The Lady Midday (or Noonday Demon, Polish: południca, Czech: polednice, Slovak: poľudnica) is a mythological character, the personification of noon as a dangerous time for humans in Russian and Western Slavic mythology. Apparently, the image of the Lady Midday is ancient and primal, as indicated by the widespread beliefs and mythological stories about it, along with their unity in basic features. The origin of the image is linked to the personification of the sun’s stroke, the unique atmosphere of hot noon, and remnants of beliefs in ancient deities and demons.
According to folk beliefs, she is often depicted as a tall, beautiful young woman or, conversely, an ugly old woman, or even a monster. She is predominantly dressed in white garments, covering her entire body and head, or in rags. In her hands, she may carry a frying pan, a scythe among Russians, or a sickle among Poles and Lusatians. Sometimes she is identified with the wind or a whirlwind. The Lady Midday was believed to be active in the clear noon during the period from the flowering to the harvest of cereals. The main meeting place with her is a rye or pea field, and in Siberia and the Urals, it could be a garden. According to some beliefs, the Lady Midday protects crops and vegetables from people and the scorching rays of the sun.
According to most beliefs, the Lady Midday is hostile and very dangerous to humans. Her aggression is directed at anyone encountering her in the field during her activity period—she kills or cripples them. Poles and Lusatians recounted that the Lady Midday could start questioning them in great detail about some peasant work, often about growing flax and making linen fabric. One had to continuously answer until she disappeared—those who couldn’t answer were killed by the Lady Midday. Common measures against her included crossing oneself, reciting a prayer, sprinkling her with holy water, or simply running away from her. Russians had notions that at noon, Lady Midday roams the village, “mowing down” anyone in their path, breaking windows in houses, and trying to get inside.
It was believed that the Lady Midday is most dangerous for pregnant women, recent mothers, and small children: she punishes those who violate the isolation of birthing women, steals and replaces infants, and attacks older children. In Russian and Polish folklore, the Lady Midday is associated with infant insomnia, accompanied by restlessness and crying. In later traditions, the Lady Midday appeared as a frightening character for children. Occasionally, there were notions of a male Lady Midday. The Lady Midday is akin to the field spirit, landlady, mermaid, and other field characters. The image of the Lady Midday has found its place in the modern popular culture of Slavic peoples, especially among Poles, Czechs, and Lusatians.
Spread of the myth and names
Among Eastern Slavs, only Russians in the northwest of Russia (Arkhangelsk, Olonets, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, partially Vologda, Vitebsk, and Smolensk provinces), the Middle Urals (Perm province), and Siberia believed in the Lady Midday. Among other Eastern Slavs, the image of the Lady Midday was likely displaced by the image of the mermaid (see below). Among Russians, by the mid-19th century, the image of the Lady Midday was pale and formless and was not as well-known and vivid as the images of, for example, the forest spirit, water spirit, and mermaids. By the 1970s, little remained of Russian beliefs about the Lady Midday. Russian stories about the Lady Midday in the 19th-20th centuries were usually short: she appears and disappears, frightening children.
The Lady Midday or Noonday Demon is known to all Western Slavs: Lusatians, Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks. At the same time, by the first half of the 19th century, Lusatians noted with relief that the Lady Midday no longer appeared. The mythonym was first mentioned in Old Polish in 1472.
In interwar Poland, beliefs about the Lady Midday were recorded in the western part of the country but were practically absent in Pomerania (including Kashubia and Masuria), southern and eastern Mazovia, part of Podkarpacie, and the Eastern Borderlands. During the times of the People’s Republic of Poland, beliefs about the Lady Midday were recorded in the territories of modern Greater Poland, Świętokrzyskie, Silesian, Lesser Poland, western parts of Lublin, Masovian, and Subcarpathian voivodeships. By the 1980s, only remnants of beliefs about the Lady Midday remained among Poles.
The Lady Midday myth was largely unfamiliar to Southern Slavs, with only marginal recognition among Slovenes. In 1934, the Lady Midday myth found its way among Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians within the borders of Poland. The various names associated with this mythical character often suggest the time of its appearance, primarily at noon. Additionally, names may reference the location of appearance, such as rye or wheat fields, describe features like iron teeth, or include associated attributes like a frying pan or sickle.
