Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is an enigmatic or ambiguous character from Slavic folklore (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who has two opposite roles. In some motifs she is described as a repulsive or ferocious-looking old woman who fries and eats children, while in others she is a nice old woman, who helps out the hero.[1] She is often associated with forest wildlife. Her distinctive traits are flying around in a wooden mortar, wielding a pestle, and dwelling deep in the forest in a hut standing on chicken legs.
This article is about the entity in Slavic folklore. For adaptations and other uses, see Baba Yaga (disambiguation).Etymology[edit]
Variations of the name Baba Yaga are found in many Slavic languages. The first element is a babble word which gives the word бабуся (babusya or 'grandmother') or babusia in modern Ukrainian and Polish respectively, бабушка (babushka or 'grandmother') in modern Russian, and babcia or babunia ('grandmother') in Polish. In Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Bulgarian, baba means 'grandmother' or 'old woman'. In contemporary Polish and Russian, baba is the pejorative synonym for 'woman', especially one that is old, dirty or foolish. As with other kinship terms in Slavic languages, baba may be used in other ways, potentially as a result of taboo; it may be applied to various animals, natural phenomena, and objects, such as types of mushrooms, cake or pears. In the Polesia region of Ukraine, the plural baby may refer to an autumn funeral feast. The element may appear as a means of glossing the second element, iaga, with a familiar component or may have also been applied as a means of distinguishing Baba Yaga from a male counterpart.[2]
Yaga is more etymologically problematic and there exists no clear consensus among scholars about its meaning. In the 19th century, Alexander Afanasyev proposed the derivation of Proto-Slavic *ož and Sanskrit ahi ('serpent'). This etymology has been explored by 20th-century scholars. Related terms appear in Serbian and Croatian jeza ('horror', 'shudder', 'chill'), Slovene jeza ('anger'), Old Czech jězě ('witch', 'legendary evil female being'), modern Czech jezinka ('wicked wood nymph', 'dryad'), and Polish jędza ('witch', 'evil woman', 'fury'). The term appears in Old Church Slavonic as jęza/jędza ('disease'). In other Indo-European languages the element iaga has been linked to Lithuanian engti ('to abuse (continuously)', 'to belittle', 'to exploit'), Old English inca ('doubt', 'worry", 'pain'), and Old Norse ekki ('pain', 'worry').[3]
Related figures and analogues[edit]
Ježibaba, a figure closely related to Baba Yaga, occurs in the folklore of the West Slavic peoples. The two figures may originate from a common figure known during the Middle Ages or earlier; both figures are similarly ambiguous in character, but differ in appearance and the different tale types they occur in. Questions linger regarding the limited Slavic area—East Slavic nations, Slovakia, and the Czech lands—in which references to Ježibaba are recorded.[16] Jędza, another figure related to Baba Yaga, appears in Polish folklore.[17]
Similarities between Baba Yaga and other beings in folklore may be due to either direct relation or cultural contact between the Eastern Slavs and other surrounding peoples. In Central and Eastern Europe, these figures include the Bulgarian gorska maika (Горска майка', 'Forest Mother', also the name of a flower); the Hungarian vasorrú bába ('Iron-nose Midwife'), the Serbian Baba Korizma, Gvozdenzuba ('Iron-tooth'), Baba Roga (used to scare children in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), šumska majka ('Forest Mother'), and the babice; and the Slovenian jaga baba or ježibaba, Pehta or Pehtra baba and kvatrna baba or kvatrnica. In Romanian folklore, similarities have been identified in several figures, including Mama padurii ('Forest Mother') or Baba Cloanta referring to the nose as a bird's beak. In neighboring Germanic Europe, similarities have been observed between the Alpine Perchta and Holda or Holle in the folklore of Central and Northern Germany, and the Swiss Chlungeri.[18]
Some scholars have proposed that the concept of Baba Yaga was influenced by East Slavic contact with Finno-Ugric and Siberian peoples. The "hut on chicken legs deep in the forest" plainly resembles huts raised on one or several stilts using stump with roots for the stilts, in popular use by Finno-Ugric peoples and also found in forests rather than villages. The stumps with roots may be uprooted and laid in a new place as in the example exhibited in Skansen, or in ground where it was felled. Like Baba Yaga's hut, these are normally cramped for a person, though unlike Baba Yaga's house they do not actively walk and also do not contain a stove, being intended as storehouses and not for living.[19] The Karelian Syöjätär has some aspects of Baba Yaga, but only the negative ones, while in other Karelian tales, helpful roles akin to those from Baba Yaga may be performed by a character called akka ('old woman').[20]
Adaptations[edit]
Mussorgsky's 1874 suite Pictures at an Exhibition has a movement titled "The Hut on Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga)". The rock adaptation of this piece recorded by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer includes a two-part track "The Hut of Baba Yaga", interrupted by "The Curse of Baba Yaga" (movements 8 to 10).[21] Animated segments telling the story of Baba Yaga were used in the 2014 documentary The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, directed by American filmmaker Jessica Oreck.[22] GennaRose Nethercott's first novel, Thistlefoot, "reimagines Baba Yaga as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl in 1919, during a time of civil war and pogroms."[23] Sophie Anderson's book The House With Chicken Legs, which received various accolades,[24][25][26][27] features Marinka, the granddaughter of Baba Yaga. Here "Yaga" is not a name, but a title for the guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife, and Marinka is being trained for this role. Yagas are reimagined as kind and benevolent.[28][29]