The long awaited fangirl squeeeing about Baba Yaga.

              Hands down, my favorite character in fairytales (granted, one of the only ones that is a discreet character that appears in multiple stories and not just an archetype) is the character of Baba Yaga.  She’s the old witch in the woods, and sometimes she is a goddess, other times she’s a demon.  You can find echoes of her, (or perhaps the other way around) in tales with an old witch in the woods from all over Europe.  She is commonly translated as Baba Yaga here in the US, but she’s also been called Baba Roga, and Baba Jaga—all stemming from different languages and different traditions, but she’s always the same character, with the same house on chicken legs and the stable full of mythical creatures.

I love everything about this picture.

           

            Baba Yaga appears as the crucible part of the fairy tale, where our protagonists prove themselves to be worthy of their happy ending.  She gives the protagonists their three impossible tasks, and they solve them with their wit, their previous kindnesses, their piety (familial and religious), and/or their love for another.  Baba Yaga is almost always an evil and terrifying force of nature, who can’t be fought, only outwitted and persevered through, but she keeps her word, answers questions, keeps to the laws of hospitality, rewards the worthy, and punishes the unworthy.

            The staying power of Baba Yaga is partly related to the distinctive imagery that surrounds her--her house is a hut that has a pair of chicken legs, and the house itself is sentient.  The light in her house, and around her yard, wherever that may be, comes from fire inside of skulls—each of which is also sentient and capable of bringing down judgments.   Her stable has the Day, the Sun, and the Night, often along side the equine sons of the wind—be she doesn’t ride them.  She gets about in a giant mortar, steering with the pestle and sweeping away her tracks with a broom.  She is always described as a very old, very ugly woman, often with iron and/or pointed teeth—but strong and forceful in appearance and manner.  She’s the big bad that everybody is afraid of, but she is almost always not the Big Bad of the story—she often gives advice, sometimes she gives shelter and hospitality, she always challenges her guests and she always threatens to eat them.  Also, she’s really, really, really cool.  

Baba Yaga sees your broomstick transportation, and raises you a flying mortar and pestle.

            The best known Baba Yaga story is Vasilisa the Brave/Beautiful.  I’m sure I’ll be giving that one a go in several forms—writing it, performing it, and giving it a good analysis—so keep an eye out.  It is a Cinderella-type story—but instead of a benevolent fairy godmother or a ghostly mother giving help from beyond the grave in a kind manner from a tree with golden leaves—Vasilisa gets Baba Yaga.  Baba Yaga doesn’t really do pretty dresses; Vasilisa gets a horrifying, flaming, talking skull that kills her stepsisters and her stepmother and sets fire to her village when they turn on Vasilisa for being a witch with a horrifying flaming skull. 

She EARNED the skull.  It is now her friend.  It hates everybody else, but it LOVES HER.

Russian stories don’t mess around ya’ll.

            Baba Yaga is one of those characters that get transferred along with her stories—you can spot Baba Yaga in the stories that feature old witches from around Europe—sometimes in her stable of amazing horses, sometimes in the way her house moves about on legs, sometimes in her eating habits.  Watch for her as you read stories and tales!

           Speaking of:  Next update will be the Deathless review, another amazing book by Catherynne Valente.  It has Baba Yaga.  You know I was excited about this.

I waited for this book JUST LIKE THIS.

               This is a good book, and I’m still processing my reactions to it, but I will assure you that it is awesome and you should read it.   It has Russian fairy tales and it is set in communist Russia and Baba Yaga is at her irascible, gluttonous, horrible best.