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!

Games: Free Copies of Metro 2033

At the moment THQ are running a free giveaway of the apocalyptic  horror game  Metro: 2033. It's based on the novel of the same name by Dmitry Glukhovsky. Set in a future where nuclear war has forced humans to live underground, it tells the tale of survivors in Moscow who live in the underground metro away from the animals and humans on the surface who have mutated into monstrous forms.

To get the game you have to head to THQs Facebook page to see the promotion! Stocks are "limited" so hurry hurry hurry!

Link

However, if you don't mange to get a copy from there, there is also the THQ Humble Bundle, from which you can also get Metro 2033 and 5 other games for $1! The other games aren't really horror, though I suppose Red Faction: Armageddon has aliens, and in Darksiders you play as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse! That promotion ends in 26 hours.

Link

Sports: Synchronised Swimming Goes Scary!

The Austrian duet in their bat costumes

Perhaps you might think synchronised swimming has always been scary, with its exaggerated grins and wide eyes. You might even wonder why I'm writing about synchronised swimming - or the Olympics in general - in a horror / spooky-themed blog, especially when I don't really care about sports. 

The Russian duet mid-move

You might not even consider synchronised swimming to be a sport (though, if that's the case, I'd like to see you train for 10 hours a day and swim upside down while making everything look effortless). Anyway, the truth is that I'd never watched this event before last week and I wouldn't be writing about it but for the fact that there were some decidedly spooky teams in the Duets Free Routine competition. 

The Russian duet at the beginning of their routine

The Russian pair swam a doll / puppet themed routine, using music from the films Suspiria, Amelie, and Sleepy Hollow. Considering synchronised swimming evolved from "water ballet" the Suspira Theme by Goblin being used is somewhat amusing / appropriate (if you've ever seen Suspiria, you'll understand, and if you haven't seen it...why the hell not!?).

The Brazilian duet after their "Human Body" routine

Then there was the Brazilian duo who chose The Human Body as their theme and wore anatomical costumes, complete with brain-print swimming caps! There was also a yellow skeleton print on the back as well, just to further emphasize the theme.

The back of the Brazillians' costumes

The Austrians also had a spooky theme, though I'm not entirely sure what it was. Their costumes featured big bats on the front, with one of the wing-tips curving around into a wolf head on the back. There were also a few smaller bats and a full moon on the back, as well as a bat hair accessory. 

The back of the Austrian costume

Apart from that, a large part of their swim was set to Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain, which is about a witches' Sabbath, and there was also a random cackle in the middle of the routine as well. Sadly, neither Brazil nor Austria made it into the final, but Russia eventually won gold in the duet competition. Hurray for Olympic spookiness! 

Links:

Official London 2012 Synchronised Swimming Duets Page

BBC Sport - Duet Free Routine Preliminaries (video - all screenshots taken from this video)

More screenshots after the cut below↓

Art: Anton Semenov

Hello there my spooky kids!

Today I want to show you Anton Semenov's work.

Better known as Gloom82 (his deviantart account, you can find it here), this artist from Russia brings us a surrealistic, horror view of the world. His work is pretty impressive in my opinion, and the dark, macabre aura surrounding it catches you from the first glimpse!

Enough with the words, see it for yourselves...!

Unexplained Mysteries: The Dyatlov Pass Incident

Hello there little monsters~!

Today's post is about a story I researched about a year ago and found quite interesting.

If you like mysteries and supernatural stuff, keep on reading!

Ok, so... Russia, 1959, 9 students go on a trip to The Urals.

Apparently, the students pitched their tent on a Urals slope, the Dyatlov Pass, at night to take some rest and sleep. Days after, they were found dead and naked by the authorities. The bodies were spread all over the place, and some of them presented some weird and severe internal injuries and rests of radiation (also found on the clothes). The tents had been ripped from the inside. For unknown reasons, they panicked and run away naked at -30º at night. There were no fingerprints, no signs of struggle.

At first it was thought they had died of hypothermia, it seemed to fit since they had the typical bruises and the bodies were at -30º. But when they found the last bodies, this theory was rejected.

Not all the bodies were found at the same time. After the families reported them missing, the police found 5 of the bodies, with the features I already mentioned above. It took almost 2 months to find the other 4 bodies. They were buried under the snow, 5 metres deeps, close to a little precipice.

And here comes the weird and creepy stuff.

Contrary to their friends, they were dressed. But, surprisingly, they were dressed with their friends' clothes. One of the skulls was totally destroyed on the inside. also, two of the bodies had some broken ribs. And the worst of all, the other one had her tongue cut. The cut was totally clean, it was impossible to think she had bitten herself or that an animal had done it. Another common feature they had was that their hair had turned grey and their bodies had turned orange, despite the frostbite, though this is said to be misinformation to scare people.

After several months, investigators said the cause was “a compelling unknown force” and the case was closed and filed as top secret.

Friends and family never gave up on this case and they created an organization called the Dyatlov Foundation, dedicated to investigating more about this creepy event which, even now, is a total mystery. During one of their investigations, they talked to some witnesses - military men and meteorologists. These men claimed to have seen some "glowing orange spheres" flying over the mountains where these students had their tent.

There are all kind of theories about this event; some say the studends may have seen and followed these spheres for some reason. But, why would they go blindly after these spheres, naked, in such a cold weather, and what caused the injuries that lead them to death?

Others say they were victims of some military experiment, but no-one heard or saw any explosion or visible attack on the area. And of course, there's the spookiest theory of them all, about the spheres being some kind of spirit or ghost and these supernatural entities being the cause of the death and the strange behaviour and panic attack.

51 years after this event, what happened that night is still unknown and remains as a mystery and a spooky story for the inhabitants next to these mountains.

Maybe it will remain unsolved forever... or maybe one of these theories is the right one.

What do you think? ;P