Monster - Näkki

”Neptune, the Åge of the Swedes. Ancient tales and witch-stories tell of this. Here in Finland the Näkki is said to lie atop waters with her [sic] long hair flowing, combing and brushing her blond hair in the sunlight whilst sitting on rapid-rocks. She is sometimes told to be singing (no doubt a siren song or crocodile tears, whereby she lures children to the shore or swimmers into the water, and those she squeezes so tight that they turn cabbage-blue, drinks their blood etc. – Which in fact are cramps.) Old wives and outlived seamen can frighten the gullible with thousands of Näkki and mermaid tales.”

– Christfrid Ganander, Mythologia Fennica (1789 CE)

This comprises my second (1st) entry in a series of DCC RPG monsters derived from Finnic folklore: in the Finnish language “näkki” is likely a Germanic loanword (PGmc. *nikwus, Swe. näck, Ger. nix, Eng. knucker, Old Nick), but the folklore about the entity itself has some local flavour compared to e.g. the Scandinavian tales.

Summa scientiae: this being lures its victims to drown.

Let’s go for a dip,

MM

DCC monster – Näkki

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Illustration: Kittelsen – Nøkken (1904) Wikimedia commons