SAMODIVA

Lore

The Samodiva, also known as the samovila, carries a name in which the prefix "samo-" stresses autonomy, while the second part "diva" goes back to an Indo-European root meaning "deity." The variant "vila," on the other hand, connects to a root linked with the motion of wind.

Historically, the image shifted with the times. In its oldest, Thracian layer it is tied to the cults of Orpheus (mystical religious currents and rites of Ancient Greece based on the legends of Orpheus, his journey to the underworld, and his teachings about the soul's immortality) and the goddess Bendis. There, female figures-guardians of the forests and the moon-performed ritual songs and dances at night around bonfires. In later folklore the Samodivi took on a more demonic coloring: people called them descendants of lamias (demonic beings) or believed them to be the restless souls of women-sinners, virgins who died untimely deaths, or victims of violence-caught between worlds. Overall, the Samodiva settled into the role of a vampiric woodland nymph, and the shift from "divine guardian" to "dangerous vampire" paralleled changing religious paradigms and heightened the threat she posed to humans.

Folk descriptions highlight unearthly beauty. A Samodiva is pictured as a tall, slender young woman with pale skin, fiery or bright blue eyes, and long loose golden or copper-red hair. Her hair is the seat of her magic: take it away and she loses her power-and even her life. Sometimes she is said to have wings. Her dress, actually simple yet refined, always features a green sash trimmed with feathers and a wreath of special herbs, especially immortelle. Slung across her back is an intricately carved bow with a quiver of arrows.

There is little the Samodiva fears, for she can fly and command all the elements. They patrol the woods riding huge stags whose bridles are made of live snakes.

Samodivi live in hard-to-reach spots, most often inside ancient trees or natural mountain caves.