"Baba Yaga, bone leg." The history of the origin of a fairy-tale character. Who is Baba Yaga and where did she come from? Where did Baba Yaga come from?

“The fence around her hut is made of human bones, and on the fence instead of pots hang skulls; instead of a bolt it has a human leg, instead of locks it has hands, and instead of a lock it has a mouth with sharp teeth.” Judging by the description, it is clear that this is one of the most creative interior designers, only she managed to organize a decent security system with the help of the furnishings.

So who is she? And what role did you play in your time? Where did the image of Baba Yaga come from? Where did the origin story of Baba Yaga come from? Let's find out...

Baba Yaga has shaggy hair, her braids are unbraided. In the culture of the ancient Slavs, loose hair is a connection with the other world; The dead woman's braids were still unraveling. Baba Yaga is apparently dead. Bone leg - dead so long ago that the body has decayed. The nose has grown into the ceiling. Apparently her house is very crowded.

Baba Yaga flies in a mortar, which is very similar to a deck, a prototype of a coffin. He covers his trail with a broom. There used to be a custom: when a deceased person was taken on a sleigh on his last journey, the sled trail was covered up behind him so that he would not return to the world of the living. Why does it fly? Because the dead don't walk, they are carried. And the soul flies. In addition, Baba Yaga does not see anything, she does not have human vision. “Fu-fu,” he says, “it smells like the Russian spirit.” But she has a different vision - she sees the future.

It is clear from everything that Baba Yaga is a dead woman. She lives in a hut on chicken legs. Previously, the Slavs had a custom: after the death of a person, when the soul had not yet decided, it needed to determine a home. For this purpose, a ritual doll was made, the house for it was placed on a felled tree. Here's a hut on chicken legs. The roots are very similar to chicken feet. A hut without windows and doors - the dead don't need them. There is only an entrance where offerings are placed. The northern peoples still have this custom. Vasilisa the Beautiful found so much food from Baba Yaga that ten people couldn’t eat it. This means that she was not an ordinary deceased, since she had many offerings.

Many scientists insist that Baba Yaga is a divine being, the progenitor of the human race. People come to her for advice. Ivan Tsarevich receives magical gifts, Vasilisa the Beautiful, after visiting Baba Yaga's hut, finds herself a husband-king and the ability to perform magical actions. She weaves extraordinary fabric and sews extraordinary shirts.
There is a popular wisdom that for any knowledge we must turn to our ancestors. Where are the ancestors? From the point of view of folk culture - in the other world. Baba Yaga is, as it were, the head of this other world. That is, in order to gain some knowledge, you need to go there. In other words, to the experience of our ancestors, which is what fairy-tale heroes do. It is no coincidence that in many fairy tales there is a stone by the road. A positive hero necessarily chooses the road where he will die. Again a metaphor - he goes to the world of his ancestors, where he receives all the gifts. The conclusion is this: only those who observe traditions, turn to the wisdom of their ancestors, gain all the blessings on Earth.

Baba is the main woman in all cultures. Stone women were worshiped by many peoples. A woman was called a woman only after the birth of a child. The same root word “babai” also means a brownie, the head of a clan. “Yaga” - fire - fire. There was a verb to yagat. This is a special cry in which all the energy was concentrated. Hunters and women in labor were yagali. That is, Baba Yaga was the main mother who knew everything.

“Now I’ll put you on a shovel and into the oven!”

And she wasn’t as scary as she seems. Take, for example, the fairy tale “Geese and Swans”. Translated from Sanskrit, geese-swans are the souls of the dead that accompany the foremother. It was they who carried away Brother Ivanushka to Baba Yaga. There she wanted to fry him. In fact, there is no fairy tale where Baba Yaga roasts children, she just wants to do it. But there was a wonderful ritual - baking a sick child. The midwife placed the child on the rolled out dough (a certain spell was cast into this dough) and wrapped the child in it. After that, she put it on a bread shovel and stuffed it into the oven for a while. She pulled it out, unwrapped it, and gave the dough to the dogs. The child recovered. It’s exactly the same in the Russian folk tale about Baba Yaga. In our opinion, it's scary. But if you look from a cultural point of view, Baba Yaga turns from a negative character into a positive one, into a healer.

It turns out that she transmits life to the child through her skill and through the stove, which in ancient culture was also a sacred object, such a feminine principle. Everything turns upside down. Baba Yaga is an absolutely positive hero. She just wanted to bake Ivanushka and return him healthy to the people.

Yaga in fairy tales acts as a gatekeeper, guarding the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and a guide to another world; she tests heroes trying to penetrate the world of the dead, and helps those who have survived these tests.

Yaga's hut, standing on the border of two worlds, is like a gate to the dead kingdom, the afterlife; even its appearance in fairy tales and beliefs is reminiscent of death: it is very similar to a domovina (a funeral structure in the form of a human dwelling) and is often surrounded by human remains (skulls hang on the fence, the door is propped up with a foot, etc.).

It is even possible that the tales of the “Yaga the Kidnapper” arose on the basis of an ancient witchcraft rite of initiation, initiation of young men into hunters, introducing them into a certain age group. The initiation rite usually consisted in the fact that teenagers, boys 10-12 years old, were taken away from the village for some time and subjected to various tests, conducting a kind of exam on all practical hunting skills; at the same time, the young men seemed to “die” for the tribe, so that instead of them men, warriors and hunters would be “born”. The “maturity test” that all young men had to “pass” was apparently presided over by a man, a hunter. However, initiations contained not only tests of dexterity, accuracy, fearlessness and endurance, but were also a partial introduction of adolescents to the sacred secrets of the tribe, to the magical ritual of hunters. In ancient times, this complex ritual, the ceremony of initiating young men into hunters, could be led by a female witch, who was later, with the disappearance of matriarchy, replaced by a male teacher (who may have served as the prototype of the “grandfather of the forest”). Probably, such a woman symbolically represented the same Great Mother, the goddess - the ruler and ancestor of animals, associated with the other world of the dead. The image of such a “knowing” woman could well serve as the basis for creating the fairy-tale image of Baba Yaga, coming from the forest, kidnapping children (i.e., taking them away for the initiation rite) and seeking to roast them in the oven (“kill a child so that a man will be born” ), as well as giving advice and helping selected heroes who have passed the test.

