements). How this festival relates to Marzanna is that the participants dress a Straw Maiden in rags, carry her through the town and fields, burn her effigy, and then drown her in a river or pond, with the effigy representing Marzanna! This Ritual is meant to banish Winter from the lands and call in the fecundity of Spring and Summer. The drowning is said to be Marzanna’s disappearance into the Underworld!
As far as Seasonal Folktales, as Winter approaches, Marzanna is associated with the myth of the Enchanted Huntsman. This is a tale where a Hunter (or sometimes a Sun God) falls in love with Marzanna, but she traps his soul in a Magick Mirror, which forces him to spend the long Winter months with her! In her Fate Goddess aspect, there are tales of her riding the winds (which reminds me greatly of the various Wild Hunt tales) and drinking the blood of men. This is also the aspect of her nature associated with Nightmares, as she could turn herself into a horse or a tuft of hair, which would torment a man with bad dreams, with the hair curling around the throat and suffocating the man (who was only saved when another cut the hair from about his throat)! These tales certainly show why she was so feared and sometimes even considered a Goddess of Pestilence. I am going to finish this post off here, but as always, I have linked some articles I used when researching Marzanna below if you want to know more!
I hope you have enjoyed this short look at Marzanna, the Slavic Winter Goddess, who truly embodies the dangers of the natural world at this time of year. What do you find to be the most interesting aspect of her folklore? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely Marzanna artwork. I found the artwork on https://www.tumblr.com/lamus-dworski/130756631634/slavic-deities-from-poland-part-1-goddess.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- https://www.thoughtco.com/marzanna-4774267
- https://expatexplore.com/blog/maslenitsa-festival-russia-pancake-week/
- https://brendan-noble.com/marzanna-morana-goddess-of-winter-pestilence-and-death/