External Appearance
The noonday spirit could be envisioned as a beautiful, slender, tall young girl or woman (Northwest and Central Russia, Lusatians, some Poles), as well as a twelve-year-old girl (Czechs). She is clad in white (the color of otherworldly beings and the sun), shiny (Russians, Poles, Czechs, Lusatians), sometimes red (Czechs, Arkhangelsk), homespun (Arkhangelsk), or traditional peasant (Poles) long garments. Alternatively, she may be naked (Poles, Russians), with only a piece of fabric draped over her shoulders (Subcarpathian Voivodeship). Her hair is white (Russians, Czechs), usually covered in white, sometimes black (Lusatians) or red (Poles), amusingly tied with a scarf (Poles), a white hood (Lusatians), or a wreath made of mature spikes (Kashubs). She wears a golden or silver belt (Greater Poland) and carries a bag (Poles).
However, she could also be imagined as a fearsome, ugly woman with long unkempt hair (Siberia, Poles, Moravians), black (Poles), with a black face (Arkhangelsk), old (Czechs, Lusatians), hunched (Czechs, Lusatians), toothless (Russians), with slanted eyes (Moravians), and hair down to her chest (Irkutsk). In Lenchitsky Voivodeship, they believed that the noonday spirit had a pale face, huge blood-red lips, red eyes, and a long red tongue, and instead of hair, she had withered grass on her head. In Siberia, she was depicted as resembling a frightening mermaid—hairy, long-haired with a large chest, and sometimes Poles likened her to a nightmare—skin and bones, a deathly face, sometimes even saying she had a skull with iron teeth instead of a head (Mazovia, Podlasie) or that she was a skeleton covered with remnants of clothes, making a creaking sound as her bones rubbed together when she moved (Podlasie Voivodeship).
Western Slavs attributed animal traits to the noonday spirit: legs like a peacock, cow eyes, nails on hands and feet resembling horse hooves (Poland, Moravia), horse legs (Moravia), swine bristles above the lips (Poles), protruding boar fangs from the mouth (Poles), a sparkling frog’s head (Little Poland), thin legs with hair or feathers (Seradz Voivodeship), hairy and horned (Perm), or with a single horn (Polish). The scary noonday spirit is dressed in white clothes (Little Poland, Moravia), rags (Siberia, Poland), a torn shirt revealing long withered breasts (Rava Voivodeship), or dirty rags; on her head is a black scarf, a black hat with red ribbons, and in her hands, she holds a cudgel (Siberia, Lusatians). The Lusatians used to say that a carelessly dressed girl looks like the noonday spirit.
According to most beliefs, the noonday spirit is distinguished by very tall stature (Lusatians, Poles, Northwest Russia), four times taller than an average person (Poles). Occasionally, it is mentioned that she is small (Lusatians, Czechs). In Siberia, it was believed that she could change her height—sometimes as tall as a cat, other times reaching the sky—and in Lusatia, it was thought that she grows larger as she approaches. In the Arkhangelsk region, it was told that the noonday spirit is “all eyes” (“eyes everywhere: eyes all around the head”) and that she can turn into a heap of hay with many eyes. Eastern Poles believed that the noonday spirit could be invisible, and the Czechs thought she was “airy.” In the Russian North, it was said that the noonday spirit has a ringing voice, while Western Slavs claimed that she sings beautifully, revealing herself through melancholic singing (Lusatians).
According to mythological tales, the noonday spirit may carry a huge frying pan and ladle, sickle, or iron hook (Russian North), a scythe (Poles, Lusatians), a stick with a knife at the end (Baltic Pomorze), a whip (Czechs), or a shining dagger (Greater Poland). According to Lusatian beliefs, the scythe of the noonday spirit can also be under her armpit, on a long stick, or in a basket. With these objects, she can kill a person. On the other hand, according to Lusatians, the noonday spirit may hold a bunch of flax. In Little Poland, it was believed that the noonday spirit was accompanied by seven large black dogs; in Kashubia, it was dogs and wolves. In Lenchitsky Voivodeship, it was said that the noonday spirit moves on a wheel from a plow.
Noonday spirits were associated with atmospheric phenomena. Russians and Poles linked them to the agitation of fields caused by the wind (“It’s her rushing through the rye”). In Little Poland, they even called them “południce-wietrznice” (‘noonday windmills’), believing that they spin windmills like spindles, carrying everything in their path. The noonday spirit could appear as a whirlwind (Czechs, Poles): Czechs described that initially, a small creature barely above the ground would appear, running and increasing in size more and more until it transformed into a whirlwind shooting up much higher than a person. Poles were told that when the noonday spirit disappeared in the form of a woman, a column of dust would rise in her place. In winter, the noonday spirit could manifest as snow clouds (Poles).