Let's answer the question first: Who is the fabulous Baba Yaga? This is an old evil witch who lives in a deep forest in a hut on chicken legs, flies in a mortar, chasing it with a pestle and covering her tracks with a broom. He loves to feast on human flesh - small children and good fellows. However, in some fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not evil at all: she helps a good young man by giving him something magical or showing him the way to him.

Such a contradictory old woman. On the question of how Baba Yaga got into Russian fairy tales and why she is called that, researchers have not yet come to a common opinion. I suggest you get acquainted with the most popular versions.

According to one of them, Baba Yaga is a guide to the other world - the world of ancestors. She lives on the border of the worlds of the living and the dead, somewhere in the “far away kingdom.” And the famous hut on chicken legs is like a passage into this world; That’s why you can’t enter it until it turns its back to the forest. And Baba Yaga herself is a living dead. The following details support this hypothesis. Firstly, her home is a hut on chicken legs. Why exactly on legs, and even “chicken” ones? It is believed that “kuryi” is a modification of “kurnye” over time, that is, fumigated with smoke. The ancient Slavs had the following custom of burying the dead: they erected a “death hut” on smoke-fuelled pillars, into which the ashes of the deceased were placed. Such a funeral rite existed among the ancient Slavs in the 6th-9th centuries. Perhaps the hut on chicken legs points to another custom of the ancients - burying the dead in domovinas - special houses placed on high stumps. Such stumps have roots that extend outward and really look somewhat like chicken legs.

And Baba Yaga herself is shaggy (and in those days the braids were unbraided only by dead women), blind, with a bone leg, a hooked nose (“the nose has grown into the ceiling”) - a real evil spirit, a living dead. The bone leg perhaps reminds us that the dead were buried with their feet towards the exit of the house, and if you looked into it, you could only see their feet.

That is why children were often frightened by Baba Yaga - just as they were frightened by the dead. But, on the other hand, in ancient times ancestors were treated with respect, reverence and fear; and, although they tried not to disturb them over trifles, since they were afraid of bringing trouble upon themselves, in difficult situations they still turned to them for help. In the same way, Ivan Tsarevich turns to Baba Yaga for help when he needs to defeat Kashchei or the Serpent Gorynych, and she gives him a magic ball of guide and tells him how to defeat the enemy.

According to another version, the prototype of Baba Yaga is a witch, a healer who treated people. Often these were unsociable women who lived far from settlements, in the forest. Many scientists derive the word "Yaga" from the Old Russian word "yazya" ("yaz"), meaning "weakness", "illness" and gradually fell out of use after the 11th century. Baba Yaga’s passion for frying children in the oven on a shovel is very reminiscent of the so-called ritual of “over-baking”, or “baking”, of babies suffering from rickets or atrophy: the child was wrapped in a “diaper” of dough, placed on a wooden bread shovel and thrust three times into the hot bake. Then the child was unwrapped, and the dough was given to the dogs to eat. According to other versions, the dog (puppy) was put into the oven along with the child so that the disease would pass on to him.

And it really often helped! Only in fairy tales this ritual changed its sign from “plus” (treating the child) to “minus” (the child is fried to be eaten). It is believed that this happened already in those times when Christianity began to establish itself in Rus', and when everything pagan was actively eradicated. But, apparently, Christianity was still unable to completely defeat Baba Yaga - the heiress of folk healers: remember, did Baba Yaga manage to fry someone in at least one fairy tale? No, she just wants to do it.

They also derive the word “Yaga” from “yagat” - to scream, putting all your strength into your cry. Midwives and witches taught women giving birth to yag. But “yagat” also meant “to shout” in the sense of “scold”, to swear.” Yaga is also derived from the word “yagaya,” which has two meanings: “evil” and “sick.” By the way, in some Slavic languages “yagaya” means a person with a sore leg (remember Baba Yaga's bone leg?) Perhaps Baba Yaga absorbed some or even all of these meanings.

Supporters of the third version see Baba Yaga as the Great Mother - a great powerful goddess, the foremother of all living things ("Baba" is a mother, the main woman in ancient Slavic culture) or a great wise priestess. During the times of hunting tribes, such a priestess-witch was in charge of the most important rite - the initiation ceremony of young men, that is, their initiation into full members of the community. This ritual meant the symbolic death of a child and the birth of an adult man, initiated into the secrets of the tribe, who had the right to marry. The ritual involved taking teenage boys deep into the forest where they were trained to become real hunters. The initiation rite included the imitation (performance) of a young man being “devoured” by a monster and his subsequent “resurrection.” It was accompanied by physical torture and damage. Therefore, the initiation rite was feared, especially by boys and their mothers. What does the fairytale Baba Yaga do? She kidnaps children and takes them to the forest (a symbol of the initiation rite), roasts them (symbolically devours them), and also gives useful advice to the survivors, that is, those who have passed the test.

As agriculture developed, the initiation ritual became a thing of the past. But the fear of him remained. Thus, the image of a sorceress who performed important rituals was transformed into the image of a shaggy, scary, bloodthirsty witch who kidnaps children and eats them - not at all symbolically. This was also helped by Christianity, which, as we indicated above, fought against pagan beliefs and represented pagan gods as demons and witches.

There are other versions according to which Baba Yaga came to Russian fairy tales from India (“Baba Yaga” - “yoga mentor”), from Central Africa (stories of Russian sailors about the African tribe of cannibals - Yagga, led by a female queen). .. But we'll stop there. It is enough to understand that Baba Yaga is a many-sided fairy-tale character who has absorbed many symbols and myths of the past.

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga has several stable attributes: she can cast magic, fly in a mortar, lives in the forest, in a hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a fence made of human bones with skulls. She lures you to her good fellows and small children and roasts them in the oven (Baba Yaga is a cannibal). She pursues her victims in a mortar, chasing them with a pestle and covering the trail with a broom (broom). According to the greatest specialist in the field of theory and history of folklore V. Ya. Propp, there are three types of Baba Yaga: the giver (she gives the hero a fairy-tale horse or a magical object); child abductor; Baba Yaga is a warrior, fighting with whom “to the death”, the hero of the fairy tale moves to a different level of maturity. At the same time, Baba Yaga’s malice and aggressiveness are not her dominant traits, but only manifestations of her irrational, indeterministic nature. There is a similar hero in German folklore: Frau Holle or Bertha.

