Russian Fairy Tales<\/em> from the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library, by Aleksandr Afanasev, translated by Norbert Guterman and illustrated b Alexander Alexeieff.\u00a0 It just happened to live on the shelf of my personally library, a relic of my childhood (I spilled milk on it when I was six or so).<\/p>\nBaba Yaga the boney legged, or, in one story, the golden legged, is one of three sisters.\u00a0\u00a0 She has three daughters, sometimes beautiful and sometimes deformed.\u00a0 She has claws and a nose that hits the ceiling of her ‘little hut’ where she often lies stretched from corner to corner.\u00a0 She is sometimes helpful to youth on a quest, mostly devious towards young women, and often devising ways to eat her visitors.\u00a0 She sharpens or ‘whets’ her teeth for these chow downs and can gnaw through whole forests.\u00a0 Her ambiguous intentions to people make her stand out in folklore where characters are usually only evil or only good (Johns, 1998).<\/p>\n
Baba Yaga has servants; sometimes these are youth who take on temporary servitude in order to get something from her, and sometimes these are maids who have been given to her for some other favor.\u00a0 She commands oxen, eagles, and magical mares.\u00a0 And her primary, if not only, mode of transportation is folded up in a mortar which she goads along though the sky with a pestle and sweeps her tracks away with a broom.\u00a0 I have not yet figured out how she could fly in such a thing and still need to sweep her tracks away, though these tools also allude to other, older, things like the potions ancient wise women mixed up, winter winds, and a the sweeping of the oven after eating (Cooper, 1997).\u00a0 Like many evil spirits, Baba Yaga is driven to count things and cannot cross a river or other running water.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are obviously more stories, poems and traditional references than what I found in\u00a0Russian Fairy Tales,<\/em> because everywhere I look for information I find more and more terrible descriptions of Baba Yaga. Brian Cooper writes in his article “Baba-Yaga, the Bony-legged” that her bones stick out of her body in places, her flight through the air in her iron mortar is borne by demons and raises a tempest that brings pestilence and death to all she passes over.\u00a0 She has but one tooth, a wand that can turn people to stone, and is the guardian of the water of life (1997) much like the ancient symbol of the snake which gave her one of her earliest names:\u00a0 ‘snake-baba’ (Scielzo, 1983).\u00a0 It’s no wonder she would be depicted so frighteningly if, as Cooper continues, she is the result of a campaign of demonization, by the Church, of the local sorceresses or wise women.\u00a0 Her diverse and contradictory characteristics lead people to rank her among famous goddess-like witches like Lilith and Hecate, each often called the Mother of All Witches (Pilinovsky, 2005).<\/p>\nNow, lets talk about her ‘little hut.’\u00a0 I have mentioned before that her hut’s name is Ishbuku, and I swear I have seen it written this way before though I cannot, for the life of me, find that place again.\u00a0 In the stories from Afanasev’s Russian Fairy Tales<\/em>,\u00a0people ask the hut, “little hut, little hut, stand the old way with your back to the woods and your front to me.” \u00a0Google Translate tells me the romanized spelling of the Russian for ‘little hut’ is izbushka.\u00a0 Vladimir Propp, who analyzed Baba Yaga’s character as hearkening back to an ancient Slavic initiation ritual (Johns, 1998), suggests that the hut is related to izbushkii<\/em>:\u00a0 initiation huts where the young experience a symbolic death to later emerge as full adults (Pilinovsky, 2005).\u00a0 Izbushka, stands on chicken legs, though sometimes only one chicken leg, and sometimes chicken legs with dog’s heals, whatever that looks like.\u00a0 It is turning in the field when people approach and only stops and lowers itself when called in the right way.\u00a0 At one point there are twelve stakes around the house with eleven heads stuck upon them.\u00a0 The headless stake was used as a threat to a questing youth.\u00a0 The youth, like many on a quest in tales of Baba Yaga, survived his encounter with her.<\/p>\nI have also read Baba Yaga described as having tusks and nails of steel or iron, but I could find no reference to such in the stories of Russian Fairy Tales.<\/em> She is sometimes said to have a hump in her back, but I could also not find that.\u00a0 I did find, in my larger research, references to traditional poetry and rhymes where Baba Yaga appears again.\u00a0 I will be on the hunt for those.<\/p>\nReferenced:<\/p>\n
\n- Afanasev, A.\u00a0 (1973) Russian Fairy Tales.<\/em> Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library.<\/li>\n
- COOPER, B. (1997). Baba-Yaga, the Bony-Legged: A Short Note on the Witch and Her Name.\u00a0New Zealand Slavonic Journal<\/i>, 82.<\/li>\n
- Johns, A. (1998). Baba Iaga and the Russian mother.\u00a0Slavic & East European Journal<\/i>,\u00a042<\/i>(1), 21-36.<\/li>\n
