Kikimora
Kikimora in W. R. S. Ralston’s 1872 account of Russian folklore: a nightmare spirit, with the source’s neighboring traditions kept distinct.
What is a Kikimora?
In Ralston’s account, Kikimora is a Russian name for a nightmare spirit associated with interference in sleepers’ breathing. He also reports a belief that Kikimori are souls of girls who died unbaptized or were cursed by their parents and came under the power of evil spirits. These are reported folklore beliefs. Ralston, p. 133.
Source status
The selected source is Ralston’s public-domain English folklore compilation, published by Ellis & Green in 1872. It provides historical evidence for his presentation of Russian beliefs, rather than a single narrated encounter or a comprehensive account of every regional version. His preface acknowledges extensive reliance on Russian scholarship and collections, especially Afanasief. The publication date does not establish when Kikimora traditions began. Ralston, preface, pp. vii–ix.
- record type
- creature
- tradition
- Russian folklore as reported by W. R. S. Ralston
- aliases
- ["Shishimora"]
- period
- Documented in the selected 1872 publication; not a claim of earliest attestation.
- source scope
- W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian People, as Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life, London: Ellis & Green, 1872 edition, Chapter II, Section II, “Demigods and Fairies,” pp. 132–134, especially p. 133. This profile follows the Russian Kikimora passage and distinguishes the adjacent accounts of Marui or Marukhi and the Serbian Mora.
The source account
The passage occurs during Ralston’s discussion of the Domovoi, spelled Domovoy in his text. Moving from the house spirit’s other activities to its interference with breathing during sleep, he introduces Kikimora and Shishimora as names for such a nightmare being. He subsequently uses Kikimori as a plural when describing the belief about girls’ souls. This arrangement connects the subjects within his discussion; it does not provide a separate genealogy or make every Domovoy characteristic a Kikimora trait. Ralston, pp. 132–133.
Description and attributed activity
The supported activity is nocturnal oppression of a sleeper’s breathing. Ralston supplies no distinct physical portrait of Kikimora in this passage: dimensions, colouring and anatomy remain unspecified. His word “incubus” functions here as an English explanatory category for the nightmare being; the passage does not describe sexual activity.
Nearby, he describes small elderly female beings called Marui or Marukhi who spin on stoves, and then recounts a Serbian Mora’s transformations into a horse or tuft of hair. Those details belong to the explicitly named neighboring accounts and are not adopted as Kikimora’s appearance or abilities here. Ralston, pp. 133–134.
Source realm
The immediate setting is domestic sleep, within a discussion of house spirits. The selected passage identifies no named otherworld or specific Kikimora dwelling. It does not establish a marsh habitat. The stove setting belongs explicitly to the adjacent Marui or Marukhi account and is not treated here as a separately established Kikimora home. Ralston, pp. 132–133.
Names and interpretive limits
Shishimora follows the spelling in the selected 1872 edition. Kikimori is Ralston’s plural form, not a separate creature added to this record. His discussion attributes a proposed derivation involving shish to Afanasief and compares the second element with words for nightmare. These are historical linguistic interpretations, not an independently verified etymology. This profile is limited to Ralston’s Russian account; his cross-cultural comparisons do not establish that all the beings discussed are interchangeable. Ralston, p. 133 and its footnote.