The dual nature of Baba Yaga in folklore is connected, firstly, with the image of the mistress of the forest, who must be appeased, and secondly, with the image of an evil creature who puts children on a shovel in order to fry them. This image of Baba Yaga is associated with the function of the priestess, guiding adolescents through the initiation rite. So, in many fairy tales, Baba Yaga wants to eat the hero, but either after feeding and drinking, he lets him go, giving him a ball or some secret knowledge, or the hero runs away on his own.

Russian writers and poets A. S. Pushkin, V. A. Zhukovsky (“The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf”), Alexey Tolstoy, Vladimir Narbut and others repeatedly turned to the image of Baba Yaga in their work. widespread among artists of the Silver Age: Ivan Bilibin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Alexander Benois, Elena Polenova, Ivan Malyutin and others.

Etymology

According to Max Vasmer, Yaga has correspondences in many Indo-European languages with the meanings “illness, annoyance, waste away, anger, irritate, mourn,” etc., from which the original meaning of the name Baba Yaga is quite clear. In the Komi language, the word “yag” means pine forest. Baba is a woman (Nyvbaba is a young woman). "Baba Yaga" can be read as a woman from the bora forest or a forest woman. There is another character from Komi fairy tales, Yagmort (forest man). “Yaga” is a diminutive form of the female name “Jadviga”, common among Western Slavs, borrowed from the Germans.

Origin of the image

Baba Yaga as a goddess

M. Zabylin writes:

Under this name the Slavs revered the infernal goddess, depicted as a monster in an iron mortar with an iron staff. They offered her a bloody sacrifice, thinking that she was feeding it on her two granddaughters, whom they attributed to her, and that she was enjoying the shedding of blood. Under the influence of Christianity, the people forgot their main gods, remembering only the secondary ones and especially those myths that have personified phenomena and forces of nature, or symbols of everyday needs. Thus, Baba Yaga from an evil hellish goddess turned into an evil old witch, sometimes an cannibal, who always lives somewhere in the forest, alone, in a hut on chicken legs. ... In general, traces of Baba Yaga remain only in folk tales, and her myth merges with the myth of witches.

There is also a version that the goddess Makosh is hiding under Baba Yaga. During the adoption of the Christian religion by the Slavs, the old pagan deities were persecuted. Only deities of the lower order, the so-called, remained in the people's memory. chthonic creatures (see demonology, folk demonology), to which Baba Yaga belongs.

According to another version, the image of Baba Yaga goes back to the archetype of the totem animal, which ensured successful hunting for representatives of the totem in prehistoric times. Subsequently, the role of the totem animal is occupied by a creature that has control over the entire forest with its inhabitants. The female image of Baba Yaga is associated with matriarchal ideas about the structure of the social world. The mistress of the forest, Baba Yaga, is the result of anthropomorphism. A hint of the once animal appearance of Baba Yaga, according to V. Ya. Propp, is the description of the house as a hut on chicken legs.

Siberian version of the origin of Baba Yaga

There is another interpretation. According to her, Baba Yaga is not a native Slavic character, but an alien one, introduced into Russian culture by soldiers from Siberia. The first written source about it is the notes of Giles Fletcher (1588) “On the Russian State”, in the chapter “On the Permians, Samoyeds and Lapps”:

According to this position, the name of Baba Yaga is associated with the name of a certain object. In “Essays on the Birch Region” by N. Abramov (St. Petersburg, 1857) there is a detailed description of the “yaga,” which is a garment “like a robe with a fold-down, quarter-length collar. It is sewn from dark non-spitters, with the fur facing out... The same yagas are assembled from loon necks, with the feathers facing out... Yagushka is the same yaga, but with a narrow collar, worn by women on the road” (V. I. Dahl’s dictionary also gives a similar interpretation of the Tobolsk origin) .

Appearance

Baba Yaga is usually depicted as a large (nose to the ceiling) hunchbacked old woman with a large, long, humped and hooked nose. In popular prints she is dressed in a green dress, a lilac shawl, bast shoes and trousers. In another ancient painting, Baba Yaga is dressed in a red skirt and boots. In fairy tales there is no emphasis on Baba Yaga's clothes.

Attributes

A hut on chicken legs

In ancient times, the dead were buried in domovinas - houses located above the ground on very high stumps with roots peeking out from under the ground, similar to chicken legs. The houses were placed in such a way that the opening in them faced the opposite direction from the settlement, towards the forest. People believed that the dead flew on their coffins. People treated their dead ancestors with respect and fear, never disturbed them over trifles, fearing to bring trouble upon themselves, but in difficult situations they still came to ask for help. So, Baba Yaga is a deceased ancestor, a dead person, and children were often frightened with her. According to other sources, Baba Yaga among some Slavic tribes is a priestess who led the ritual of cremation of the dead. She slaughtered sacrificial cattle and concubines, who were then thrown into the fire.

From the point of view of supporters of the Slavic (classical) origin of Baba Yaga, an important aspect of this image is seen as her belonging to two worlds at once - the world of the dead and the world of the living. A well-known specialist in the field of mythology A.L. Barkova interprets in this regard the origin of the name of the chicken legs on which the hut of the famous mythical character stands: “Her hut “on chicken legs” is depicted standing either in the thicket of the forest (the center of another world), or on edge, but then the entrance to it is from the side of the forest, that is, from the world of death.

The name “chicken legs” most likely comes from “chicken legs”, that is, smoke-fuelled pillars, on which the Slavs erected a “death hut”, a small log house with the ashes of the deceased inside (such a funeral rite existed among the ancient Slavs for centuries). Baba Yaga, inside such a hut, seemed to be like a living dead - she lay motionless and did not see the person who had come from the world of the living (the living do not see the dead, the dead do not see the living). She recognized his arrival by the smell - “it smells of the Russian spirit” (the smell of the living is unpleasant to the dead).” “A person who encounters Baba Yaga’s hut on the border of the world of life and death,” the author continues, as a rule, goes to another world to free the captive princess. To do this, he must join the world of the dead. Usually he asks Yaga to feed him, and she gives him food from the dead. There is another option - to be eaten by Yaga and thus end up in the world of the dead. Having passed the tests in Baba Yaga’s hut, a person finds himself belonging to both worlds at the same time, endowed with many magical qualities, subjugates various inhabitants of the world of the dead, defeats the terrible monsters inhabiting it, wins back a magical beauty from them and becomes king.”

