BABA YAGA

Baba Yaga is an old witch that lives deep in the forest and feeds on human flesh. Her wooden hut is perched on gigantic chicken legs, and can not only spin around but also walk or even run. In fairy tales, when a hero gets sent to see her, they often need to say a magic phrase to get granted entry to her home, asking the hut to turn its back towards the forest and its front towards them. Baba Yaga’s hut is often surrounded by a fence of human bones or has skulls hanging from it as lanterns...The remains of past heroes who angered her or the innocent people she had lured into her house by pretending to be a kind elderly woman that offered shelter and food.

Baba Yaga resembles the undead: her skin has a pale blue tint to it, her teeth yellow and rotting, and her only leg has no skin or muscle on it, just bone. The one legged depiction of her makes her akin to a serpent, and the name “Yaga” is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit word for “snake”. She often relies on smell to find her victims, so she is most likely blind.

mortar, sweeping away her tracks with a broom. She also possesses other magical items like a flying carpet, boots that make you run at the speed of light, and a musical instrument called gusli that plays on its own. These items are what brings the heroes of many tales to her doorstep.

According to many folklore experts, there are three distinct types of Baba Yaga in Slavic fairy tales. There is the “bestower”, who gifts the hero a magical horse or one of her many revered objects after they complete her challenges. There is the child abductor Yaga, who lures children that are lost in the woods into her hut, feeds them, and then asks them to climb inside her stove to help clean it, locking them in there and cooking them alive. The final type is the “adversary”, whom the hero has to battle. However, most often than not, that fight ends in the hero running away or deciding to spare the life of Baba Yaga, becoming more wise and mature. Despite this, the traits of aggressiveness and malevolence are not the defining characters of Yaga, but rather portray her as a scorned older woman that is irrational and unpredictable in her nature, but often misunderstood and misrepresented.

One example of this is in the tale of “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, in which a young woman is sent to Yaga’s realm by her evil stepmother and sisters, and after helping Baba Yaga with some chores, she is rewarded with a glowing skull that will forever bring warmth and light to a household. Upon Vasilisa’s return home, the skull shoots fire at her abusers and kills them, finally freeing the girl of the true evil in her life.

In the old times, the deceased were buried in “domovinas”, which were small houses placed on high stumps, with roots sticking out from underneath resembling chicken legs. The entrance to the house would be facing towards the forest. In Slavic culture, the deceased were treated with fear and respect, and only disturbed when someone was dealing with hardships and seeking advice. Thus, Baba Yaga is actually a deceased ancestor that was used to scare little children when they were misbehaving.

It was once believed that Yaga could live in any village, disguised as an ordinary elderly woman. She would wear tattered clothing, a traditional floral headscarf or shawl, and proudly possessed a long hooked nose.