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In Polish pagan mythology, boginki (singular: boginka) ^[a] are female spirits or demons of wild nature: forest, field, mountains, water (both of land and sea), often a personification of forces of the nature. The word literally means "minor goddess" in Polish. and may be translated as " fairy" or " nymph". They were usually imagined as either ugly old hags or prelly young girls, usually naked. They are usually evil. ^[2]

Some boginki are rusałka, vila, dziwożona, łaskotałka, mamuna [ pl], nawka, dziwożona. The term "boginka" started to be applied to any of them.

Boginki (mamuny) can steal a human child and substitute them. Such substituted child is called boginiak, płonek , podrzutek, or odmieniak (" changeling"). ^[3] Often children with mental disabilities were thought to be such. ^[4]

There are various folk means to fend off boginki. ^[5]

• 
  "A drowned man in the arms of a dziwożona", Jacek Malczewski
• 
  Opętany, Jacek Malczewski (a man bewitched by a boginka)
• 
  Boginka tatrzańska, Walery Eljasz Radzikowski (1905): a highlander meets boginka of Tatry

In modern culture

• Richard Wagner's opera Die Feen ("The Fairies") is transleted as Boginki in Polish
• Czesław Białczyński [ pl] wrote a parody mythology book Stworze i Zdusze czyli Starosłowiańskie boginki i demony ^[6]

Notes

References