INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

This week we’re heading back over to home with the European myth monster, the Nixie. The Nixie has many many different names in different languages, but I’m going to stick with Nixie, I’ll get into the others and their meanings later on. You know me and my etymology - I’ll get on it babes.

DESCRIPTION:

Nixie are defined as a shape shifting, water dwelling musically inclined spirit from Germanic mythology - now that does not mean mythology that is specific to Germany, but more the Germanic speaking language countries, which does include Germany, but also all of Scandinavia. And actually, they are best known from Scandinavian folklore!

Before we jump into our normal description segment; there are actually completely different descriptions based on their culture that lists them and they all have different names based on where they come from so I’ll talk about those too as I said. So it’s actually a little tricky to describe them because of this, but the best way to think of them is like a little water spirit - I think that’s the easiest way to think of them without any cultural influence.

Now the Scandinavians call Nixie, Nokken, with the funny cross through the o, or Nack with the umlaut over the a. They are described as half human, half fish, that lives in an underwater palace. Their most famous form is that of a naked man playing an instrument, usually a violin or viola. They played enchanted songs to tempt children and women into the water to drown them, and pregnant women were particularly susceptible to this. But that doesn’t mean that men didn’t get tempted either - they would pick up the unsuspecting, enchanted victim and carry them off into the water with them fighting for their life. 

Kind of staying in the same area, they also came up in Faroese folklore, called Nykur, and they primarily live in their other most frequent form which is that of a gorgeous white water horse, which kind of like the Scottish Kelpie, would lure in women and children to drown in lakes or streams. However, as well as a horse, it can be any type of four-legged animal such as a sheep or ram.

In Germanic mythology, actually in Germany, they were called Nix or Nixie, which is what I’m sticking with! These were more of a mermaid type creature although considered a water spirit, half women, half fish and they still sing and try to tempt kids into the water nearby. They were excellent dancers and also had the gift of prophecy, and they could even have children with humans. This description is awfully close to that of a Greek siren or just the mermaid, but the siren suits it more with the enchanting and deadly song.

So how do you stop a Nixie from stealing your off into it’s watery palace beneath the waves? 

You could find out their name, apparently that was enough to cause their death if they heard it. However, not sure if screaming random names at the top of your lungs would massively help, what if his name was just Dave, how devastating would this be if you were calling Lancelot and cool mythical names? You could also treat them to three drops of blood, a black animal of some kind, some Scandi vodka and some snuff - not powder, but snus - drop this into the water that they live in and they would supposedly teach you their form of music to, I don’t know, enchant your enemies to drowning themselves? 

If they’re in their horse form and you’re in the Faroe Islands for some reason - you can tame them much like Kelpies, by either carving a cross on their back or just harnessing it, sounds easier than it probably is. They also get depressed when they don’t go back to their watery homes, so they can only chase you for so long. 

They were mostly active during Midsummer, on Christmas Eve or just on Thursdays, that sounds like my favourite work schedule. 

ORIGIN:

So where did the term Nixie come from I hear you ask? The word comes from Common Germanic, from the work neig - which means to wash. Neck in Swedish means nude, which is funny if you think of the term neked. Nykr, the Icelandic and Faroese term means river horse and the old English word is nicor, meaning water monster. 

Cool fact with that last one, is that Nicor was the name given to the river monster in the epic poem Beowulf - so it’s thought that the monster there was a Nixie too!

Nixies are referenced in poetry from at least 1210, when they were noted in the epic German poem ‘Nibelungenlied’. However, oral traditions go back so much further, especially in Scandinavian and Germanic myth. There’s actually a couple of texts talking about Nixie, including this lovely extract I’ll read from Brother Fabian’s manuscript by Sebastian Evans from the 19th century;  

‘Where by the marishes boometh the bittern,

Neckar the soulless one sits with his ghittern.

Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless.

Waiting his destiny, – Neckar the soulless.’

Neckar here being the Nixie referred to, by the way.

There’s a great folklore story from Sweden, which is that water lilies are called nix roses - this is because a father from the forest region of Tiveden promised his daughter to a Nixie, who saved him by giving them lots of fish during a dry season. She refused to marry the creature, and actually stabbed herself, which stained the nearby lilies red from their lovely white - to this day the water lilies found in this area are sometimes red!

