Morowa Dziewica

In this week's episode, we're heading over to Poland to look at the terrifying Plague Maidens - or Morowa Dziewica! How do these monsters relate to Jewish pogroms? How much do I love talking about the Black Death? Find out this week!

Transcript

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.

It’s been another super hot week here in the UK and I’m glad we’re on the other end of it, although I do have a BBQ this weekend and I hope the weather is at least a little nice for that.

A note for this week, I’m most likely going to embarrass myself with terrible pronunciation in this episode, so I’ll pre-warn you now that Slavic languages are hard and I’ve tried my best.

DESCRIPTION:

Before we start, a big shout out to Joy and her sister who sent me a lovely instagram message about a year ago to ask for this monster, so of course - your wish is my command and we’re bringing in the Maid of Pestilence over from Poland to be our guest monster this week. 

The Plague Maiden, or Morowa Dziewica in her native tongue, is described as a haunting female spirit in Polish and Lithuanian folklore. She has a couple of descriptions across the board, but one of the most common is that she is a beautiful, tall woman wearing a white long dress, but on closer inspection, she is riddled with plague sores - which were festering wounds filled with pus and blood, and were highly infectious. She is also depicted wearing a wreath made of either copper or sometimes fire on her head, with dark hair ghostly moving around in the air around her. 

She is also sometimes depicted as a much older woman, who is haggard and not so beautiful, but it may be that they are one and the same, but show different versions to different people. One thing folklorists agree upon though is that she waves a red handkerchief, which is either dyed intentionally or red from blood from plague sores. 

Plague Maidens, which to avoid the murder of the Polish language I will be referring to them throughout this episode as, were cursed to show up as an omen of death, but more specifically, an omen of the plague and pestilence - and anyone who saw her would be foretold that the plague would be sweeping through their town, and most likely, wiping out a whole load of people. 

She would indicate which house would be affected by waving her blood-red plague-y handkerchief into the thresholds of the village houses, but it was said that if you were kind to strange women, the Plague Maiden would avoid your house and you and your household would survive.

However, in regards to her powers, that’s about it - she was said to bring the plague with her wherever she went, making her almost a herald of pestilence that we see in other mythologies and religious stories. Although they would appear in either these robes or dresses which would expose some of the rotting flesh, there was nothing to indicate that they were carrying all this disease physically unless you got close enough to see the sores.

It’s also generally debated on whether they actually control the plague, or if they are just omens of it coming - as there are instances of Plague Maidens sparing those who showed them kindness in life, or in death when they can see them. It would be a pretty insane power - but it’s really not known for sure.

They also typically do not appear as stereotypically ghostly, there’s no aura around them and they’re not translucent, the only give away is that only those intended to see her, would. 

It is said that to become a plague maiden, you would, funnily enough, need to die of the plague and have some unfinished business - usually something pretty rough and to do with the plague, like you were put out of your misery by a kind family member and murdered, or you spread it to your village, or brought it to your village for instance. The guilt, shame or disgrace mixed with being a plague victim would generally turn you into this harbinger of disease for others. 

We actually don’t know very much about this monster with the exception of what I’ve told you already, but we can make some assumptions, they don’t eat and they don’t reproduce - their method of reproduction is just for more women to die of plague with bad things linked to that death, which was pretty easy back in those days. 

This monster is text-book European, especially with the stress on the Black plague itself - but the Morowa Dzeiwica was the Polish and Lithuanian Plague Maiden specifically, and you could find her hanging around plague-destined towns and villages in the middle ages - which is a hint for our origins here too, but I’m sure you may have guessed unless you thought I was talking about modern plagues. Big note here is that I’m talking about the European Black Death, not just something we would refer to as a plague now, which was used for something like COVID-19, but is also used for someone spreading something as simple as a cold, or just to avoid someone you really don’t want to be around.

ORIGIN:

But we’re creeping too much onto etymology and metaphors here so speaking of which, let’s talk etymology. I hate to say it but this one is pretty self-explanatory, and even the Polish word literally means plague maiden, so it’s a woman who comes with plague - that’s about it.

What I can tell you is that they have a couple of other names, such as Maid of Pestilence, Plague Woman and Pesta - but I mean, all of them are also pretty self-explanatory too except Pesta, although is it not? It’s short for pestilence, I don’t know how much of this I need to tell you honestly.

