Marzanna
the winter death, drowned in spring
waterMarzanna is the goddess of winter, plague, and the killing frost, whose straw effigy is drowned each spring to end her reign; to dream of her is to be told that some cold thing in you must be carried down to the river and released.
Fragments
They dress her in ribbons and set her aflame before the drowning, singing as she burns, for only a death fully honoured will consent to leave the fields.
When the ice groans and cracks along the black river, it is Marzanna going under, her straw hair fanning out, taking the long winter down with her.
winterdeathfrosteffigyending