Nix

Origin

The iconographic origin derives from the Proto-Germanic *nikwiz ('water spirit'), and the earliest textual canon is the canon of line 422 of Book 1 of the Old English epic Beowulf (Beowulf) by an anonymous author of the 8th-10th centuries — in which the hero Beowulf fights the 'nicras' (water monsters) — and the canon of line 1427 of Book 2 — the water-monsters in the lake where Grendel's mother dwells. The 8th-10th-century Old English nicor and the canon of the Skaldskaparmal (Language of Poetry) of the Prose Edda (Snorra Edda) of the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) of c. 1230 — the Old Norse nykr (water spirit) — are the decisive origin of the Germanic Nix iconography. The decisive textual canon is tale 79 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond (Die Nixe im Teich) of the Kinder- und Hausmaerchen of the German Grimm Brothers (Jacob 1785-1863, Wilhelm 1786-1859) of 1812-1815 — the canon in which the son of a poor miller, taken by the Nix of the lake through his father's promise, and his faithful wife deceive the Nix with a magic comb, flute, and golden thread and escape — and Chapter 17 of Volume 1 of the 1835 scholarly work Deutsche Mythologie (German Mythology) by Jacob Grimm systematised the decisive canon of the Germanic folk Nix-Nichu-Neuk-Nickelmann. The 21 August 1779 poem The Fisherman (Der Fischer) of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) — in which the fisherman is drawn by the alluring water-spirit of the lake — and the 1824 poem The Loreley (Die Loreley) of the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) — in which a blonde beauty on the rocks of the Rhine lures sailors with her song — decisively established the 19th-century German Romantic Nix poetic canon.

Features

• Alluring human form (mostly beautiful women or handsome men)
• True form has fish-tail, fish-scales, or green skin
• Lures humans into the water through music and song
• Collects the souls of the drowned
• Shapeshifting ability
• Weak outside the water

Stories

The canon of line 422 of Book 1 and line 1427 of Book 2 of Beowulf by an anonymous author of the 8th-10th centuries — the Germanic nicor canon — is the decisive origin, and the canon of Old Norse nykr in the Skaldskaparmal of Snorri's Prose Edda of c. 1230 is the decisive canon of the Germanic Nix iconography. The decisive textual canon is the Nix canon of tale 79 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond of the 1812-1815 Grimm Brothers' Kinder- und Hausmaerchen and Chapter 17 of Volume 1 of the 1835 Jacob Grimm's scholarly work Deutsche Mythologie, and the 21 August 1779 poem The Fisherman of Goethe (1749-1832) and the 1824 poem The Loreley of Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) — about a 130-meter-high slate rock near Boppard on the German Rhine — established the 19th-century German Romantic Nix poetic canon. The 7 April 1837 The Little Mermaid (Den lille Havfrue) of the Danish fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) — adapting the Nix canon into Andersen's sad fairy tale — became the decisive Andersen canon, and the opera Rusalka (opus 114, 3 acts, libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil) of the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904), premiered at the National Theatre in Prague on 31 March 1901 — based on the Slavic folk Rusalka (a Slavic variant of the Nix) — is the decisive Slavic Nix musical canon. The decisive modern visual canon is the 1907 painting The Water Nymphs of the British Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) and his 1909 A Mermaid (held by the Royal Academy of Arts in Britain), establishing the Victorian Nix visual canon, and the Nixie of the 1977 D&D Monster Manual by Gygax of TSR in the USA — consistent through to 5e (5th Edition) of 2014 — is the modern fantasy RPG Nix canon.