Way of Life
Noonday spirits were attributed to activity during the period from flowering to harvesting of grains; they rarely appeared in winter. Western Slavs believed that for the rest of the year, noonday spirits live in hell (according to some beliefs, serving their punishment for sins during their lifetime) or underground, falling into a long sleep (Poles), or transforming into mice, frogs, or adders (Poles). Among Poles, there were rare beliefs that noonday spirits in white clothes could appear on winter nights in snow-covered fields.
The characteristic time of day for the noonday spirit is the sunny noon (the moment of the sun’s culmination). Western Slavs sometimes specify that noonday spirits are active from 12 to 1 pm or from 12 to 2 pm, occasionally from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. In the Russian North, there were occasional reports of noonday spirits appearing at sunset or midnight. Lusatians believed that the noonday spirit did not appear in overcast and windy weather.
A typical location for the noonday spirit is a field, usually rye (Western Slavs, Northwest Russia) or pea (Poles, Russians), sometimes wheat, barley, oats, or lupine (Poles). She also appeared at the field boundary (everywhere), in the garden (Siberia, Middle Ural), where she sat in a furrow (Perm), near a river or on a bridge (Czechs), or in pits behind the village (Russian North, Lusatians, Poles). There were also stories of encounters with her in the village (Russian North) and even in the house (Czechs), in the bath, and in nettles (Southern Siberia).
According to folk beliefs, the noonday spirit guards grains and vegetables from people and the scorching rays of the sun. In the Vologda province, it was believed that the benevolent noonday spirit covered bread and grass with a giant frying pan at noon, protecting them from the sun. Conversely, the malevolent one turns the scalding pan the other way, burning the tops of grains and flower blossoms. Russians believed that the noonday spirit weaved the stalks of rye, cursing the field in the process. In the Russian North, tales were told that during the harvest, the noonday spirit sits in the rye, curled up with crossed legs and arms.
In the Arkhangelsk region, it was envisioned that the noonday spirit picks cornflowers in the rye, which in the Surgut region were even called “noonday’s eye,” suggesting, according to M.N. Vlasova, an underground origin. Lusatians shared stories of the noonday spirit mowing grass in the field at noon, disappearing when people appeared. They also claimed to have seen the noonday spirit combing her hair. Poles recounted that while sitting in the rye, she selects grains from the ears, crushes them in her hands, and eats.
Russians and Poles mentioned that the noonday spirit emerges from the forest into the field. The Lusatians said that around noon, when it becomes hot, the noonday spirit comes out of the grove or from behind the river, first sitting near the water or under the shade of a tree. She spends some time there, combing her hair, wiping sweat from her forehead, humming a melancholic song, and only then approaches people. Poles conveyed that during the flax blooming season, the noonday spirit descends from a cloud in a thin blue haze, gliding on the shimmering waves of heated air, either lulling or frightening those working with flax.
Beliefs about the origin of noonday spirits were not widely spread. However, among Western Slavs, there were notions that noonday spirits originated from “unclean” deceased individuals: evil, sinful people, especially child murderers, those who unlawfully seized someone else’s land, sorcerers, witches, and demons (Polish); or from those who died before getting married (Slovak). Among Poles, the noonday spirit could be traced back to a specific local deceased person. In later accounts, when the myth of noonday spirits had already faded from active use, informants connected the stories of their grandparents with ancient wonders, exiles, and convicts (Russian North, Siberia).
According to most beliefs, the noonday spirit is hostile and highly dangerous to people. There was an unwritten rule that peasants should return home at noon to feed livestock, have lunch, and pray. Working at this time, especially harvesting, was prohibited. It was also forbidden to sleep and mow grass on the boundaries.
Those who violated these prohibitions could be punished by the noonday spirit, causing fright, heatstroke, headaches, weakness, tickling to death, twisting the neck or head, decapitating with a sickle or scythe (universal belief; Poles suggested she could reattach the head, but afterwards it felt murky and heavy, making it difficult for a person to work for a long time), grabbing the head and turning it “until the neck breaks” or until the neck rubs raw with intense pain (Poshokhnye), strangulation (Poles), burning (Arkhangelsk region), gouging out eyes (Poles), beating so that the person couldn’t move for three days and suffered severe pain (Poles), trampling on the stomach of a sleeper and urinating on them (Silesian Voivodeship), unleashing her dogs (Lesser Poland), causing lameness (Lusatians), sending curses (Poles), striking with a whip, causing premature death, taking away with a whirlwind, or causing sudden death to those caught in the whirlwind (Czechs), dragging into the woods (Poles), jumping out of boundaries and chasing after people (Arkhangelsk region), mowing people with a humpbacked scythe (Pinezhie), or simply “not allowing them to work.”
