Baba Yaga

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Baba Yaga (Russian: Ба́ба Яга́ - for other languages scroll down) is, in Slavic mythology, the wild old woman, the dark lady, and mistress of magic. She is also seen as a forest spirit, leading hosts of spirits.

1 Etymology
2 Folklore
3 Cabin on Chicken Legs
4 Baba Yaga in the arts
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Etymology

The name of Baba Yaga is composed of two elements. Baba (originally a child's word) in most Slavic languages means an older or married woman of lower social class or simply grandmother. Yaga is a unique word, cognate to Polish jędzа ("witch") and Serbian jéзa ("horror"). Vasmer connects Proto-Slavic ęgа with Old English inca ("dolor") and Norse ekki ("pain"), while other scholars compared it with Latin аеgеr and Sanskrit yákşmas.

In different Slavic languages, Baba Yaga is known as Baba Jaga (Czech, Polish and Slovak), Jaga Baba (Slovene), Баба Рога (Macedonian and Serbian), Бáба-Ягá (Russian), Баба Яга (Bulgarian), Баба Яґа (Ukrainian), Baba Roga (Croatian and Bosnian)

[edit] Folklore

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. 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's. 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.

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 one, who is the Sun; and a black one, who is Night. She is served by invisible servants inside of the house. She will explain about the riders if asked, but may kill a visitor who inquires about the servants. She 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.

According to some versions of the myths, Baba Yaga ages a year every time someone asks her a question. This is why she is often portrayed as a cranky old hag — she is frustrated and angry about having been asked so many questions. The only way for her to de-age herself is by drinking a special tea she brews from blue roses. Heroes who bring her a gift of blue roses are often granted wishes as reward for their aid.

In the folk tale "Vasilissa the Beautiful", the young girl of the title 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 spared.

In another version of the Vasilissa story recorded by Alexander Afanasyev (Narodnye russkie skazki, vol 4, 1862), Vasilissa is given three impossible tasks that she solves using a magic doll her mother gave to her.

Baba Jaga in Polish folklore differs in details. For example, her house has only one chicken leg. Bad witches living in gingerbread houses are also commonly named Baba Jaga.

[edit] Cabin on Chicken Legs

A "cabin on chicken legs with no windows and no doors" in which Baba Yaga dwells sounds like pure fantasy. In fact, this is an ordinary construction popular among hunter-nomadic peoples of Siberia of Uralic (Finno-Ugric) and Tungusic families. This was an ingenious invention to preserve supplies against animals during long absence. A doorless and windowless log cabin is built upon supports made from the stumps of 2-3 closely grown trees cut at the height of 8-10 feet. The stumps, with their spreading roots, give a good impression of "chicken legs". The only access into the cabin is via the 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 pagan 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.^{[citation needed]}

Image:Izbasmerti.jpg

At the same time there are indications that ancient Slavs had a funeral tradition of cremation in huts of this type. In 1948 Russian archeologists Yefimenko and Tretyakov discovered small huts of decribed type with traces of corpse cremation and circular fences around them, a yet another possible connection to the Baba Yaga myth. <ref>Рыбаков Б.А., "Язычество Древней Руси" (1987) Moscow, Nauka </ref><ref>Ефименко П. П., Третьяков П. Н. Курганный могильник у с. Боршева. МИА, № 8. М.; Л., 1948, рис. 37-42.) </ref>

[edit] Baba Yaga in the arts

Baba Yaga, or characters inspired by her, appears in a number of works of art, including many musical pieces, novels, films, comic books, and computer games. For example, 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)". This music, inspired by a drawing of her hut by Viktor Hartmann, conjures the image of Baba Yaga trudging through the forest with her pestle, and of the spirits surrounding her. When the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed an adaptation Mussorsky'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.

She is in particular a favorite subject of Russian films and cartoons. She has also appeared in a number of notable non-Russian films, for example in Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, a retelling of the Baba Yaga story in Japanese folk culture wrappings.^{[citation needed]} Here the girl Vasilissa is named Chihiro, spirited away into the service of the witch Yubaba. The animated film Bartok the Magnificent features Baba Yaga as a main character, but is not the antagonist (she is, in fact, misunderstood and is responsible for neither the missing prince nor any of the children she was accused of kidnapping; instead, she ends up helping Bartok). Baba Yaga plays a prominent part in the Russo-Finnish film Morozko (1964) (the film is known to Mystery Science Theater 3000 afficionados as Jack Frost). Corrado Farina's 1973 film Baba Yaga features Baba Yaga as the main antagonist. In Mike Mignola's Hellboy series of comics, the Baba Yaga is a frequent antagonist, with a grudge against Hellboy for shooting out one of her eyes. Baba Yaga also notably makes a number of appearances in several of Neil Gaiman's works. She is the principal villain in Orson Scott Card's 1999 novel Enchantment. She is also featured in the Fables comic by Vertigo as an antagonist wearing the skin of Red Riding Hood.

Baba Yaga and her hut make an appearance in the adventuring game series Quest for Glory by Sierra Entertainment, namely in the 1st and 4th game. She is featured as a woman of her word but with a nasty penchant for trying to eat you and is the source of some particularly gruesome death scenes.