Anyway, the history of this monster is really easy to get into and we have a couple of stories that also back this up. But first we need to launch ourselves back to the Middle Ages when this monster was created, which was between 500 to 1500 AD, but more specifically we’re going to 1347 to 1351 AD when the Black Death was absolutely ravaging Europe. This was my favourite subject I ever studied at school in history, maybe with the exception of Jack the Ripper - so buckle in for some nerd Erin time.

The Black Death is probably one of the most horrific death events in world history, let alone European history. It was otherwise known as the Bubonic Plague, the Pestilence or the Plague, but it was super contagious and super deadly. It affected almost every country in Europe in a time where sanitation was poor and the understanding of disease, infection and contagion was really limited, therefore ended in the deaths of 30-60% of the European population, as well as 33% of the Middle East, which we believe it came from originally. 

It was most likely spread by rat fleas, and because of the poor hygiene in European towns, rats were EVERYWHERE. The infection generally started with a fever, achy joints, headaches and vomiting, but would eventually develop into massive buboes or pustules in glandular regions that would burst with infection as well as vomiting blood, limb gangrene and eventually death would follow within, on average, eight days. Also, the corpses of plague victims were still massively contagious, so they were buried in mass graves, no matter their religion or beliefs and many are still unnamed and unfound to this day.

Sorry for the deep dive, it’s just massively interesting and I honestly wrote that mostly from memory too. But from that, you know how deadly it was and how wide spread, you can understand how whole households would have been affected as well as if you had any inkling that plague was coming, you would be absolutely terrified - which is where our Maid of Pestilence comes in. 

Poland is completely landlocked and was surrounded by plague-infected countries, but actually was relatively unaffected during this time, which made it so much worse when they did get one or two towns hit by the plague and their fear was heightened. We believe it was mostly unaffected because of a lack of trading routes through the country due to the heavy forested landscape and a bad economy - but it wasn’t okay for some of Poland’s people. 

The Black Plague in Poland was actually often blamed on the Jewish community, because of a large number of Jewish people being forced from country to country and many of them settling in a welcoming Poland. Because of their migrations, they were blamed - however, the Jewish community may have also increased Poland’s immunity to the plague by introducing hygienics from their practices into Polish society. 

Which is what makes that and our monster more interesting, a dark-haired unfamiliar maiden spreading the plague in a time where dark-haired strangers were believed to be spreading it by fleeing into their country - it’s a theory that some folklorists believe connect the Plague Maidens. However, with the great fear of something as fatal as the plague, the existence of them could be attributed to just plain fear of the unknown killer and a great omen warning them of it, which wasn’t uncommon in Polish folklore or European folklore beforehand.

We do have some stories about the Plague Maidens, one of which being that a Plague Woman turned up to a town she wasn’t familiar with and asked for help, but all of the townsfolk turned her away as a stranger or a witch, but one man takes her in and gives her a ride to show her the town. She remembers his house, and when the plague wreaks havoc on the town - his home is unaffected and he and his family survive.

Another story is that of Konrad Wallenrod, who was a hero who killed a Plague Maiden with a sword with Jesus and the Virgin Mary’s names etched into it. He stole the Maiden’s handkerchief, and whilst the man and his whole family do die of plague - the rest of the town survives and is never affected by another plague. Apparently this was a true story and the handkerchief was kept in a church, but the location is never told in the poem that this comes from. 

Here’s a little extract of when they find her, but just as a note, this poem was from much later in 1828, so definitely was not written by someone of the time;

On desert plains and churchyards, sayeth fame,

Stands visibly the pestilential maid,

In white, upon her brow a wreath of flame,

Her brow the trees of Bialowiez outbraves,

And in her hand a blood-stained cloth she waves.

The castle guards in terror veil their eyes,

The peasants’ dogs, deep burrowing in the ground,

Scent death approaching, howl with fearful cries

The maid’s ill-boding step, o’er all is found;

O’er hamlets, castles, and rich towns she goes.

Oft as she waves the bloody cloth, no less

A palace changes to a wilderness;

Where treads her foot a recent grave up-grows.