It was said that she could, like a devil, torment a person, showing them a non-existent fire in the field (Krakow Voivodeship), making them wander (Slovaks), and leading them into an impenetrable thicket or impassable snowdrifts in winter (Poles). There was also a belief that if cows were not driven home from the field by noon, the noonday spirit could deprive them of milk (Poles). The noonday spirit carries a comb and forces those who encounter her to comb her long hair (Opole Voivodeship). If a person was compelled to work in the field by their master at noon, the noonday spirit could also punish the master (Lusatians). According to some Lusatian beliefs, the noonday spirit protected fields from thieves, beheading them with a sickle and putting their heads in her bag. There is also a documented story that a sickle-wielding woman drove away French soldiers from a treasure in 1813.
According to Polish and Lusatian beliefs, when the noonday spirit appeared to people in the field, she could start questioning them in great detail about some peasant work, often about growing flax and making linen fabric: “How… is it harvested, how many stings, how much is left, how was it sown, plowed, how it sprouted, bloomed, ripened, how it is harvested, winnowed, threshed, and ground…” It was necessary to answer her in detail, from beginning to end, continuously, until she disappeared when her active time ended. If a person could not answer, the noonday spirit killed, crippled, sent illness, turned them into stone, or tormented them to death with her questions. To the one who answered, she would say, “You took my strength,” “The devil taught you to sew shirts!” or “Now I am free.” According to some stories, she rewarded those who answered with gold (the Lusatians) or gave valuable advice (Kashubs). People could also initiate the telling of a plant’s “life” to protect themselves from the attacking noonday spirit (referring to the “magic of ‘compressed’ time”). Lusatians spoke of a too-curious person as one who questions like the noonday spirit. According to some Lusatian accounts, the noonday spirit did not reappear in that area after receiving answers.
Common measures against noonday spirits included crossing oneself, reciting prayers, sprinkling them with holy water, and running home (Poles). Noonday spirits always appeared to individuals. Russians believed that people could escape noonday spirits by climbing onto high columns, which they couldn’t climb due to their hooves. According to some Russian beliefs, the noonday spirit could only chase a person until the village boundaries. To escape tickling to death by the noonday spirit, one could fall to the ground (Arkhangelsk region).
Lusatians believed that the noonday spirit did not attack those who sat in the field by the fire at noon. They also believed that the noonday spirit warned of her presence with a cry, giving people a chance to hide. Lusatians also told a story about a stonemason who, not knowing the answers to the noonday spirit’s questions, tricked her and nailed her finger to the wall. A Lusatian shepherd managed to get rid of the sickle-wielding woman by thrice striking the ground with his whip. A Polish peasant managed to take away the scythe the noonday spirit intended to behead him with; meanwhile, the noonday spirit disappeared as the midday hour struck, leaving the notches on the scythe in the places where she touched it.
Russians had believed that at noon, noonday spirits walked through the village and “cut down” passersby, grabbing, scratching, and beating anyone they could catch. At noon and midnight, they peeked into homes and knocked out or licked windows with open shutters (Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions) or without curtains (Sverdlovsk region). Supposedly, people even boarded up windows because noonday spirits knocked out frames and entered inside (Arkhangelsk region). In the Vologda region, during a crop failure, one man stayed in the village to guard it against noonday spirits because they could get into houses and take away all the bread. The Czechs believed that the noonday spirit walked through villages and beat the legs of those who did not bow to her.
Lusatians said that if someone laughed at the appearance of an ugly noonday spirit spinning in the bushes, she would, with her breath, cause boils and sores on their face or bring paralysis upon them. However, if someone praised her or even gave her a gift, she could reciprocate by gifting that person an endless ball of yarn. In the Arkhangelsk province, there was a belief that the noonday spirit could appear at night and show a person how to obtain a flower that made them invisible. In the 1980s, in the Arkhangelsk region, peasant women believed that the appearance of noonday spirits predicted misfortune.