- Pilinovsky, H. (2005). The Mother of All Witches: Baba Yaga and Brume in Patricia McKillip’s In the Forests of Serre.\u00a0Extrapolation<\/i>, (1), 36.<\/li>\n
- Scielzo, C. (1983). An analysis of b\u00e1ba-yag\u00e1 in folklore and fairy tales.\u00a0American Journal Of Psychoanalysis<\/i>,\u00a043<\/i>(2), 167. doi:10.1007\/BF01253476<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s no surprise that I am enamored of the witch.\u00a0 I have drawn her in all her incarnations, back to her most powerful mothers.\u00a0 I have studied her, gorging myself on sociological studies of the ‘child stealers,’ and the female trinity.\u00a0 Yet, I haven’t written much about her, so here is my first look… Continue reading Baba Yaga and her izbushka<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[299,46],"class_list":["post-6010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-gods-goddesses","tag-witches"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5407,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2014\/10\/17\/baba-yaga-highschool-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":0},"title":"Baba Yaga highschool photo","author":"leems","date":"October 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"teenagebabbayagga","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/teenagebabbayagga-343x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":503,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/the-witches-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":1},"title":"The Witches project","author":"leems","date":"October 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After my new website redesign I realized that I've never really talked about some of the projects I show-cased, and, it being October and Halloweeny and all, I thought this was a perfect time to talk about my witches project. Now bear with me 'cause I'm not going to check\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/images\/Witches\/lilith.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10737,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2023\/07\/17\/the-ultimate-witch-movies-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":2},"title":"The Ultimate Witch Movies List","author":"leems","date":"July 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Allow me to start with a confession.\u00a0 I adore witches: from historically persecuted innocents, to fairy tale and horror movie villains.\u00a0 Many people who self identify as witches today may argue that the historically persecuted innocents were just that: the innocent victims of jealousy and fear.\u00a0 And the villains:\u00a0 an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5393,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2014\/10\/29\/witch-and-the-goat-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":3},"title":"Witch and the goat lord","author":"leems","date":"October 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a list of stereotypical witch situations to draw.\u00a0 You know, witch with goblet, with black cat, with the devil.\u00a0 NSFW for nudity after the jump.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"witches201410-20","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/witches201410-20-455x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8535,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2019\/10\/03\/witch-trading-cards\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":4},"title":"Witch Trading Cards","author":"leems","date":"October 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I know I've mentioned them before, but this is the season to embrace the witch. So, a little reminder: witch trading cards are available in my shop!","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/WitchCards.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/WitchCards.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/WitchCards.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/WitchCards.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/WitchCards.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2977,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2012\/10\/21\/inktober-blackjack\/","url_meta":{"origin":6010,"position":5},"title":"INKTOBER Blackjack","author":"leems","date":"October 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Double the fun because I didn't inktober yesterday.\u00a0 One on the left is Ishbuku, by the by - at lease that's the name I know for it.\u00a0 I went internetting to double check and found nothing right off that named Baba Yaga's hut, so I'll stick with what I know.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/inktober020-1-600x412.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/inktober020-1-600x412.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/inktober020-1-600x412.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6200,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions\/6200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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