Mavka

The mavka (also navka or nyavka) is a female spirit of Ukrainian folklore, especially associated with the Carpathian forests. The names derive from a word for “the dead” and are related to Bulgarian navi. Folk belief held that mavkas were the souls of girls who died unnatural or premature deaths, in particular unbaptised babies.

Mavkas are described as beautiful young girls with very long hair, who cast no shadow and have no reflection in water. A related type, the nyavka, was said to have no back, so the spine and insides are visible; nyavkas are tied to western Ukraine and mavkas to central Ukraine. They lived in groups in forests and mountain caves, spun stolen flax into transparent cloth, and held dances at Pentecost.

The stories give them a double nature. They lured young men into the woods and tickled them to death, yet some accounts say they helped farmers by herding cattle and driving off wild animals. One belief explains how to save a baby’s soul from becoming a mavka: throw a kerchief at Pentecost, say the child’s name and declare “I baptise you”; a soul left unbaptised for seven years was thought to become one.

Lesya Ukrainka’s play The Forest Song (written 1911 and often dated 1917–1918 in print) is the best-known literary treatment, and the 2023 animated film Mavka: The Forest Song brought the figure to an international audience.

A beautiful girl with long loose hair, flowers in her hair, casting no shadow or reflection; the nyavka has no back.

Forests, mountain caves and glades, especially around Pentecost.

Mavka is a symbol in Ukrainian literature and film, from Lesya Ukrainka to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (which depicts nyavkas) to the 2023 animated feature.