Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Water-Nix

When we grow up into adulthood, some fairy tales seem odder than they did when we heard them as children. Children are marvelous when it comes to hearing fantastic or impossible things. However, sometimes impossible things are based on incidents that were indeed amazing. We can look at these cases and try and imagine what really happened. "The Water-Nix" contains situations that do not seem possible, but only in the modern day. First, let me spoil the story for you so you understand.

A brother and sister are out playing by a well. They both fall in and encounter a fairy creature called a water-nix. This creature is quite evil and forces the children to do hard labor for her with dull or broken implements--such as collecting water with a bucket that had a hole in it or cutting down a tree with a dull axe.

One day, the water-nix leave the children alone to go to church. The children take the opportunity to run away, but the nix figure this out and gives chase. This next part is where it gets weird. The girl tosses a brush behind her which turns into a hill with bristles on it. This gives the water-nix much trouble, but she inevitably manages crossing it. The boy then tosses a comb which transforms into a hill with 1000 x 1000 teeth that the nix will be forced to cross. With much trouble, she still manages it. Finally, the girl tosses her mirror which turns into a hill made of glass. It proves too slippery for the nix to cross.

The nix returns to her lair to get her axe and uses it to split the glass hill in two. However, by this time, the children are long gone. The water-nix is forced to return without her slaves. Thus ends the story.

There are a number of anomalies here which I need to cover. Here is a list:

1. What is a water-nix?
2. Why was the water-nix going to church?
3. How did the children come across the magical items? -or- How were they able to use them?
4. Is this story real?

Let us begin.

Question #1: What is a water-nix?
A water-nix is primarily something found in Germanic folklore. It is generally portrayed as a formless, shape-shifting creature that lives in the water. They are almost always female. The water-nix is a malicious spirit entity that tries to lure people--generally men--into the water to either drown them or make them into slaves. Depending on the region, they can also be referred to as a neck, nicor, nixie, or nokken. They are always evil and must be avoided at all costs.

Question #2: Why was the water-nix going to church?
Short answer is that I really have no idea. I was unable to uncover this information. However, I do have a good, old-fashioned guess for you. It may be a plot device used to demonstrate hypocrisy. I know of a number of people who loyally go to church despite the fact that they are terrible people everywhere else. Realistically, I am incredibly doubtful that a water-nix would ever actually go to church, what with them being somewhat busy trying to kill and enslave. Another educated guess would be that it was a placed within the story as a light joke. What do you think?

Question #3: How did the children come across the magical items? -or- How were they able to use them?
Go into your bathroom, grab your brush or comb, and toss it outside to see what happens. I bet you that 10 out of 10 times, it will just flop to the ground without incident. So what gives? There are a number of possibilities actually. One suggests that they were being helped. There very well could have been a section of this story that was unknown to the teller. A secondary fairy character could have met with these children and given them these magical objects or the ability to use them. When the children tell their story, this part was left out.

Another possibility is that the objects belonged to the water-nix herself. The children did not know they were magical and simply were tossing them at her to keep her away. The items--being that they belonged to a magical creature--responded in a magical way much to the chagrin of the water-nix. A major contributing factor to this theory is how the water-nix splits the glass hill with her own personal axe. This suggests she already had magical items in her possession.

A third possibility is that this took place in a time where magic was much more common. The children simply knew magic and were able to transform these implements in their escape. This would date the original events back by a very large degree.

Question #4: Is this story real?
There is enough information within the story so that we can believe in the possibility that it MIGHT have happened. It, at the very least, could be based on something that happened long ago. It does feel like pieces are missing though. The story seems extremely abridged. As time goes by, stories often lose a lot of detail and can become more fanciful than they really should be. So this story gets a maybe.

I really do wonder if there was a secondary fairy character that these children ran into during their imprisonment. Who was he? Why did he want to help them? Had he helped others before these children? We may never find out, but please remember that not all fairy entities are hostile. Some simply want to help out. Either way, these kids made a grand escape that is almost impossible to believe. Think about it.

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