Weakness

The Nix's weaknesses are: (1) weak outside the water — the decisive environmental-binding canon in Germanic and Slavic folklore that the Nix weakens when she leaves her water (fresh water), and the decisive canon in tale 79 of the 1812-1815 Grimm Brothers' Kinder- und Hausmaerchen that the Nix cannot leave the lake; (2) iron — the decisive canon in Germanic folklore that the Nix fears iron — a general weakness canon in Western fairy iconography; (3) salt — the canon in Germanic folklore that the Nix fears salt; (4) cross and sacred song — the canon in medieval European Catholicism — and the Grimm Brothers' canon — that the cross and hymns can drive away the Nix; (5) magical implements — the decisive canonical weakness in tale 79 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond of the 1812-1815 Grimm Brothers' Kinder- und Hausmaerchen that the faithful wife deceives the Nix with a magic comb (hair), flute (song), and golden thread (yarn) to save her husband; (6) broken promises — the canon in the Grimm Brothers that humans who break promises with the Nix are punished but ultimately the promise is undone; (7) true love — the decisive Andersen tragic canon in the 1837 Andersen's The Little Mermaid that the Nix (the mermaid) does not receive the true love of the human prince and transforms into foam; (8) the light of dawn — the canon in Germanic folklore that the Nix weakens in the light of dawn. The decisive Romantic canonical finale of the 1824 The Loreley of the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) — in which a blonde beauty on the rocks of the Rhine lures sailors with her song and their boat runs aground and they die — is the decisive canon of the 19th-century German Nix tragedy, and the canonical finale of the 1837 Andersen's The Little Mermaid — in which the mermaid transforms into foam — is the decisive finale of the 19th-century Danish Nix canon.

Cultural Significance

The Nix is not merely a water-spirit icon but the canonical iconographic figure of the Germanic-Slavic water-spirit canon traversing the 8th-10th-century Old English Beowulf's nicor, c. 1230 Snorri's Prose Edda's nykr, the 1812-1815 Grimm Brothers' Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, the 1835 Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, the 1779 Goethe's The Fisherman, the 1824 Heinrich Heine's The Loreley, the 1837 Andersen's The Little Mermaid, the 1901 Dvorak's opera Rusalka, the 1907-1909 Waterhouse's paintings, and the 1977 D&D fantasy RPG. The canonical vocabulary of Old English nicor, Old Norse nykr, Old High German nihhus, and Middle High German nickes, derived from the Proto-Germanic *nikwiz ('water spirit'), is the decisive canon of Germanic folklore, and tale 79 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond of the Kinder- und Hausmaerchen (7 editions, 200+ tales by 1857) of the Grimm Brothers (Jacob 1785-1863, Wilhelm 1786-1859) first published on 20 December 1812 in Kassel, Germany, is the decisive culminating work of the 19th-century German fairy-tale Nix canon. Chapter 17 of Volume 1 of the 1835 scholarly work Deutsche Mythologie of Jacob Grimm — Jacob Grimm's systematisation of comparative-mythological study of Germanic mythology and folklore — became the decisive scholarly canon and the decisive canon of 19th-century German folklore studies. The 21 August 1779 poem The Fisherman (Der Fischer) of Goethe (1749-1832) and the 1824 poem The Loreley of Heine (1797-1856) (about a 130-meter-high slate rock near Boppard on the German Rhine) are the decisive canons of 19th-century German Romantic poetry, and the 7 April 1837 The Little Mermaid (Den lille Havfrue) of Andersen (1805-1875) published in Copenhagen — adapting the Nix canon into Andersen's sad fairy tale — became the decisive canon of 19th-century Danish fairy tale, and the 1989 Disney animation The Little Mermaid (worldwide box office of about 211 million dollars) achieved a 20th-century global adaptation.

In Popular Culture

Beowulf, Book 1 line 422 and Book 2 line 1427 (8th-10th centuries) — decisive Germanic nicor canonical originSnorri, Prose Edda, Skaldskaparmal (c. 1230) — decisive Old Norse nykr canonGrimm Brothers, Kinder- und Hausmaerchen, tale 79 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond (1812-1815) — decisive German fairy-tale canonJacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Volume 1 Chapter 17 (1835) — decisive Germanic mythological Nix canonGoethe, poem The Fisherman (1779) — German Romantic poetic canonHeinrich Heine, poem The Loreley (1824) — decisive Rhine poetic canonAndersen, The Little Mermaid (1837) — decisive Danish fairy-tale canonDvorak, opera Rusalka (1901) — decisive Slavic musical canonWaterhouse, paintings The Water Nymphs and A Mermaid (1907-1909) — Victorian visual canonGygax, D&D Monster Manual, Nixie (1977) — fantasy RPG canon