Tradition / Region: Estonian Mythology
Alternative names: Sacred Grove Maidens
Category: Zombie
The Myth
The Hiieneitsid are mysterious white maidens who dwell within sacred groves. They are described as pale, naked women who guard these ancient holy places together with their red dogs.
According to a legend from Kassari Island, a vast sacred oak forest once covered the center of the island, separating two villages that did not know of each other’s existence. After a wandering pig discovered a path through the forest, the villagers began traveling between the settlements.
At first, people passed through the sacred grove without trouble. Later, however, the Hiieneitsid appeared with their red dogs and stopped everyone on the path, asking: “Do you know the song of the Hiieneitsi?” Those who could recite the sacred song were allowed to continue, but anyone who did not know it was chased away by the dogs.
The Hiieneitsid themselves taught this song to a few people by repeating it to them. Others composed their own verses in hopes of passing through unseen, beginning with the words:
“The Hiieneitsid did not see me,
Nor did the dogs of the Hiieneitsid…”
The maidens also forbade people from entering the sacred grove to perform sacrifices or hold religious ceremonies.
The great sacred grove was eventually cut down, leaving only memories, local traditions, and place names behind. One later explanation claimed that the Hiieneitsid had actually been Catholic priests disguised in strange garments to frighten people away from the old sacred grove, though the older tradition remembered them as supernatural guardians of the sacred forest.
Sources
Matthias Johann Eisen. (2002). Hiieneitsid (No. 117). In Esivanemate varandus II: Kodused jutud. Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum