Nixes are water spirits who lure people to their watery graves. (Painting by Arthur Rackham, image from www.wikipedia.org)

Our first monster is a malevolent creature from Germanic folklore. Nixes are water spirits that live in rivers and lakes and lure people into the water to their deaths.

Nixes can take on many forms; males can shapeshift into humans, snakes, or fish, while females are commonly portrayed as beautiful women with the tail of a fish. A famous nix was the beautiful Lorelei, who perched atop a rock on the Rhine River and lured fishermen to their doom with the sound of her voice.

Beware the next time you go swimming in a lake, or else you might end up becoming a victim of a nix.