· 5 min read
Samodivi: the forest maidens of Bulgarian legend
Beautiful, white and dangerous. The samodivi dance the horo in the meadows at night — and whoever takes hands in it doesn’t come back.
The samodivi (singular: samodiva) are among the best-known figures in Bulgarian folklore. The songs describe them as maidens in white shirts with long hair, lovely as the sun, living far from people — in the mountains, the forests, by the lakes. Their beauty is dangerous. Whoever sees them is rarely the same again.
Where they come from
The samodivi belong to the beliefs of the South Slavs — kin to the Serbian vile and the East Slavic rusalki. Some scholars compare them to Thracian nymphs. The name is linked to “sam” and “div” — alone and wild: beings who live apart, outside the village and its rules.
Where they live
In the mountains — Pirin, Rila, the Rhodopes, Strandzha. They love meadows, old trees, springs and lakes. The places where they danced are called samodiva grounds, and there are still places in Bulgaria with such names.
The dance
At night the samodivi dance the horo, the Bulgarian circle dance, until the first roosters crow. It is beautiful and it is a trap: whoever takes hands in it is danced to death or carried off. Afterwards no grass grows on the spot.
So old people wouldn’t walk through the forest alone at night or step into rings of trampled grass. Whoever stepped onto a samodiva ground could fall ill — “struck” by the samodivi. In north-western Bulgaria, bands of men called rusalii danced ritual dances to heal such people.
Their power is in their clothes
A samodiva has a shirt, wings or a belt that hold all her power. Without them she can’t fly and can’t leave. In the songs a young man watches her bathe at a spring, steals her clothes and takes her for his wife. She lives with him, bears his children — and waits. The moment she gets her clothes back, she flies away and never returns.
Herbs and midsummer
The samodivi know every herb — how to heal and how to harm. That ties them to Enyovden, 24 June, when by the belief herbs are at their strongest and are picked before sunrise. On the night before Enyovden, the samodivi are everywhere. They are just as dangerous in Rusalia week, after Pentecost: then nobody walks alone in the forest, sleeps under a tree or drinks from an unknown spring.
“Не влизай в хорото” — don’t join the horo
The samodivi are the second legend in our Dark Folklore collection. On the back of the „Самодиви“ tee is a horo of seven samodivi seen from above, with orange bare footprints leading out of the circle, over the words “Който влезе, не се връща” — whoever steps in doesn’t come back.
In short
The samodivi are the forest maidens of Bulgarian folklore — beautiful, free and dangerous. They dance at night until the first roosters, their power is in their clothes, and they are most dangerous in Rusalia week and around midsummer.
