#field spirits

? days of Slavic mythology:

Mythological creatures:

demons of nature: land spirits

Other than their gods, ancient Slavs prayed to some lesser beings too when it came to their crops. Here are a few:

Polevoj/Polevojik - some have described him as a man dressed in white and with hair of grass, and some as a dwarf with a face the color of dirt. This being was supposedly very protective of his piece of land, so if a drunk or a traveler fell asleep in his territory, they were killed.

Poludnica - a female spirit similar to Polevoj. What's characteristic about her is that she had forbidden any sort of field work around noon, for that was the time for rest. If anyone disobeyed her, she would pinch or pull the hair of those who did. If people were to greet her improperly, she would lure their children outside to get lost. In Ukraine, there's a different myth - Poludnica's are Moon girls who lure the Sun's rays onto the fields.

Prija - a spirit from Russian folklore connected to land fertility/growing crops.

Sunčanica/Sunchanitza - a being from the folklore of Lusatian Sorbs. She was similar to Poludnica, except that she would punish those who worked the field at noon much worse - with death. Sunchanitza is the personification of death by exposure to Sun.