Frightening Russian Ladies, and the Chicken-Huts who Love Them

May 14, 2003 9:37 AM

Have Mortar, Will Travel. An apparently evil figure from old Russian folklore, Baba Yaga seems to pop up where I least expect her. From appearing in the sixth Sandman collection to her role in the Sierra classic Hero's Quest, she (like any good mythic figure) is never quite described the same way twice, and has all kinds of neat gear - like a hut that stands on chicken's legs, and can chase victims at will. Still, her tale seems fairly under-repeated these days. Is anyone else fascinated by this or other increasingly obscure bits of folklore?
posted by Monster_Zero (22 comments total)

I (for one) am always up for obscure folklore. Baba Yaga is a fascinating figure. Thanks!
posted by plep at 9:52 AM on May 14, 2003

Miyazaki's Spirited Away definitely had some Baba Yaga influence going on... it's kind of fun to watch it with that in mind. Miyazaki's Baba didn't have the chicken-leg house, though, and that's just a shame. ^__^
posted by vorfeed at 10:02 AM on May 14, 2003

Baba Yaga - the Black Goddess. Interesting essay on Mything Links, with some nice illustrations.

'I have been thinking and thinking about the image and story of Baba Yaga now for months and wondering how girls and women can resolve the seemingly paradoxical story of a bony heartless witch with the image of innocence of a rejected and abandoned girl. The following essay outlines how we use myth and story to perpetuate unconscious mindsets and it also unveils the gifts that these stories unfold in our inner psyche ... '
posted by plep at 10:02 AM on May 14, 2003

[raises hand]
Russian witches (across the boards, not just Baba Yaga) kick the crap out of any other culture's witches. I'm sure some Freudian psychologist and/or gender studies major has had a field day with that at some point. I think my first Baba Yaga encounter was actually here.
posted by badstone at 10:06 AM on May 14, 2003

i remember being terrified of baba yaga when i was a kid.
i used to imagine her flying after me in her mortar and taking me back to her house to eat me.
(in the stories i was told she also had a fence made out of the bones of all the people she'd eaten surrounding her house.)
too bad kids don't get to hear these stories anymore; there's nothing like the thrill of having the crap well and truly scared out of you when you're a kid.
posted by dolface at 10:19 AM on May 14, 2003

Last winter my sister's theatre company performed a really abstract interpretation of the Baba Yaga/Vassilisa myth. Though there was no dialogue, the stage was filled with rotten oak leaves for the forest scenes, and real cow bones were used for the costumes & set. Creepy stuff. I actually did sound-design and wrote a score for the play, which I tried to submit to the MeFi music site over a month ago, but so far no word back from mathowie (hint hint)...    :)
posted by dhoyt at 10:20 AM on May 14, 2003

What a fantastic post. That's a great tale from a bountiful, multicultural folk tales site you've linked to, Monster_Zero. It's like the best parts of Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and The Little Red Hen, all rolled into one. And plep - that mything link! An instant favorite.
posted by iconomy at 10:27 AM on May 14, 2003

I suppose you didn' t play D&D while TSR was its own company, did you? ;P
posted by infowar at 10:35 AM on May 14, 2003

Wow, it has been a long time since I thought of Baba Yaga. When I was a kid, I bought some books of Russian folk tales, beautfully designed, from a store in the interior of BC. The area has a lot of Russian immigrants. I must have read those stories over and over. Great links.
posted by Salmonberry at 10:37 AM on May 14, 2003

I'm with infowar. Last I heard, baba yaga's claim to fame was a really kickass hut.
posted by UncleFes at 11:03 AM on May 14, 2003

the story of tam lin is incredibly fascinating to me. though it seems to have evolved around the same time as many other famous fairy tales, cleaning up a story that in some translations includes both rape and childbirth out of wedlock (as well as paganism) means that it's been more obscure than "red riding hood" or "beauty and the beast". the adventure of the story really appeals to me -- i wish i could be more articulate about it, but i can't say more than that. british folk fans might know the story from the fairport convention tune, and apparently neil gaiman and brian froud are collaborating on a film version...
posted by pxe2000 at 11:07 AM on May 14, 2003

vorfeed: great call on the Spirited Away thing! I love that movie, and I'm surprised I didn't draw that parallel.

As for growing up with tales like this, like dolface and Salmonberry, well, I didn't get that exactly. My upbringing was very Mennonite which, while I suppose inherently Russian, is also rather conservative/religious and has no time for myths and folklore. So I have to be content nowadays with being fascinated by stories from other people's cultures, because mine didn't really have many.
posted by Monster_Zero at 11:11 AM on May 14, 2003

We're forgetting the most famous reference to her, as one of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 11:20 AM on May 14, 2003

One of the very best talents working in comics today is Mike Mignola, creater of Hellboy. The short version of the Hellboy story is that he's a demon that investigates paranomal activities, and Mignola has done takes on Frankenstein, werewolves, crazy frogs, etc. There's also a Hellboy/Baba Yaga story and, you're in luck, it's online. It's done in Flash, and while the transitions are annoying and you can't appreciate how well Mignola can lay out a page, you nevertheless get his storytelling and wonderful, wonderful art.