The location of the hut on chicken legs is associated with two magical rivers, either fire (cf. Jahannam, over which a bridge is also stretched), or milk (with jelly banks - cf. characteristic of the Promised Land: milk rivers of Numbers or Muslim Jannat).

Glowing Skulls

An essential attribute of Baba Yaga's dwelling is the tyn, on the stakes of which horse skulls are mounted, used as lamps. In the fairy tale about Vasilisa, the skulls are already human, but they are the source of fire for the main character and her weapon, with which she burned down her stepmother’s house.

Magic helpers

Baba Yaga's magical assistants are geese-swans, “three pairs of hands” and three horsemen (white, red and black).

Characteristic phrases

Steppe Baba Yaga

In addition to the “classic” forest version of Baba Yaga, there is also a “steppe” version of Baba Yaga, who lives across the Fire River and owns a herd of glorious mares. In another fairy tale, Baba Yaga, the golden leg at the head of a countless army fights against the White Polyanin. Hence, some researchers associate Baba Yaga with the “female-ruled” Sarmatians - a pastoral horse-breeding steppe people. In this case, the stupa of Baba Yaga is a Slavic reinterpretation of the Scythian-Sarmatian marching cauldron, and the name Yaga itself is traced back to the Sarmatian ethnonym Yazygi.

Mythological archetype of Baba Yaga

The image of Baba Yaga is associated with legends about the hero’s transition to the other world (the Far Far Away Kingdom). In these legends, Baba Yaga, standing on the border of the worlds (the bone leg), serves as a guide, allowing the hero to penetrate into the world of the dead, thanks to the performance of certain rituals. Another version of the prototype of the fairy-tale old woman can be considered the ittarma dolls dressed in fur clothes, which are still installed today in cult huts on supports.

Thanks to the texts of fairy tales, it is possible to reconstruct the ritual, sacred meaning of the actions of the hero who ends up with Baba Yaga. In particular, V. Ya. Propp, who studied the image of Baba Yaga on the basis of a mass of ethnographic and mythological material, draws attention to a very important detail, in his opinion. After recognizing the hero by smell (Yaga is blind) and clarifying his needs, she always heats the bathhouse and evaporates the hero, thus performing a ritual ablution. Then he feeds the newcomer, which is also a ritual, “mortuary” treat, inadmissible to the living, so that they do not accidentally enter the world of the dead. And, “by demanding food, the hero thereby shows that he is not afraid of this food, that he has the right to it, that he is “real.” That is, the alien, through the test of food, proves to Yaga the sincerity of his motives and shows that he is the real hero, in contrast to the false hero, the impostor antagonist."

This food “opens the mouth of the dead,” says Propp, who is convinced that a fairy tale is always preceded by a myth. And, although the hero does not seem to have died, he will be forced to temporarily “die to the living” in order to get to the “thirtieth kingdom” (another world). There, in the “thirtieth kingdom” (the underworld), where the hero is heading, many dangers always await him, which he has to anticipate and overcome. “Food and treats are certainly mentioned not only when meeting Yaga, but also with many characters equivalent to her. …Even the hut itself is tailored by the storyteller to this function: it is “propped up with a pie,” “covered with a pancake,” which in Western children’s fairy tales corresponds to a “gingerbread house.” This house, by its very appearance, sometimes passes itself off as a food house.”

Another prototype of Baba Yaga could be the witches and healers who lived far from settlements deep in the forest. There they collected various roots and herbs, dried them and made various tinctures, and, if necessary, helped the villagers. But the attitude towards them was ambiguous: many considered them comrades of evil spirits, since living in the forest they could not help but communicate with evil spirits. Since these were mostly unsociable women, there was no clear idea about them.

The image of Baba Yaga in music

The ninth play “The Hut on Chicken Legs (Baba Yaga)” of Modest Mussorgsky’s famous suite “Pictures at an Exhibition - a memory of Victor Hartmann”, 1874, created in memory of his friend, artist and architect, is dedicated to the image of Baba Yaga. The modern interpretation of this suite is also widely known - “Pictures at an Exhibition”, created by the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer in 1971, where Mussorgsky’s musical pieces alternate with original compositions by English rock musicians: “The Hut of Baba Yaga "(Mussorgsky); "The Curse of Baba Yaga" (Emerson, Lake, Palmer); “The Hut of Baba Yaga” (Mussorgsky). The symphonic poem of the same name by composer Anatoly Lyadov, op. 56, 1891-1904 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1878 collection of musical pieces for piano, Children's Album, also contains the piece "Baba Yaga".

Baba Yaga is mentioned in the songs of the Gaza Sector group “My Grandma” from the album “Walk, Man!” (1992) and “Ilya Muromets” from the album “The Night Before Christmas” (1991). Baba Yaga also appears as a character in the musicals: “Koschey the Immortal” by the group “Gaza Strip”, “Ilya Muromets” by the duet “Sector Gas Attack” , and in one of the episodes of the musical “Sleeping Beauty” by the group “Red Mold”. In 1989, the international folk group Baba Yaga was founded in Agrigento, Sicily.

The Na-Na group has a song “Grandma Yaga”, written by composer Vitaly Okorokov with lyrics by Alexander Shishinin. Performed in both Russian and English.

Soviet and Russian composer Theodor Efimov wrote music for the song cycle about Baba Yaga. The cycle includes three songs: “Baba Yaga” (lyrics by Yu. Mazharov), “Baba Yaga-2 (Forest Duet)” (lyrics by O. Zhukov) and “Baba Yaga-3 (About Baba Yaga)” ( Lyrics by E. Uspensky). The cycle was performed by VIA Ariel. In addition, the third song of the mentioned cycle was performed by the Bim-Bom musical parody theater. There is also a song by David Tukhmanov based on the verses of Yuri Entin “The Good Grandmother Yaga” performed by Alexander Gradsky, included in the “Horror Park” cycle.

The image of Baba Yaga is played out in the album “The Hut of Granny Zombie” by the Russian folk-black band Izmoroz.

