Where Baba Yaga lives: fairy tale, myth and reality

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Where does Baba Yaga live - an original and versatile character in many folk tales? Both children and adults will immediately answer - in a hut on the notorious "chicken legs". What else do we know about this image in general?

This old sorceress is described in different ways by storytellers. Then she is a hunchbacked old woman with a long hooked nose, shaggy long hair and addictions to human meat. That is just a kind sorceress helping Ivanushka to get out of the forest, advising how to fight evil, and all her “Fu, fu, smells like a Russian spirit” is nothing more than just an attempt to scare a brave man. But, as in any fairy tale, this character has its own backstory. And its root is in mythology.

What kind of names did not the old woman have in Slavic mythology! She was called Baba Yagya, Yagabiha, Yagishna, Yagaya Baba… But she was not always a witch living in a deep forest. Once upon a time, Baba Yaga was considered a real deity among the Slavic peoples. According to beliefs, she was the keeper of the hearth, took care of the well-being of the whole family, protected children from the evil eye and misfortunes, continued and carefully preserved traditions. True, there was also the reverse side of the legend: the old woman was attributedpower over all whirlwinds and snowstorms. It was said that she is half woman, half snake, and guards the door to the realm of the dead, escorting the immortal souls of the dead to her. People believed and knew: Baba Yaga is able to successfully pretend to be the most ordinary woman, live among people in the village, run a household, take care of livestock. Often, any housewife who was doing very well was considered a witch - they said that it could not have done without evil spirits.

The place where Baba Yaga lives in children's fairy tales is a dense forest, which always gave rise to unaccountable fear in people, since it also resembled a kind of border between the worlds - now living people and the kingdom of the dead. Even the hut of a fabulous old woman, as a rule, is not in the thicket, but on the edge: it seems to belong to neither one nor the other.

The origin of the phrase "on chicken legs" is interesting. In cartoons, they are often drawn as chickens. But, most likely, kuri means “fumigated with smoke.” In ancient times, the Slavs had a funeral rite, when a hut was placed on the cut pillars, in which the body of the deceased was located. And these pillars themselves were traditionally fumigated with smoke.

Another attribute of Baba Yaga is a bone leg. That is why there are suggestions that the old woman is one-legged. Indeed, in all the tales about Baba Yaga, this part of the body is always mentioned only in a single number (there is only one bone leg). This attribute of death, again, can be compared with the leg of a skeleton, that is, an inanimate creature.

But let's move from myths to reality. Do you know that today the question Wheredoes Baba Yaga live? Is there a direct and specific answer? Recently, this famous character has his own homeland. In the Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region, there is a small village of Kukoboy, and there is an official museum of Baba Yaga and other fairy-tale characters. There is a famous hut on chicken legs, a tea room where you can taste delicious pies from the hands of a fabulous old woman, and many different entertainments for adults and children. Few people leave here without buying fabulous souvenirs and taking pictures with Yaga herself.

Not only children, but also adults sometimes want to plunge into a fairy tale. And they ask themselves: where does Baba Yaga live? You can boast of your erudition, because now you can give an exhaustive answer to it!