Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga (Russian: Ба́ба-Яга́), is, in Slavic folklore, the wild old woman; the witch; and mistress of magic. She is also seen as a forest spirit, leading hosts of spirits.

Etymology

The name differs within the various Slavic languages. "Baba Yaga" is spelled "Baba Jaga" in Polish and as "Ježibaba" in Czech, and Slovak. In Slovene, the words are reversed, producing Jaga Baba. In Russian it is Бáба-Ягá, Bulgarian uses Баба Яга and Ukrainian, Баба Яґа; all of the last three are transliterated as Baba Yaga. In South Slavic languages and traditions, there is a similar old witch: Baba Roga (Croatian and Bosnian), Cyrillic equivalent Баба Рога (Macedonian and Serbian). The word Roga implies that she has horns. The name of Baba Yaga is composed of two elements. Baba means "grandmother" or "old woman" in most Slavic languages. Yaga is a diminutive form of the Slavic name Jadwiga: (Jaga/Jagusia/Jadzia, etc.), although some etymologists conjecture other roots for the word. For example, Vasmer mentions the Proto-Slavic ęgа.

Folklore

Vasilisa the Beautiful at the Hut of Baba Yaga, by Ivan Bilibin

In Russian tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as a hag who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of silver birch. She lives in a log cabin that moves around on a pair of dancing chicken legs, and/or surrounded by a palisade with a skull on each pole. The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top — often with one pole lacking its skull, so there is space for the hero or heroes. In another legend, the house does not reveal the door until it is told a magical phrase: Turn your back to the forest, your front to me.

The Red Rider, by Bilibin

In some tales, her house is connected with three riders: one in white, riding a white horse with white harness, who is Day; a red rider, who is the Sun; and one in black, who is Night. She is served by invisible servants inside the house. She will explain about the riders if asked, but may kill a visitor who inquires about the servants. Baba Yaga is sometimes shown as an antagonist, and sometimes as a source of guidance; there are stories where she helps people with their quests, and stories in which she kidnaps children and threatens to eat them. Seeking out her aid is usually portrayed as a dangerous act. An emphasis is placed on the need for proper preparation and purity of spirit, as well as basic politeness. In the folk tale Vasilissa the Beautiful, recorded by Alexander Afanasyev (Narodnye russkie skazki, vol 4, 1862), the young girl of the title is given three impossible tasks that she solves using a magic doll given to her by her mother. In the Christianised version of the story, Vasilissa is sent to visit Baba Yaga on an errand and is enslaved by her, but the hag's servants — a cat, a dog, a gate and a tree — help Vasilissa to escape because she has been kind to them. In the end, Baba Yaga is turned into a crow. Similarly, Prince Ivan in The Death of Koschei the Deathless is aided against her by animals whom he has spared. Baba Yaga in Polish folklore differs in details. For example, the Polish Baba Jaga's house has only one chicken leg. Bad witches living in gingerbread houses are also commonly named Baba Jaga. Baba Jaga, flying on a mop, wearing black and red striped folk cloth of Świętokrzyskie Mountains is an unofficial symbol of Kielce region (it is connected with legendary witches sabbaths on Łysa Góra mountain). In some fairy tales, such as The Feather of Finist the Falcon, the hero meets not with one but three Baba Yagas. Such figures are usually benevolent, giving the hero advice or magical presents, or both.^[1]

Cabin on chicken legs

Nicholas Roerich, "Изба смерти" ("Hut of Death", sketch, 1905), an artistic expression of burial traditions of Ancient Slavs