Development of the image in modern literature

The image of Baba Yaga was widely used by the authors of modern literary fairy tales - for example, Eduard Uspensky in the story “Down the Magic River”.
Baba Yaga became one of the main sources for the image of Naina Kievna Gorynych, a character in the story by the Strugatsky brothers “Monday Begins on Saturday.”
The novel “Return to Baba Yaga” by Natalia Malakhovskaya, where three heroines and three writing styles undergo trials and transformations (going to Baba Yaga), modify the plots of their biographies.
In the Hellboy comic series by Mike Mignola, Baba Yaga is one of the negative characters. She lives in the underworld at the roots of the World Tree Yggdrasil. In the first volume of the series (“Waking the Devil”), the defeated Rasputin takes refuge with her. In the short story "Baba Yaga", Hellboy, during a fight with Yaga, knocks out her left eye. Unlike most modern literary interpretations, Mignola’s image of Baba Yaga does not carry a satirical load.
The image of Baba Yaga also appears in the graphic story “Mosquito” by Alexei Kindyashev, where he plays the role of one of the main negative characters. The fight between the mythical insect, called upon to protect our world from the forces of evil and the witch, takes place in the very first mini-issue, where the positive character defeats the negative one, thereby protecting the little girl. But not everything is as simple as it seems, and at the end of the issue we learn that it was only a copy created to test the powers of the mythical defender.
Also, the image of Baba Yaga is found in the modern author of Russian literature - Andrei Belyanin in the cycle of works “The Secret Investigation of Tsar Pea", where, in turn, she occupies one of the central places in the role of a positive hero, namely, a forensic expert of secret investigation the courtyard of King Pea.
The childhood and youth of Baba Yaga in modern literature are first encountered in the story “Lukomorye” by A. Aliverdiev (the first chapter of the story, written in 1996, was published in the magazine “Star Road” in 2000). Later, Alexey Gravitsky’s story “Berry”, V. Kachan’s novel “The Youth of Baba Yaga”, M. Vishnevetskaya’s novel “Kashchei and Yagda, or Heavenly Apples”, etc. were written.
Baba Yaga also appears in the Army of Darkness comic book series, where she is represented as an ugly old woman who wants to get the book of the dead - Necronomicon, in order to regain her youth. She was beheaded by one of the deadly sins - Wrath.
The novel “Baba Yaga Laid an Egg” by the modern Croatian writer Dubravka Ugresic uses motifs from Slavic folklore, primarily fairy tales about Baba Yaga.
The novel “Black Blood” by Nik Perumov and Svyatoslav Loginov Baba Yogas - called the sorceresses of the family - expelled in ancient times by a shaman, Baba Yoga Neshanka, who lives in a charmed place, in a hut on two stumps - reminiscent of bird paws, they turn to Unika, Tasha, for help, and Romar, then Unica herself will become Baba Yoga.
In Dmitry Yemets’s cycle “Tanya Groter” Baba Yaga is depicted in the image of the ancient goddess, healer Tibidox - Yagge, the former goddess of the ancient destroyed pantheon.
Baba Yaga is also one of the main characters in Leonid Filatov's fairy tale "" and in the animated film of the same name.
Baba Yaga is one of the characters in the 38th issue of the comic book “The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman, the events of which take place in the forests of an unexplicitly named country. Other attributes of Baba Yaga in the issue include a hut on chicken legs and a flying stupa, on which Baba Yaga and the main character travel part of the way from the forest to the city.
Elena Nikitina's Baba Yaga plays the role of the main character, in the form of a young girl.
Baba Yaga appears in the book “Three in the Sands” of the series “Three from the Forest” by Yuri Aleksandrovich Nikitin. She is one of the last guardians of ancient female magic and helps the heroes.

Baba Yaga on the screen

Movies

More often than others, Georgy Millyar played the role of Baba Yaga, including in the films:

“Adventures in the Thirtieth Kingdom” (2010) - Anna Yakunina.

The name of the Slavic female sorceress became popular in Western Europe. In 1973, the French-Italian film “Baba Yaga” (Italian) was released. Baba Yaga (film)) directed by Corrado Farina (Italian. Corrado Farina) with Carroll Baker in the title role. The film was created based on one of the erotic-mystical comics by Guido Crepax (Italian. Guido Crepax) from the series “Valentine” (Italian. Valentina (fumetto)).

Cartoons

“The Frog Princess” (1954) (dir. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, voiced by Georgy Millyar)
“Ivashko and Baba Yaga” (1938, voiced by Osip Abdulov)
“The Frog Princess” (1971) (dir. Yu. Eliseev, voiced by Zinaida Naryshkina)
“The End of the Black Swamp” (1960, voiced by Irina Masing)
“About the Evil Stepmother” (1966, voiced by Elena Ponsova)
“The Tale is Telling” (1970, voiced by Klara Rumyanova)
“Flying Ship” (1979, women's group of the Moscow Chamber Choir)
“Vasilisa the Beautiful” (1977, voiced by Anastasia Georgievskaya)
“The Adventures of the Brownie” (1985) / “A Tale for Natasha” (1986) / “The Return of the Brownie” (1987) (voiced by Tatyana Peltzer)
“Baba Yaga is against it! "(1980, voiced by Olga Aroseva)
“Ivashka from the Palace of Pioneers” (1981, voiced by Efim Katsirov)
"Wait for it! "(16th issue) (1986)
“Dear Leshy” (1988, voiced by Viktor Proskurin)
“And in this fairy tale it was like this...” (1984)
“Two Bogatyrs” (1989, voiced by Maria Vinogradova)
“Dreamers from the village of Ugory” (1994, voiced by Kazimira Smirnova)
“Grandma Ezhka and others” (2006, voiced by Tatyana Bondarenko)
“About Fedot the Sagittarius, a daring fellow” (2008, voiced by Alexander Revva)
“Dobrynya Nikitich and Zmey Gorynych” (2006, voiced by Natalya Danilova)
“Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf” (2011, voiced by Liya Akhedzhakova)
"Bartok the Magnificent" (1999, voiced by Andrea Martin)

Fairy tales

"Motherland" and Baba Yaga's birthday

Research

Potebnya A. A., About the mythical meaning of some rituals and beliefs. [chap.] 2 - Baba Yaga, “Readings in the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities”, M., 1865, book. 3;
Veselovsky N. I., The current state of the issue of “Stone Women” or “Balbals”. // Notes of the Imperial Odessa Society of History and Antiquities, vol. XXXII. Odessa: 1915. Dept. print: 40 s. + 14 tables
Toporov V. N., Hittite salŠU.GI and Slavic Baba Yaga, “Brief communications of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences,” 1963, c. 38.
Malakhovskaya A. N., The Legacy of Baba Yaga: Religious ideas reflected in a fairy tale, and their traces in Russian literature of the 19th-20th centuries. - St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2007. - 344 p.

