Tuesday 2 April 2013

A-Z Blogging Challenge: B is for Baba Yaga


Baba Yaga

Within the realms of Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being, usually portrayed as an old, crone-like witch, who can control the elements and has also been known to eat people. Despite this appetite, Baba Yaga is as thin as a skeleton and, due to this, the phrase "bony legs" is often used after her name. Her nose is extremely long, and she seems to use it to smell out people. In some tales she also has teeth made of iron, which she will sharpen when preparing to consume someone.

She travels around in an over-sized mortar - either by flying or dragging herself along the ground - and carries a pestle, broom and/or mop around with her. The hut in which Baba Yaga lives, deep in the forest, seems to be 'alive', can move about using the giant chicken legs on which it's perched, and sometimes uses its windows as eyes.

Sometimes, there are three Baba Yagas who are sisters, very similar in appearance, but they are often described as being different ages or have somewhat differing personalities and temperaments. However, even when there is only one Baba Yaga, her role is extremely varied, ranging from a cannibalistic witch, to a helpful and wise "earth mother", and everything in between.

For more in-depth information about Baba Yaga (a version of her, anyway) Old Russia's Baba Yaga page is quite useful. You can also read a Baba Yaga story from Folk Tales From the Russian, by Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal, [1903], at Internet Sacred Text Archive.

This post is part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, 2013.
Full list of A-Z blogs after the cut below!


7 comments:

  1. Cool choice of "Topics"... I chose "Barnabas" for the "Crypt"... I do Not know how to join this "Blogger Challenge" But we will participate anyway...
    Great blog here by the way ... the Doctor

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  2. "Boney Legs" referred more to her Home ( with its Bird legs)... She was also known for her long nose....

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    1. You could well be right about the "Bony Legs" referring to the house. It's just that in the stories / books I've read about her, there's always a suggestion that she's skeletally thin and so the attribute the suffix to that. I honestly have no idea though.

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  3. Baba Yaga lives . . . . .Sounds like it should be the motto for the A to Z or maybe something shouted at the start of a rugby match by large men in an old ritual to confuse the fans.... I will try doing this next time I am in the supermarket to see if it clears the queue.

    Rob Z Tobor

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    1. I think doing any kind of rugby ritual would clear a supermarket queue, but a Baba Yaga one would be more entertaining!

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  4. Awesome! Those Slavs have an amazing sense of scary. =)

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    1. They do! There's a lot of creepy European fairy tales, folklore & mythology in general though :)

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