This leads us on nicely to another cool fact. During the European romantic era (1800 to 1850), Nixie were actually looked at as the best potential partners. These creatures are so unbelievably beautiful that who could help but fall in love with them, and actually they fall for humans back - which is nice. However, they usually do not end well - mainly because the Nixie after time, cannot bear to be away from it’s home and will return to it, leaving behind their life with their partner, no matter how much they loved them. Very very similar to Selkies in the way that they affectionately love their partner, as well as posing a threat to them.

Over time, when Catholicism took hold - they adapted this for this narrative and the Nixie was made to have a desire for Christian redemption and an immortal soul. Their music was apparently a protest against being excluded from the church, and anyone who stopped and heard them or even helped them would feel an overwhelming pity for them as godless creatures.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto cultural significance, for art this week there are actually a load! My favourite is Nokken by Theodor Kittelsen from 1904, which is the image I’ve been using to advertise this episode and I think it’s really haunting. He actually did a Brook horse version called the Neck and Boy on White Horse. There’s also Nacken or The Water Sprite by Ernst Josephson from 1884, Naken och Agirs dottrar by Nils Blommer in 1850 - which shows them with Nine Daughters of Aegir and Ran from Norse myth, if you know that myth. 

There’s also a lovely statue in Sweden called Nackens polska of a Nixie dancing on top of a lovely column in front of Uppsala Central train station!

For movies, there aren’t many but the one that stood out to me was Frozen 2 - and I know what you’re thinking, Erin - there were no weird music playing monsters in Frozen 2, just a bunch of singing reindeer! No, think harder, the horse that Elsa rides to Ahtohallan is actually a Nixie or as called in the film Nokk. 

I struggled to find any TV for this monster this week! How crazy is that?! If anyone knows any, please do let me know!

For video games there are a few including; Valheim, Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons - where they’re actually a pretty big deal and most people know them from there actually and lastly a Swedish horror game; Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn, which looks way too scary for me.

Book recommendation this week would be more of a poem recommendation - have a look at Beowulf if you’ve not read it. Noone knows who it was written by, but it’s one of the most incredible feats of Old English and European scripture and it’s an awesome story actually. For my actual book recommendation, it would be Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Now Neil Gaiman is known for Coraline, Good Omens and other creepy Tim-Burton style stories, but Norse Mythology is just such a good book summarising all of Norse myth, which the author has written loads of books around.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? Hmm, much like the Kelpie, the Kappa and any water based monsters we’ve covered in the past on this podcast, it’s really quite tricky to nail down if something like this exists, or even, could exist. 

I think this one is more similar to the Kelpie (especially because of the horse thing), the Selkie, the Siren or maybe even the Banshee that we covered two weeks ago now, where they kind of dwell near shallower depths of water as more of a warning to children and the vulnerable to stay away from the lakes and rivers near their homes. And we all know that in Scandinavia at least, the lakes around there are the fjords, which are particularly deadly due to their temperature - that might explain the shock factor too, maybe people hallucinated these monsters as they went into shock and drowned.

But who knows, it might be a Nixie out for revenge or just  laugh and thought it was a fun idea to pull your leg. I can’t say that I’ll ever be okay with swimming in the Fjords though. One of my friends at my previous workplace actually swam in the Fjords for fun, and I thought that was mental, and still do.

OUTRO: 

That was a cool one, right? I know I talked about this earlier, but the image that I advertised this episode with initially tempted me to do this creature, mainly because I love anything water based - but I generally think this monster is really cool and is in a lot of mythologies, so it’s even better! You can check out this cool image on the Twitter or the Instagram if you are curious, but it is quite spooky and quite cool.

Next week we’re staying in Europe, but technically going up fully to Scandinavia to celebrate me booking flights to Denmark to see my lovely colleagues over there! Thank you vaccine! We’re going to be looking into the legendary Jotunn from Norse mythology, some of the most famous monsters from this mythos! Come trundling in next week to find out more about these horrible giants.

For now thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - the shiny new website!

So come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.