Midday, Birthgiver, and Children
Encounters with midday were often narrated by women. It was believed to be most perilous for pregnant and recently delivered women, as well as for young children. The Czechs believed that midday would punish “six-weekers” (women within six weeks after childbirth) if they left their designated, curtained corner with their bed in the house, let alone ventured outside or work during this period. Midday could sweep them away with a whirlwind or, by splashing water, drive them back into the house.
The Gorregon Slovaks believed that a woman during this period should not respond when called by name at night—this could be midday (as well as death or wild women), taking those who responded under its power. Midday would steal breastfed children (Russians, Czechs, and Poles), especially those left alone in the field (Czechs), and replace them (Czechs and Poles). Allegedly, a Czech woman once heard loud sounds from the bedroom where she left her infant. When she rushed in, she saw the bed engulfed in flames, and a white woman stood with her child. Then the woman and the flames disappeared, leaving an ugly child on the bed. Midday could strangle a child with its giant breasts (Poles).
Midday safeguards the harvest from trampling and theft by older children. It roasts them on its scorching pan (Russians), beats, devours, or buries them alive on the boundary (Poles), beheads them, and carries the heads in a barrel and the body in a sack (Lusatians). It steals, enticing them with sweets (Russian North), scares them, and makes them wander in the rye fields (Russians). Poles believed that midday searches for children in the field with its dogs gather them, frighten them around themselves, tickle them with cereal spikes, or make them tickle each other.
According to stories from Subcarpathian Voivodeship, midday gave children a choice: “Red ribbon or a barrel of money?” Those who chose the former would make blood cuts with a sickle; those who preferred the latter had to eat parasites found on its head (the connection between lice and money is traditional for Slavs). Stories of midday searching for and eating children’s lice were also told in the Seradz Voivodeship. Those who did not obey Midday were beaten or even killed. According to the German folklorist E. Weckenstedt, to save their children from being killed by midday in the field, Lusatians near the town of Drebaque (Drebkau) would leave foreign children there.
In later tradition, when the image was shattered, midday became a threatening character that which adults no longer believed. Still, they scared children with it, so they wouldn’t roam alone in the field, play in the garden, go outside in the midday heat, and go to bed on time. Children were told that midday would eat them, burn them, crush them, or beat them with a frying pan. For example, in Siberia in the 1970s and in Poland in the 1980s, to deter children from the garden, they would toss an old fur coat or turned-out sheepskin between the beds, a raincoat, an old hat, pick up a stick, or dress in rags and tell mischievous kids that it was midday.
In the Irkutsk province, children believed that midday was not always in the garden, so when approaching, they would shout, “Midday, take me!” to check its presence; if something suspicious happened afterward, such as the wind rustling the leaves, the children would run away in fear; otherwise, they would calmly proceed to the garden. People dressed up as midday and midday beings during the Christmas season: wearing fur coats inside out, covering their faces, walking through huts, and dancing (Perm, Surgut). The Russians also called a scarecrow in the garden midday (Perm) and an untidy, disheveled, and sleepy woman midday.
In Russian and Polish spells, midday, like midnight (nighttime), is infantile insomnia accompanied by restlessness and crying. Trying to cure the child of “infantile,” Russians would take them “to the dawn,” facing the dawn, and say, “Mother dawn-dawncess, red dawn maiden, take away from the servant of God [name] midnight and midday, and take away from him insomnia, give him sleep, take away lessons, take away wild roar, fear, and turmoil—for ages. Amen”; after that, they would return to the hut “backward,” that is, upside down (Yenisei). Poles, for the same purpose, went to the crossroads at noon and said, “Midday! Midday! Take these tears from my child and carry them to the edge of the world. Let them fly with the wind and never return to my family!” If the spell didn’t help, they left the baby’s swaddling clothes at the crossroads to get rid of the infant’s tears as well.
Midday and Others
In the 90th (91st) psalm of the Old Testament Psalter, among other dangers that threaten humans and from which the Lord is capable of protecting, there is mention of the “pestilence that stalks in the noonday” (Hebrew קֶטֶב מְרִירִי). In the Greek Septuagint, the phrase was translated as a midday demon (Greek δαιμονίου μεσημβρινου̃), giving rise to the mythical image. From there, personification transitioned into the prevalent Vulgate in the Middle Ages (Latin dæmonium meridianum) and Church Slavonic translations (demon of midday). In more modern Bible translations, personification is absent. Demonization also occurred in the Jewish Talmud and Midrash.