Games character

In the game "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" Baba Yaga is one of the famous witches. It is told about her what she likes to eat for breakfast (possibly for lunch and dinner) of small children. She can be seen on a trading card in the group about famous witches, she appears on card No. 1.
Baba Yaga is one of the characters in the game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
In the first part of the game “Quest for Glory” Baba Yaga is one of the main enemies of the hero. The old lady later appears again in one of the subsequent games in the series.
Baba Yaga is mentioned in one of the plot conversations between the Anderson brothers in the game Alan Wake. In addition, the house on Cauldron Lake has a sign that reads "Birds leg cabin", which can be interpreted as a hut on chicken legs.
In the game "Non-Children's Tales", the character of Baba Yaga assigns quests to the player.
In the game "The Witcher" there is a monster Yaga - an old dead woman.
In the games “Go There, I Don’t Know Where,” “Baba Yaga Far Away,” “Baba Yaga Learns to Read,” Baba Yaga is studying a subject with a child, getting into various troubles with him.

Notes

Enchanted castle
Jan Deda and the Red Baba Yaga
Encyclopedia of supernatural beings. Lockid-MYTH, Moscow, 2000.
Propp V. Ya. Historical roots of fairy tales. L.: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1986.
TV channel Yurgan
Komi mythology
Zabylin M. The Russian people, their customs, rituals, legends, superstitions and poetry. 1880.
“Is Baba Yaga a goddess?”
Mikhail Sitnikov, Innocently tortured Yaga. The “spiritual avant-garde,” like the Taliban who curse Christians as “cross-worshippers,” tars the mythological Baba Yaga, Portal-Credo.Ru, 07/13/2005.
Veselovsky N. I. Imaginary stone women // Bulletin of Archeology and History, published by the Imperial Archaeological Institute. Vol. XVII. St. Petersburg 1906.
Some observations on the evolution of the image of Baba Yagiv in Russian folklore
Dancing opposite Yaga
Petrukhin V. Ya. The beginning of the ethnocultural history of Rus' in the 9th-11th centuries
Barkova A. L., Alekseev S., “Beliefs of the ancient Slavs” / Encyclopedia for children. [Vol.6.]: Religions of the world. Part 1. - M.: Avanta Plus. ISBN 5-94623-100-6
Marya Morevna
Swan geese
Finist - Yasnyi Sokol
Vasilisa the Beautiful
Ivan Tsarevich and Bely Polyanin
About Slavic fairy tales
Decline as a result of the Sarmatian invasion
In the collection of A. N. Afanasyev, there is the first version of the fairy tale “Finist’s Feather of the Clear Falcon,” where the triple Baba Yaga is replaced by three nameless “old women.” This option was later processed

Introduction

One of the key images in the fairy tale is Baba Yaga, who helps Ivan Tsarevich or Ivan the Fool to obtain in the distant kingdom almost impossible to desire: a lost bride, rejuvenating apples, a treasure sword, etc. The omnipotence of Baba Yaga leads researchers to believe that that this is a collective image that came to us from the folklore of different peoples and that scientists still do not have a consensus on the origin of the word Baba Yaga. However, like a rope, there will be an end. Let's try to figure this out on the basis of comparative linguistics.

Etymology of the word "Baba Yaga" in different languages

In Vasmer's dictionary the word "yaga":
"yaga"
I Yaga;
I: ba;ba-yaga;, also yaga;-ba;ba, yaga;ya, adj., Ukrainian. ba;ba-yaga; - the same, blr. ba;ba-yaga;, along with Ukrainian. yazi-ba;ba "witch, hairy caterpillar", ya;zya "witch", Old Slav. ;ѕа;;;;;;;, ;;;;; (Ostrom., Supr.), Bulgarian. eza; “torment, torture” (Mladenov 160), Serbo-Croatian. je;za "horror", je;ziv "dangerous", Slovenian. je;za "anger", jezi;ti "to make angry", Old Czech. je;ze; "lamia", Czech. jezinka "forest witch, evil woman", Polish. je;dza "witch, Baba Yaga, evil woman", je;dzic; sie; "get angry".
Praslav. *(j)e;ga is brought closer to lit. i;ngis "lazy person", lt. i;gt, i;gstu “to rage, to languish; to annoy”, i;dzina;t “to cause vexation, to irritate, to tease, to make disgusting”, i;gns “annoyed, dissatisfied”, Old Norse. ekki wed. R. "sorrow, pain", English. inca "question, doubt, sorrow, dispute"; see Bernecker I, 268 et seq.; M. – E. I, 834; Trautman, BSW 70; Holthausen, Awn. Wb. 48; Fortunatov, AfslPh 12, 103; Liden, Studien 70; Milevsky, RS 13, 10 et seq.; Mikkola, Ursl. Gr. I, 171; Thorpe 28; Watering, RES 2, 257 et seq. Communication with other Indians ya;ks;mas "illness, exhaustion" is disputed, contrary to Liden (see Bernecker, ibid.; Uhlenbeck, Aind. Wb. 234), just as with Alb. i;dhe;te; "bitter", heg. idhe;ni;m, longing. idhe;ri;m “bitterness, anger, vexation, sadness”, contrary to G. Mayer (Alb. Wb. 157); see Jocles, Studien 20 et seq.; likewise Lat. aeger "upset, sick", which has often been used as a comparison, hardly applies here, contrary to Bernecker; see Trautman, ibid., and especially Meillet - Ernoux 18. The reconstruction of the proto-form *je;ga (Bernecker), which Sobolevsky already opposed (ZhMNP, 1886, Sept., 150), is also incredible, just like the rapprochement with yaga; there is “shouting” and fidgeting;, contrary to Ilyinsky (IORYAS 16, 4, 17). It is necessary to reject attempts to explain the word yaga; as borrowing from Turkic *;mg;, cf. Kypch. emgen- “to suffer” (Knutsson, Palat. 124), or from Finn. ;k; “anger” (Nikolsky, FZ, 1891, issue 4–5, 7).
II Yaga;
II “foal skin”, Orenb., Sib. (Dahl), “a fur coat made of goat skins with the fur facing out,” Tob. (Zhst., 1899, issue 4, 518). From leb., kuer., drum., Crimea-tat., Uyg. ja;a "collar", Tur., Tat., Chagat. jaka – the same (Radlov 3, 25, 39)." [SF]

