Also called Południca, Polednice, Lady Midday, Pripolnitsa, Serpolnitsa.
Their story
Across Russia, Poland and the Czech lands a woman in white with a sickle was said to walk the rye at midday during harvest. She would stop workers and ask them riddles or make them talk until the stroke of one, twisting the necks or giving headaches to those who failed. Mothers warned children that she would catch them if they trampled the grain. Karel Jaromír Erben's ballad "Polednice" tells of a mother who threatens her crying child with the noon witch, only for the witch to appear.
Best times to give to them
- harvest time at noon
- Kupala Night
- Dozhinki (the harvest festival)
What they like being given
- rest in the shade at noon
- water shared with workers
- bread left at the field edge
How to honour them
- Rest in the shade at the hottest part of the day, as she demands.
- Keep children close near tall crops and water.
- Answer her riddles with courtesy in stories and in life, by thinking before you speak.
How they can help you
- avoiding heatstroke
- safety at harvest
- patience and wit
Symbols
- a tall woman in white
- a sickle
- the noon sun
- rye
Many scholars see her as a personification of sunstroke and a warning to rest at noon.
Sources
- Linda J. Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief
- Karel Jaromír Erben, Kytice (1853), "Polednice"
- Oskar Kolberg, Lud
More Slavic beings
- Div The crying omen in the tree-top
- Vodyanoy The old man of the millpond
- Polevik The spirit of the fields
- Mavka Hollow-backed maiden of the Ukrainian woods
- Mora The night-mare who sits on the chest
- Zmey Gorynych Many-headed dragon of the byliny
- Firebird The glowing bird of the golden apples
- Alkonost The bird of joy