The midday demon is mentioned in the teachings of Cyril of Turov (12th century) and in the “Prayer of Daniel the Captive” (13th century). In the Russian North, there were few mentions of the midday creature (demon, midday demon, midday house spirit)—an unclean spirit of midday. In the Vologda region, it was believed that it could sneak into the cradle and harm the child. Old Believers performed a prayer at noon to banish the “midday demon.” In the Pinega region, it was believed that midday demons were the children of the midday demon.
In the Polesie region, a tale was recorded about the midday creature—a frightening black figure that died an “unclean” death and frightened a woman digging potatoes. In the Gomel region, rare names for the water spirit were documented—poŭdzěń and paludzjónnik—since it was believed that the water spirit was most active during this time, emerging from the water and dragging those who were bathing. In the Brest region, it was told that the midday demon scared people in the cemetery, appearing to them in the form of a deceased relative. In the Rovno region, it was said that at noon, “midday beings roar.” In the Zhytomyr region, there were beliefs about a creature called “polúdnitsa,” which would divert those who found themselves in the noonday forest—it seems to be a simple personification of midday. In the Voronezh region, a female character called “poludyonok” was recorded, tickling individuals who ventured into the forest at noon, especially on a berry-rich meadow.
In eastern Poland, occasional beliefs existed that midday could appear in the form of a man, primarily an old man in white clothing (południk, żytnik, diabeł polny). The Czechs also spoke of a male counterpart to midday (poledníček). The Moravian połedňák appeared during harvest in midday winds and scattered bundled sheaves. Meanwhile, the Moravian poledníček, in the form of a little boy, would come out of the forest at noon, calling people by name and leading them into the woods and mountains. It is challenging to determine whether the male form is a relic or a secondary development.
Among the Croats on the Adriatic coast, there is a belief that a ghost appears at noon, sometimes in the form of a legless donkey, a butterfly, or a large beetle, called “podne rogato” (‘horned midday’). Among the Bulgarians in the 17th century, the creature was documented under the name “pladnitsa.”
Relatives and Similar Characters
Several common features of Lady Midday or Poludnitsa are found in the field spirit among the Eastern Slavs: a connection with the field, midday, sun heat, wind, whirlwind, hostility towards humans, compelling them to wander, and white clothing. E. V. Pomerantseva even suggested considering them “as two manifestations—male and female—a unified concept of the field spirit.” N. A. Krinichnaya also points out that, to some extent, Lady Midday is a “metonymic equivalent of the field spirit.” The connection with boundaries unites Poludnitsa with the boundary guardian.
A closely related figure to Lady Midday is the North Russian udelnitsa/kudelnitsa (likely from “udit”—to see, to be filled with (about grain), and udenye”—hot time, midday rest)—a black woman with loose and tousled hair, associated with ripening, often rye, fields that she protects (mainly from children), as well as with boundaries, grain, and midday; udelnitsa is said to bring fever to women in labor and steal infants from the womb; some researchers believe this is the same mythological character as Poludnitsa.
In the Russian North, children were also scared away from bean fields by the heat spirits, known as zharenik and zharenya. In the Vologda province, the image of Lady Midday was transferred to Kikimora; it was said that she guarded the bean field with a hot frying pan. Ukrainians and Belarusians deterred children from fields with stories of the iron or wild woman (Belarusian: zhelezna baba, Ukrainian: zalizna baba, diva baba)—a short old woman with iron breasts who catches children with an iron hook, grinds them in an iron mortar, and eats them.
Slavic, Baltic, and German mythological figures like rye/wheat/grain woman/mother/matron/aunt/girl/woman, as well as grainkeeper/rye person/rye grandfather/grain snake/rye creature, are also present in the field, responsible for a good grain harvest and regulating the behavior of people (often children) during the ripening of cereals; some of them are also associated with midday. Poles spoke of the activation of various field spirits at noon: invisible zwodziciele that lead people astray, crop-damaging field and midday devils (diabły), frightening grain maidens (żytniczki), as well as midday and grain witches, grain mermaids, and something undefined but frightening. Polish pea women (baby grochowe)—women in dresses made of pea straw or with pea branches instead of hair, appearing in the summer in pea and lupine fields, strangling reapers, and playing with children in the field (northern Podlasie)—are also close to Lady Midday.
Lady Midday may be conflated with rusalkas, mavkas, and vily, who also appears in the field, often rye, in white clothing with long loose hair, having a ringing voice, tickling people, unscrewing and tearing off their heads, and abducting children; they are most active at the same time of the year (Russian, especially the Russian North, Polish-Ukrainian borderland). Given that the territory of Lady Midday corresponds to the distribution area of the frightening rusalka, V. I. Dyin hypothesizes that beautiful rusalka took the place of Lady Midday where the latter were known to inhabit fields and wear white clothing. R. Kayu also observed that among Belarusians, rusalkas replaced Poludnitsas.