Now enough of my history lessons, what could this monster actually be? Well it’s a simple one, it’s a personification of fear and treated like an omen - however, actually most likely to have been a hallucination or a dream even. You have to put yourself in the mind of a Middle Ages peasant when millions of people around you are sick and dying, it doesn’t give comfort to know it’s coming - but it’s good to know nonetheless. 

Of course, there are some big mythical monsters that are like these lovely maidens. Banshees from Celtic mythology really come to mind with this monster, wailing around houses of the soon-to-be deceased but as well as this, we do have the Horseman of Pestilence themselves from Biblical mythology - a rider who spreads disease and infection, and was blamed for the Black Death by religious people who thought this may have meant the end times - and to be honest, they weren’t far off. 

70-200 million people died of the Black Death, which is more than the population of the UK, and is actually more than the population of the UK, France, Germany and Spain put together in its highest peak - it was truly devastating for Europe, so I totally would also have thought it was the apocalypse too.  

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

But now onto modern media, we only really have one piece of media and that’s the Witcher games, which have starred Plague Maidens under the name Pesta, but otherwise, I’ve filled this in with pestilence carriers, which I think embodies her.

For art, have a look at Plague Maiden: Another Polish Myth by Giovanni Fim as well as the Pesta cards from the Witcher Gwent card game, but otherwise stick with independent stuff for this one and you won’t be disappointed. 

In movies, we have; Miss Mend, Panic in the Streets, Anazapta, Black Death, Isle of the Dead, The Seventh Seal, The Last Duel, Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance

 & Season of the Witch.

For TV, we have; True Blood, Ghosts, Mystery Hunters, Brimstone, Gotham, Babylon 5, Supernatural, Body of Proof, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Skeleton Warriors, Family Guy, Inhumanoids, Stargate SG-1, Codename Kids Next Door, Spiral Zone, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, One Piece & Yu-Gi-Oh!

In video games, we have ones such as; The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Medieval 2: Total War, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Vampyr, Plague Inc, Crusader Kings, Borderlands 2, Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls, Diablo, League of Legends, Stellaris, Prototype, Heroes of the Storm, Guild Wars 2, Goose Goose Duck, For Honor, EverQuest, Grim Dawn, Touhou Project, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Town of Salem, Warlords Battlecry 3, Tears to Tiara 2, Dota 2, Battleborn, Trauma Center (Atlus) & Dragon Age.

My book recommendation this week was also recommended to me by Joy who suggested this monster, which was for Polish Folklore and Myth by Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret & Alice Wadowski-Bak or The Slavic Myths by Noah Charney & Svetlana Slapšak for some great Polish myths and legends. 

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

I mean probably no, and actually I would say that it’s more plausible because it’s a ghost. If it wasn’t I’d be a solid no, because I generally think this was most likely a scapegoat for someone bringing the plague in. With that I mean that someone brings in the plague, starts seeing symptoms and says that they saw a ghostly maiden predicting it or even bringing it itself.

However, I LOVE this monster and the idea of her, but I think that’s because I really enjoy the idea of someone wielding Pestilence, which was also always my favourite horseman. I also play an Affliction Warlock in World of Warcraft, so I do like the whole disease and power thing in my nerdy life too - and even World of Warcraft had a plague once, highly recommend looking into that too because it was so massive that they even studied it during COVID to look into transmission.

I also really loved studying disease, but definitely something as interesting as the Black Death - which is so massive in European history and is one of those historical events that all Europeans can kind of relate to. 

I also think these must look pretty cool and there’s an awesome version of this in the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in a whole questline about one - they’re really scary to look at, but so unbelievably cool from a video games perspective - so I recommend checking that out and The Witcher in general if you’re into Polish myth monsters, because it’s based off of Polish folklore!

But what do you think? Did the Plague Maidens spread or predict the plague across Europe? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A super cool monster this week and one I could proper geek out on, and another big thank you to Joy and her sister for sending this over - I really love doing suggested monsters, so if you’ve got one you want to hear about, reach out to me!

Next week, we’re heading over to Japan to the coldest parts to play host to a frozen spirit. Don’t let the Yuki-onna hug you next Thursday or you’ll freeze to death in an instance.

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, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk, including some very cool merchandise - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

Come join the fun though 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.