Country file · Europe

Cryptids of the Czech Republic

What cryptids are in the Czech Republic? The best-known is Vodník.

Czech folklore’s star water spirit is the vodník, a green-coated goblin who sits on a willow beside the pond at night and keeps the souls of the drowned in pots. His best-known appearance is in Karel Jaromír Erben’s ballad “Vodník,” part of the collection Kytice (1853), which inspired Antonín Dvořák’s symphonic poem The Water Goblin of 1896.

  • 1 cryptid

Cryptids reported in the Czech Republic

Humanoid · Medieval

Vodník

Ponds and millraces of Bohemia and Moravia The vodník, Czech water goblin: a green-coated pond spirit who keeps drowned souls under upturned pots, famed from Erben’s ballad and Dvořák’s music. Folklore

The legends of the Czech Republic

The vodník remains a pop-culture favourite, from a 1974 comedy film to Miloš Urban’s prize-winning novel Hastrman.

Hotspots

  • Prague

    City of Erben, Dvořák and the national tradition of Czech ballads.

Nearby

Austria4 cryptidsPoland1 cryptidSlovakia1 cryptidHungary1 cryptidGermany3 cryptidsSwitzerland1 cryptid