Azerbaijani - k;p;gir;n qari > from “korchaga” (slav.) k;p;gir;n > korchaginaj garnj - korchaginaj garnj (girl, woman) (slav.)
Albanian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
English - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Arabic - baba-jagana > > baba-jagana - baba-yagana (slav.)
Armenian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Basque - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Belarusian - Baba Yaga
Bulgarian - eza “torment, torture”; baba-yaga - baba-yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Bosnian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Welsh - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Hungarian - Baba-Jaga > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Dutch - Baba-Jaga > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Greek - urnomaggissa > urnomaggilschitsa - urnomagister (glory)/Baba, Mttamtta
Georgian - baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Danish - Baba-Yaga > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Yiddish - baba-jaga > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Icelandic - Baba > baba (slav.)
Spanish - Baba-Yag; > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Kazakh - Almauyz-kampyr, Zhalmauyz-kempir > kempir >
Kyrgyz - mastan kempir, zhez kempir, zhez tumshuk > kempir > korjabbij/krivj - clumsy/crooked (glory) (omission r, reduction b/m, b/p, reduction v/m, v/p)
Chinese - B;b;y;g; > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Latvian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Lithuanian - ;ie;ula > giegula, possibly from gorgos - terrible, terrible (Greek), otherwise Gorgon. On the other side:
garnij – garny – beautiful (Ukrainian)
Grazus – beautiful (lit.)
Gorgeous (English), gorgias (Old French) - magnificent, beautiful.
Macedonian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Mongolian - eke - mother > eke > jaga - yaga (slav.) (reduction g/k)
German - Hexe > jege - yaga (slav.) (reduction g/x)
Norwegian - Baba, Porselen > baba (slav.)/bor-zelenj - green pine forest (slav.) (reduction b/p, z/s)
Persian - Baba-Yaga ogress > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Polish - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Portuguese - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Romanian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Serbian - Baba Yaga
Slovak - Je;ibaba >
Slovenian - jeza -anger > ujaz-baba - horror-baba (slav.)
Swahili - Baba-Yaga > Baba Yaga (slav.)
Tajik - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Turkish - baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Uzbek - Yalmog "iz kampir > korjabbij/krivj - clumsy/crooked (glorified) (omission r, reduction b/m, b/p, reduction v/m, v/p)
Ukrainian - baba-yaga, yazi-baba "witch, hairy caterpillar", ide "witch",
Finnish - noita akka > najada-jagga - naiad-yaga (glory) (g/k reduction), otherwise, “water witch”
French - Baba > baba (slav.)
Croatian - Baba-Jaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Czech - Je;ibaba > ujaz-baba - horror-baba (slav.)
Chuvash - caten karch;k, vup;r karch;k > from “korchaga” (slav.), “to bend someone with a korchaga, his arms and legs are crooked” [SD]
Estonian - Baba-Yaga > baba-yaga (slav.)
Japanese - B;ba-y;ga > Baba Yaga (slav.)

