Rusalka — Russian fairy tale character
The female spirit Rusalka is a popular creature from Slavic mythology.
She was depicted as a mysterious and rather eerie spirit, associated with the concept of a mermaid or a nymph in world mythologies.
The rich mythology of Slavic people portrayed her among the wide array of divine entities like gods, goddesses, and different deities, including supernatural beings.
According to most traditions, the rusalki were fish-women, who lived at the bottom of rivers. In the middle of the night, they would walk out to the bank and dance in meadows. If they saw handsome men, they would fascinate them with songs and dancing, mesmerise them, then lead the person away to the river floor to live with them. The stories about rusalki have parallels with those of Hylas and the Nymphs, the Germanic Nix, the Irish Banshee, the Scottish Bean Nighe and the Romanian Iele.