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When Vasilisa wakes in the morning and sees the firelit dim inside the skull-topped fence posts, she spies a rider dressed all in white galloping upon a milk-white horse around the house. Soon she spies a rider in red on a blood-red horse who does the same. In the evening, when the Baba Yaga returns to check on Vasilisa's work, the girl sees a rider in black on a coal-black horse galloping around the hut before vanishing like the others. Baba Yaga, in Slavic folklore, an ogress who steals, cooks, and eats her victims, usually children. A guardian of the fountains of the water of life, she lives with two or three sisters (all known as Baba Yaga) in a forest hut that spins continually on birds’ legs.
Baba Yaga: The Ancient Origins of the Famous ‘Witch’
The trickster appears in the mythology of cultures around the world but, it should be remembered, these 'mythologies' were once understood as religious beliefs as valid as any held in the present day. The trickster was recognized as a god, or an emanation of a supreme deity, who interfered in the lives of other deities, humans, and the natural world – for whatever reason or no reason at all – encouraging transformation. However unpleasant the experience with the trickster might be, one was forced out of one’s comfort zone into a new state – often a heightened state – of awareness of oneself and the world.
Peter the Great and the Russian Empire, c. 1725
Baba Yaga (Baba Jaga) is a witch or ogress from Slavic folklore who lives in a magical hut in the forest and either helps, imprisons, or eats people (usually children). She is among the most famous figures from Slavic folklore as guardian of the fountains of the waters of life and is sometimes seen as embodying female empowerment and independence. Placed firmly around Baba Yaga’s house is a fence made from human bones and skulls. The gate of the fence is made from men’s legs, while the bolts are made from human arms.
The complex nature of Baba Yaga
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Vasilissa understands the implied threat and only asks about the riders, seemingly enraging Baba Yaga who demands to know why she will not ask more. Vasilissa responds that she is only doing as Baba Yaga suggested and then infuriates the witch further when she is asked how she was able to perform all the tasks. She replies carefully that her mother’s blessings enabled her, and Baba Yaga, rejecting anything blessed, tells her to leave. Storybook or fairytale style often has much in common with the bungalow, English Cottage, Tudor Revival, or Norman/French Revival styles and is often subsumed in those definitions. Its defining characteristic might best be described at the kind of house you'd imagine Seven Dwarves or some happy Hobbits heading home to at the end of a hard day of work. No flying broom for this witch, the Baba Yaga travels on a magical flying mortar using a pestle to urge it on, sweeping away the path of her flight with a broom.
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And is surrounded by a fence made from human bones with a lock on her gate made from the sharp teeth of a human jaw. She has disheveled hair and a sometimes iron nose that is so long she can lie down on the floor of her hut and it could touch the ceiling. Baba Yaga was once more goddess than witch who reigned over time, life, death, and the elements. Today, she is most commonly depicted as an ugly evil witch, but that wasn't always her story. Since Baba Yaga rejects just about every societal norm in the book, this is precisely what makes her so fascinating to many people as both a villain and a mysterious fairy godmother character. But at the heart of it, she also represents an evergreen reminder for people to watch out for themselves in a dangerous world — and to not stray too far from safety.
In some stories, it is said that when she lies down on the floor of her hut, her nose literally touches the ceiling. Some folklore stories claim that her long nose allows her to identify the people by scent. In many of the Slavic myths about Baba Yaga, it is known that the wild old witch can indeed fly. In quite a number of eastern Slavic regions, the word “baba” was used for a married peasant woman of childbearing age or older. In some other case, the word is simply a babble word, mostly used by toddlers. Her spread beyond Russia and Slavic communities was buoyed on by the translations of Aleksandr Afanasyev’s Russian folktales.
It is widely held that Vasilii Levshin’s 1780 collection – Russian Fairy Tales – contains the first narrative account of this character from Slavic folklore. In the collection, the author portrays her in the same light as in the oral traditions. She is said to be very deadly old woman with razor-sharp teeth and bear claws. The Baba Yaga story and poems are in many children’s books today.
After Vasilisa has done all of the witch's tasks to her liking, the girl works up the courage to ask the Baba Yaga who these riders were. The Baba Yaga reveals that the white, red, and black riders were the day, the sun, and the night, respectively, all of whom she refers to as her faithful servants. Sure, Baba Yaga is Russian, she's scary, and she wants to eat you, but there's so much more. How do you know when you've found a Baba Yaga and not just a generic forest witch? Is she definitely going to eat you, or might she instead play the role of a beneficent yet still vaguely sinister mother figure?
Another unusual detail in this story is that here the Baba Yaga has three daughters. The Baba Yaga tells each daughter in turn to cook the boy, but he tricks each one of them into cooking themselves instead by acting like he doesn't know how to lie in a pan and asking them to show him. Pulling the same trick a fourth time leads to a cooked Baba Yaga and a youth running bravely home.
If the tasks are not fulfilled and the seekers have not found a way to escape, she will cook and eat them. Baba Yaga may well be the most ancient being in Russian folklore. So much so that linguists still debate the origins of the name. Indeed, numerous stone sculptures in Southern Russia have been found to depict such a female progenitor.
Explore the enigmatic world of Baba Yaga and unravel the intriguing myths and legends surrounding her. Worldhistoryedu is not responsible for the content of external sites. In some accounts, Baba Yaga is said to have sisters, two sisters usually.
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