For those of you already in the Hellboy know: Have you seen this?
posted by blueshammer at 11:32 AM on May 14, 2003

I would just like to point out that Baba Yaga is not an "increasingly obscure bit of folklore". It's just that folklore usually stays where it belongs, with the "folk" (or the people of the particuliar nationality that came up with it in the first place). She is still well known and referenced.

Baba Yaga is the greatest. I still shudder when I remember analysis of her as a sexual figure. In the traditional fairy tale her nose "grows into the floor", and that was supposed to be symbolic. Most children know more lovable version of her from cartoons, where she is less man-eating and ugly. (flying in a mortar is also very cool)
posted by adzuki at 11:34 AM on May 14, 2003

Re: Spirited Away -- there may well have been a nod to Baba Yaga, but it wasn't necessarily in the character's name. In Japanese, "-baba" is a title of respect for old women. "Yu-Baba", the proprietress of the mythic bathhouse, means "Hot Water Old Lady". (The swirly character on the flag over the bathhouse entrance is "Yu".)
posted by SealWyf at 11:48 AM on May 14, 2003

My father's family is Ukrainian, so I used to hear the Baba Yaga stories when I was a kid. They never really scared me though because I had my own Baba (which is what I call my grandmother) who would drop-kick Yaga and her Russian dentistry back to the Motherland, and still find time to whip up some super-tasty varenyky and holuptsi. Everybody needs a Baba in their corner.
posted by Ty Webb at 12:13 PM on May 14, 2003

not all that obscure, either...

gaiman pulled out a lot of intriguing notions in american gods...I was surprised and pleased with his treatment of chernovog.

for more good modern representation of same, there's also the rusalka series by cherryh.
posted by dorian at 2:02 PM on May 14, 2003

Anyone interested in weird Russian folklore should locate a copy of The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia by W.F. Ryan; check out the index to see all the wonders within. From Chapter 3 "Wizards and Witches," section 4 "The Ved'ma":

The confusion of witches as real-life practitioners in magic with malevolent female demons of mythology and folklore is most evident in the figure of the baba-iaga or iagaia-baba, who has an ancient lineage as a child-stealing and child-eating demon. She is often the magical enemy, but sometimes the magical friend, of the hero of the story.... In folk tales both the ved'ma and the baba-iaga can change their form, may catch and eat children, either cooked or raw.... Both the baba-iaga and the ved'ma in folk tales may supplant a real princess or wife by taking on her appearance. Indeed, in popular prints of the eighteenth century Catherine the Great is portrayed in the guise of a baba-iaga.

There are chapters on "Predictions from Dreams and the Human Body," "Spells, Curses and Magic Prayers," "Materia Magica," "Texts as Amulets," "Magic of Letter and Number"... Well, you get the idea. Lots of fun for lovers of arcana.
posted by languagehat at 3:53 PM on May 14, 2003

Re: Spirited Away -- there may well have been a nod to Baba Yaga, but it wasn't necessarily in the character's name. In Japanese, "-baba" is a title of respect for old women. "Yu-Baba", the proprietress of the mythic bathhouse, means "Hot Water Old Lady". (The swirly character on the flag over the bathhouse entrance is "Yu".)

Yeah, I know... nihongo ga hanasete, aru kanji o yomu koto ga dekimasu. ^__^

But given the name and the clear Russian influence on Baba's art design, along with a plot where an evil witch with a twin sister starts out by wanting to harm a young girl, but ends up guiding her to self-sufficiency... well, it's a bit hard to say that Miyazaki wasn't playing both ends of that particular pun.
posted by vorfeed at 4:42 PM on May 14, 2003

...given the name and the clear Russian influence on Baba's art design

Hm? The major design influence for Yubaba is usually said to be the Tenniel illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, especially the Duchess who, like Yubaba, has a baby who plays a part in the story.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 10:36 PM on May 14, 2003

Hm? The major design influence for Yubaba is usually said to be the Tenniel illustrations for Alice in Wonderland, especially the Duchess who, like Yubaba, has a baby who plays a part in the story.

hm, I hadn't seen that before, but you're right, she does look a lot like the Duchess. I've seen several people mention how much she looks like a typical Baba Yaga Russian witch character, though. I guess we'd have to ask Miyazaki... maybe the answer is more like a little of both?
posted by vorfeed at 10:45 AM on May 15, 2003