During the fading of old beliefs, the names of Poludnitsas (Lady Midday) and Rusalkas in some regions could become interchangeable. For example, in Central Slovakia, the same mythological character called Lady Midday was known as Vila in Western Slovakia and Rusalka in Eastern Slovakia. She looked like a bride or a barefoot woman in a long shawl or tattered skirt, sometimes with large breasts hanging over her shoulders. She originated from the souls of brides who died before the wedding, brides who married another bride, women who died before the church purification of women in labor, and old maids who died. Central Slovak Poludnitsas attacked those who violated the mythical prohibitions of women in labor and kidnapped children from them. They loved to dance, trampling circles in the grass, dancing people to death, and ululating, carrying away those who responded to them or laughed at them. According to some beliefs, they roamed fields or mountain forests, luring and killing men. One could escape from them only by picking a blue bellflower.
Similar to Lady Midday are Polish evening women (wieczornice), with the exception that their activity is not associated with midday but with the evening (Greater Poland). In appearance and actions, as with other female characters, Russians have personified days of the week; similarly, Lady Midday could punish Poles for working in the field on Sundays. The terrifying appearance of Lady Midday, according to some beliefs, resembles that of a witch, Mara, or Baba Yaga. Lady Midday also share common features with whirlwinds, in the form of which they can carry away a person (Czechs). Lusatians could mix the sickle woman with Anna Zubata, an ugly wild woman with loose black hair, burning eyes, huge fangs, and a hairy tongue, emerging at midnight from her cave in the forest and hunting for young men.
Several spirits among the Western Slavs were close to Lady Midday in her “pedagogical” function, especially Czech klekánice and klekáníček, derived from “klynkanica”—a demon by the abduction of which parents scared children to go home after the evening prayer of the “Angel of the Lord” accompanied by bells (Czech klekání). Like Lady Midday, this creature was depicted as an ugly old woman with tousled hair, squinting eyes, and hooves. Similarly, as a man walking on his knees, a terrible man with horns, or a swirling dust column, Here, one can also mention Czech characters like nemodlenka—taking away children who refuse to pray; postelníček—waking up those who love to lie in bed; škrabinožka—scraping dirt off feet with a knife, and others.”
According to some Russian beliefs, Poludnitsas live in water; in winter, they can emerge from ice holes, and in summer, similar to water nymphs, they sit on a stump, combing their long black hair with a wooden comb and dragging bathing children away (Irkutsk). They attack swimmers and washers from July 6 to July 19 (“midday” of the year) and drown bathers after Ilyin Day – July 20 (August 2) (Perm, Irkutsk, Pinezh). Similarly, in some areas of Central Slovakia, Lady Midday was merged with the water woman (Slovak: vodná baba): she lives in the water, comes to the fields, and enters homes to replace children.
The image of the Russian Poludnitsa influenced the formation of mythological beliefs about field spirits among the Komi and likely the Estonians. In Komi mythology (Komi-Permian: vunshorika, Komi: pölöznicha – the first name is a loan translation from Russian, the second is a direct borrowing), Lady Midday lives in blooming rye and guards it. She walks along the boundaries and stirs the ears; due to fear of her, the Komi-Permians would go home during her active period, closing windows and sitting quietly, afraid to inflict mystical harm on the crops and incur her wrath. Eastern Estonians believed that during the midday of rye flowering, one should fear the “rye girl.” S. K. Kuznetsov attributed the influence of the Russian Poludnitsa to the “walking along the boundaries and encounters with people” of the Mari Mland-ava and Udmurt Mu-Kyldysy. Some correspondences to Lady Midday can be found in the spirits of the rye field in Mordovian mythology, but it is not appropriate to speak of genetic connections in this context.
Character Analysis
According to S. A. Tokarev and other authors, it is evident that Lady Midday is an embodiment of the danger that arises from excessive work in the fields under the open sky during the peak of summer heat – the danger of sunstroke. The myth of Lady Midday was explained by heart attacks and deaths caused by prolonged fieldwork on hot days, as well as feelings of suffocation and chest pressure with bad dreams during midday rest. Peasants might dream of the mythical character known to them from folk beliefs. According to Tokarev, the intoxicating effect of lupine fields could further contribute to these beliefs. T. A. Mikhailova suggests that behind the beliefs in the deadly harm of Lady Midday to small children (similar to other characters) could be real cases of cruel or neglectful treatment leading to their deaths, displaced from individual and collective memory by attributing the blame to the demon.
