Russian traditions: Baba Yaga

August 22 is International Folklore Day and that expression of culture that unites people and includes jokes, proverbs, dances, stories, legends, music ... Here and there there is folklore, and in the case of Russia one of the folk characterss most popular is that of Baba Yaga.

In reality it crosses borders since it belongs to Slavic culture, but it has even jumped to non-Slavic stories, to the world of comics, fashion magazines and cinema. Today then, in Absolut Viajes a little Russian folklore from the hand of old Baba Yaga.

Yaga berry

As we said before is a character from Slavic folklore and it is very old. It's about a supernatural being which appears in the form of a old woman or a trio of sisters they share the same name. He usually lives in a hut or hut that is said to be supported on chicken bones.

It's a be ambiguous. Just as there are stories in which it appears as child eater, there are also others in which it is a maternal old woman that helps those who come across it or look for it. In addition, he is a being associated with the wild life and all of Baya Yaga one of the most unforgettable figures of all the folklore of Eastern Europe.

Being a character that transcends borders within the Slavic world, his name has had variants. The word baba refers to Old Russian and means midwife, sorceress, fortune teller. Today, in modern Russian, the word babushka, grandmother, derives from her, for example, or the polish grandmother, also. That on the one hand, but on the other there are also some not so positive meanings or uses of the word.

Thus, somehow it is from this ambiguity of the word baba that the different stories about the folkloric character emerge. That of being at the same time a maternal old woman and a being capable of evil.

And what does it mean Yaga, the second element of the name? Etymologically speaking it is quite difficult to find an origin, but in several Slavic languages ​​its root seems to sound like things like anger, fear, horror, fury, illness, pain...

The stories of Baba Yaga

With this explanation about the name and character ambiguity, what are the stories about Baba Yaga? Well, there are a lot of stories about this famous witch and we find them all over the place. Ukraine, Russia and Belarus mainly.

It is a old woman, with a hat made of chicken bones, having a broom, always near a mortar. His hut is made of bones and with it he travels everywhere, being able to turn with the wind. It is a bit impressive because it is decorated with skulls and inside there are many candles of different sizes, lit and unlit. Inside, there is also wine and meat and spectral servants who serve it.

Many stories describe her as a decrepit old woman with sharp teeth and dry, dark skin. Mainly in those stories in which it devours its victims. But, in the other stories, those where she is good, the description is rather that of an ordinary old woman.

You will read all kinds of stories: that eats children, devours souls, determines the date of death of the people, what is capricious, who asks for child sacrifices in exchange for riches, that his house is the bridge between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

So, depending on the story you read, you will see one or another version of Baba Yaga, and even the one in which it is not an old woman but three old sisters. There are two more popular storiesI know the rest.

In this sense, the trio of sisters, is the story of Lady Tsar, collected in the XNUMXth century by Alexander Afanasyev. The protagonist is Ivan, the beautiful son of a merchant, who meets the three Baba Yagas.

First he runs into the cabin and the first sister, they talk and he sends him to talk to his other sister, in a cabin identical to the first. He repeats the words of the previous one, he answers the same questions, but he does not send him to see the third and last sister because he tells him that if he gets angry with him, he will eat him.

But he warns you, if you are unlucky enough to see her, to be careful, to take her horns and ask for permission to blow them. Well, he finally has that encounter and when he blows the horns dozens of birds appear and one of them saves him by taking him away.

The other popular tale is that of Vasilisa the Beautiful. This girl lives with her evil stepmother and her two sisters (Cinderella, perhaps?). The truth is that they want to kill her and plot to do so. They try several times and in the end they send her straight to Baba Yaga's hut because they know she is going to eat her.

But that does not happen, she takes her as a housekeeper making her do difficult things, but the girl does everything well and then lets her return home. He returns with an old woman's lantern, a magic lantern, which lights up and engulfs her evil family, burning her alive. And bye bad family and welcome happy world because in the end the pretty Vasilisa marries the tsar.

These two accounts are examples of the ambiguity of the folkloric character of Baba Yaga: she is good and she is evil, she is tyrant and she is gentle or fair. This ambiguity, for folklore specialists, is related to nature and femininity and is what makes this figure unique within folklore.

Why? Well, because in most European folklore the characters are very stable and you know what to expect from them, or facilitate or hinder, the roles are always that of the villain or that of the giver. And Baba Yaga is anything but predictable.

Baba Yaga in popular culture

While it has always been a slavic world characterFor some time now, it has crossed borders. As we said, has appeared in the world of comics, television and movies. In the case of television series, if you saw The OA, by NetflixYou will know that Baba Yaga always appears in visions.

Also appears in Dragon Ball, the Accountant of Fortune Baba Yaga, is a recurring character in Hellboy, in the novel by Orson Scott Card (the author of Ender's Game), enchantment, in the series of Scooby Doo!, in the video game Rise of Tomb Raider and in the Castlevania: Lord of Shadows and also in the series of John Wick, just to name a few of his appearances.

And if all these appearances weren't enough, he has even appeared in a feminist website, The Hairpin, to later jump to a book on advice from Baba's point of view, "Ask Baba Yaga."


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  1.   Lilian hernandez said

    I was always curious to know about Russian traditions. When I was little I had a Russian storybook and there were mysterious terms like "Baba Yaga".
    Thanks now I found a good explanation.

    Congratulations