Sami storehouse, Stockholm, Sweden

According to legend, Baba Yaga dwells in a "cabin on chicken legs with no windows and no doors." Baba Yaga herself usually uses the chimney to fly in and out on her mortar. Sometimes the door appears at the other side of the hut; to see it, a hero should pronounce "Hut, o hut, turn your back to the woods, your front to me" and thus force the cabin to turn around and discover the door. This may be an interpretation of an ordinary construction popular among hunter-nomadic peoples of Siberia of Uralic (Finno-Ugric) and Tungusic families, invented to preserve supplies against animals during long periods of absence. A doorless and windowless log cabin is built upon supports made from the stumps of two or three closely grown trees cut at the height of eight to ten feet. The stumps, with their spreading roots, give a good impression of "chicken legs". The only access into the cabin is via a trapdoor in the middle of the floor. Bears are strong, smart and stubborn enough to break into any door, but they cannot use a ladder or climb a rope to reach the trapdoor. A similar but smaller construction was used by Siberian pagans to hold figurines of their gods. Recalling the late matriarchy among Siberian peoples, a common picture of a bone-carved doll in rags in a small cabin on top of a tree stump fits a common description of Baba Yaga, who barely fits her cabin: legs in one corner, head in another one, her nose grown into the ceiling. There are indications that ancient Slavs had a funeral tradition of cremation in huts of this type. In 1948 Russian archaeologists Yefimenko and Tretyakov discovered small huts of the described type with traces of corpse cremation and circular fences around them; yet another possible connection to the Baba Yaga myth. ^[2][3] Modern fantasy writers, such as Tad Williams and Elaine Cunningham use the character of the cabin on chicken legs in their works, as does Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser). The castle in Hayao Miyazaki's film version of Diana Wynne Jones' novel Howl's Moving Castle also moves on chicken legs.

Baba Yaga in popular culture

Baba Yaga has been featured in music, film, roleplaying games, modern fiction, videogames, comic books, and other media as well.

Film and Animation

Baba Yaga from Bartok the Magnificent.

Baba Yaga is a favorite subject of Russian films and cartoons. The film Vasilissa the Beautiful by Aleksandr Rou, featuring Baba Yaga, was the first feature with fantasy elements in the Soviet Union.^[4] Georgy Milliar, a male actor, portrayed Baba Yaga in numerous movies from 30's to 60's, among them Vasilissa the Beautiful, Morozko, New Adventures of Puss-in-Boots, and others. He also often portrayed Koschey the Deathless. The animated film Bartok the Magnificent features Baba Yaga as a main character, but not the antagonist. 'Emily and the Baba Yaga' is an animated short telling a modern version of the classic tale. Instead of combs and handkerchiefs, chainsaws and mangy pets help defeat the hag. http://www.thebabayaga.com/gallery4.html

Music

There are two well-known musical references to Baba Yaga. The ninth piece in Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, a suite originally composed for piano (though more famous in its orchestration by Ravel), is entitled "The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)". When the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed an adaptation of Mussorgsky's suite, they included Mussorgsky's piece about the hut of Baba Yaga as well as a new track entitled "The Curse of Baba Yaga." In the symphonic poem "Baba Yaga" (Op. 56) by Anatoly Lyadov, the music depicts Baba Yaga summoning her mortar, pestle and broomstick, then flying off through the forest.

Modern fiction

In the DC Universe, she makes a brief appearance in The Sandman: Fables and Reflections, where she receives the emerald heart of Koschei. She also appears several times in The Books of Magic. In the Hellboy universe (Dark Horse Comics), the Baba Yaga figures quite prominently (most recently in 2007's mini-series "Darkness Calls"). Her legend and supporting characters are all well represented, and she has a connection to the Hellboy version of Rasputin, as well. She is also a character in Bill Willingham's graphic novel series, Fables. She is introduced in Volume 4, entitled March of the Wooden Soldiers taking on the guise of Red Riding Hood. After she is defeated in battle with Frau Totenkinder, in which she believes she has the upper hand as the Fable more beloved by the world's populace, she is kept by Bigby Wolf and tortured for information, while an enshrouded body is consigned to the pit as her to calm the majority of the Fabletown populace. (Note that in spite of being published by DC's Vertigo imprint, she is clearly not the same depiction as in Sandman and Books of Magic.)

Games

Baba Yaga has made several appearances in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Baba Yaga's hut is mentioned as an artifact in the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide (1979), by Gary Gygax. Two adventures taking place in Baba Yaga's hut were also published for the game.^[5] Baba Yaga is also a character in Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero where she is directly patterned after the Baba Yaga of European folklore. She is portrayed as an ogress-witch living in a chicken-legged hut and was the villain of the game. When she first arrived in Spielburg, the Baron tried to force her to leave, so she put a curse on him that led to the death of his wife and the disappearance and transformation of their son and daughter. The evil witch has a fondness for turning wandering heroes into frogs, and using them to run errands for her (such as retrieving Mandrake root from graveyards at midnight).^[6]