According to Ya. S. Bystronya, Poludnitsa also symbolizes the “agitated field, white, scorching sky, and dazzling sun rays.” V. Richter wrote that the concept of Lady Midday likely arose from the dead silence in the fields at noon, especially before a storm when tiny whirlwinds of wind raised dust and immediately disappeared, air swelled above the grain, and the whitish sky resounded with warmth. The solitude of a person in this situation is manifested in personification.
Apparently, the image of Lady Midday is ancient and primordial, as indicated by the widespread beliefs and mythological stories about her and their unity in basic features: female gender, connection with the sun, appearance at noon in the field or garden, hostility towards humans, especially children. Some scholars, like E. V. Pomerantseva, believed that the image of Lady Midday combines ideas about four types of demons related to mature grain fields: vegetation demons, atmospheric demons, midday demons, and child abductors. She doubted the existence of special grain demons whose cult could be among harvesters, considering it more of a figurative-poetic representation incorporating elements of the mentioned types. While relying on a solid ancient tradition, this representation varies widely not only across different regions but also in different villages, reflecting the imagination of local residents.
According to L. Pelki, the image of Poludnitsa is complex: her appearance in the fields in spring and disappearance in autumn echoes an ancient Slavic cult of birth and death in nature personified by the deity of cereal crops’ vegetation. Later, traits of atmospheric spirits were added, turning Lady Midday into a personification of dangers that can threaten people in the field on a hot summer noon. Eventually, under the influence of Christianity, Lady Midday was aligned with other dangerous female demons like mamy and divozen. O. A. Cherepanova believes that Lady Midday, like many mythological characters known from later materials, goes back to a “common archetype – an ancient deity of vegetation and fertility associated with the sun and water, with children and childbirth.”
In the characteristics of these “descendants,” with time, one predominant trait emerged, particularly for Lady Midday – the connection with noon. According to E. E. Levkievskaya, “Poludnitsa combines features of a solar spirit associated with summer sunlight and heat” and a “seasonal demon, manifesting itself during the flowering and ripening of grain, influencing plant vegetation.” According to M. N. Vlasova, Lady Midday is a “being endowed with an almost universal supernatural power: she is both personified time and the ruler of life, fertility.” She writes, “At the same time, Lady Midday, walking in the ripening grain, is the spirit of the field, the midday flourishing of the land, and the ‘mistress’ of the field boundary, the border.” In mythology, the field is interpreted as a cultural periphery, the boundary between “one’s own” and “foreign” worlds, a place of temporary residence for demons.
Lady Midday is a personification of both the field and noon. Noon is the time of maximum sun activity, a crucial moment of the day, and a symbolic boundary between its morning and evening halves. Like other similar moments, it was considered a sacred and dangerous time, “unclean,” activating various mythical beings, mostly associated with “unclean” deceased or atmospheric phenomena. Therefore, people were advised to stop all work and rest at noon. L. Radenkovich writes that “noon possesses the characteristic of ‘stopped’ time, and thus, if time is motionless and doesn’t turn, it also has the character of ‘timelessness’ and belongs to beings outside the flow of time, namely, souls of the deceased and demons.
Therefore, people are forbidden to work at noon to avoid harming the spirits active during this time.” Even in the “Teaching of Vladimir Monomakh” (12th century), it was said: “Sleep was appointed by God at noon. According to this rule, both animals, birds, and people rest.” According to some beliefs, one should sleep at noon, while according to others, it could be dangerous since the spirits of this time might induce unhealthy sleep and illness. The term “poldnovat” in Southern Siberia and on the White Sea meant living the last minutes before death (“barely the soul lingers in the body at noon”). Notions of the mythical danger of noon were present among many peoples; even the ancient Greeks associated noon with the activation of mythological beings.
According to V. V. Ivanov and V. N. Toporov, the contrast between Lady Midday and Polunochnitsa is most vividly expressed in Slavic mythology through the opposition of white-black and day-night. They are also opposed “in terms of their economic function: protection, guarding fields and grains—spinning, as well as in elements: dry places—wet places.” They believe that “judging by the level to which these beings belong, their opposition and corresponding features in terms of expression, including names, can be reliably traced back to Proto-Slavic.”