"In the mythology of the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz (zhelmoguz kempir) a demonic creature in the form of an old woman, often with seven heads. Usually personifies the evil spirit. Zh. k. is a cannibal, a child abductor; in the form of a lung she floats on the surface of the water, and when a person approaches , turns into a seven-headed old woman, grabs him and forces him to give up his son (fairy tale "Er-Tostik"). There is an opinion that the image of Zh. she sometimes functions as a shaman-sorceress, mistress of the ancestral fire, mistress and guardian of the “land of death.” (Zh. K. retained the features of the good Baba Yaga, the hero’s patroness, in some fairy tales, in which she tells how to get a self-playing dombra, helps get a magic mirror and get married.) Among the Kirghiz, a type of J. k. is a demon mite, who appears as an old woman in rags who lives in the mountains, in the forest, far from human habitations. She drags girls into her hut and quietly sucks blood from their knees ; When the prey weakens, Mite eats it. Mitya is close to the demon Zhalmavyz [Yalmavyz (karchyk)] of the Kazan Tatars. A similar character is found in the mythologies of the Uyghurs and Bashkirs [cannibal witch Yalmauz (Yalmauyz)], Uzbeks [old cannibal woman YalmoFiz (Kampir) or Zhalmoviz (Kampir)] and Nogais (Yelmavyz)."
In an interesting essay on folklore, the author confirms the version of the image of Baba Yaga as a mother goddess.
"Scientists believe that the image of Yaga is a transformation of the ancient image of the mother goddess, who commands both the destinies of the world and the destinies of people. During the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and from hunting to agriculture and cattle breeding, the mother goddess began to be perceived as the mistress of rain, the most important and the most necessary for crops - she flies in a fiery mortar with a storm, covers her tracks with a fiery broom (wind). And with the advent of Christianity, from a bereginya she turned into a demonic creature spinning a tow (fate)"
However, in my opinion, the image of Baba Yaga is incomparable with the cult of the Patron Mother, since the characters of folk art and religious cults are different in purpose and in their functions. Baba Yaga is a sorceress, guardian of the world of the dead, healer, lives in fairy tales isolated from society. The mother goddess is the progenitor of the clan, is the image of the family, clan, ethnic group, lives in society. The Mother Goddess is a product of myth, and Baba Yaga is a product of a fairy tale, but the myth always precedes the fairy tale, therefore Baba Yaga and the Mother Goddess are incompatible.
Baba Yaga is a symbol of ugly old age. This is what the once beautiful girl turns into according to the laws of inexorable time, therefore words with similar roots denoting horror and beauty in different languages have opposite meanings (see Gorgon).
There are significant differences between nomadic and sedentary life, which are reflected in the word creation of the Indo-European and Turkic peoples. So the word Yaga has a common root for the Indo-Europeans and the Turks j-g, but its meanings are different.
In Indo-European languages the word Yaga:
1. Formed from the Old Russian verb “yagat” - to swear.
From the Sanskrit root ah, auh, meaning to go, move, from which comes the Sanskrit ahi, Latin anguis, Slavic hedgehog, etc. (P.A. Lavrovsky); ahi > agi > nogi - legs (glorified). In Afanasyev’s fairy tales, “Leg” is a snake (cf. paragraph 5, where Yaga is a lizard).
2. In all the names of Baba Yaga, a very ancient Indo-European root can be traced, which scientists reconstruct as *jegъ, which means “evil, vile.”
3. "YAGA zh. Sib. Orenb. yargak, ergak (Academic Sl. erroneously erchak), a kind of fur with outward wool, from foal skins or from non-vomit, and expensive yagas from loon necks (Columbus septentrionalis); fur coat, sheepskin coat, negligent cut, with a folding collar, in Orenb. without; lined with fabric or light fur; everyone wears a yaga or yargak, especially on the road and when hunting. Yagushka is a female yaga, with a narrow collar; for the road" [SD ]
4. The combination Baba Yaga arose by merging the words baba (old woman, woman) and yaga (evil; anger, illness) according to Vasmer.
5. Yaga - from the word Yasha. Yasha is the foot and mouth progenitor, the keeper of the family and traditions - a caring, but very strict and demanding Bereginya
6. Yaga - from the word Yoga - a priestess who knows the secrets of ancient teachings. Baba is a word of honor in Rus'. Baba means experienced, wise, knowledgeable.
In Turkic languages the word Yaga:
1. The word Yaga is associated with the Mongolian eke (mother), especially since among the ancient Mongols the word eke referred to female deities. Mongolian eke corresponds to Buryat ehe, and in Turkic languages eka (elder sister, aunt). eke - eke > jaga - yaga (glory).
2. Among the small peoples of Siberia, Yaga-Yag means “first, lonely” or “river carrying to the other world.” jaga > reka - river (slav.) (omission r, reduction k/g)
3. In the Komi language, Yag means forest, hence the connection with the Slavic word jagoda - “berry”. However, jagoda > jablok - apple (slavic) (inv. jagoda, replacement b/d, reduction k/g), otherwise, “round”. berry - berry (English) > jablloc - apple (slav.) (reduction l/r)
One way or another, Turkic parallels in the word Yaga intersect with Slavic ones and yet transform into Slavic roots.
In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is the guardian of the kingdom of the dead, because sedentary peoples had cemeteries and graveyards. Nomadic peoples did not have permanent graveyards; they were buried, as a rule, in mounds, which were abandoned over time due to the search for new pastures for livestock. From here it is possible to form the purely Turkic word “kampir”, which can be translated as “mare” or “hoofed animal”:
kampir - kampir > kobbilj - mare (glory) (reduction b/m, b/p, l/r)
kampir - kampir > koptnaj - ungulate (slav.) (reduction b/m, b/p, l/r)
It is interesting that in the fairy tale the name of Baba Yaga is associated with a horse and a mare. So, Baba Yaga gives Ivan Tsarevich a magic horse, Baba Yaga’s daughters turn into mares.
"In some South Slavic fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not an evil old woman of the forest, but a steppe hero, mother, wife or sister of snakes killed by heroes. Her kingdom is located distant lands, in the thirtieth kingdom, beyond the fiery river, often in the underworld. She owns herds of cattle and herds of magic horses. The main character is hired into her service as a shepherd in order to receive such a magic horse as a reward. In some fairy tales, she turns her daughters into mares. The hero of the fairy tale grazes them and takes as a reward a magic horse with a nondescript appearance, which is son of Yaga. In many fairy tales, Yaga rides a horse and fights like a hero, and she is accompanied by a great army, a huge army. Defeating Yaga, the hero falls into a dungeon, fights with her workers and defeats them: they (blacksmiths, seamstresses and weavers) "They can no longer make a new army for Yaga. Perhaps the image of Yaga the hero was based on legends about the tribe of Amazons who lived in the south, near the Sea of Azov."
The mare is the animal totem of the eastern Baba Yaga, where the mare is the ancestor of the clan.
These are the metamorphoses of the image of Baba Yaga in a fairy tale, who either wanders as a mare across the endless steppes, or leads the harsh, secluded lifestyle of a witch in the dense forests of Eastern Europe.

Abbreviations

SPI - A Word about Igor's Campaign
PVL – Tale of Bygone Years
SD - Dahl's dictionary
SF - Vasmer's dictionary
SIS - dictionary of foreign words
TSE - Efremov's explanatory dictionary
TSOSH - explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov, Shvedov
CRS – dictionary of Russian synonyms
BTSU - Ushakov’s large explanatory dictionary
SSIS - combined dictionary of foreign words
MAK - small academic dictionary of the Russian language
VP – Wikipedia
EBE - Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia
TSB - large Soviet encyclopedia

1. T. D. Bayalieva “Pre-Islamic beliefs and their survivals among the Kyrgyz,” F., 1972.
2. N. Dyalovskaya “Folklore. Baba Yaga”, http://www.litcetera.net/forum/112-557-1
3. V. N. Timofeev “Methodology for searching for Slavic roots in foreign words”, http://www.tezan.ru/metod.htm

We were all brought up on fairy tales, and one of the most frequent and mysterious heroes was Baba Yaga. Who is she really, an evil witch who tried to fry Ivanushka in a Russian oven, a kidnapper of small children, or is she still a good character who helps fight against evil forces. After all, she more than once helped the main characters in the fight against Koshchei the Immortal, pointed out the right path and gave wise advice on how to get rid of various kinds of evil spirits. This well-known fairy-tale character, in the form of a disfigured old woman, had animals and birds in his house, treated them with respect and even consulted with them on what to do in a given situation. Agree that Baba Yaga is a very controversial person, what do we really know about her and her personal life?

Let's try to figure out who Baba Yaga is. In reality, there is no exact and unambiguous opinion. According to some sources, she is considered the patroness of the forest and animals, a good ancient Greek goddess who guards the underground entrance to the Far Far Away Kingdom (the afterlife).

But there is another version that the word “yaga” originated from the word “yogi”, and Baba Yaga herself comes from India. It is not for nothing that she has a hermit lifestyle and lives in the forest, far from people and populated areas. This way of life is characteristic of Indian hermit yogis. Her means of transportation, a stupa, is reminiscent of Indian buildings - stupas, which are religious structures with hemispherical outlines.

According to other sources, she received this name because she was a very quarrelsome, angry and abusive woman; in Rus' such people were often called Yagishna.

Some researchers claim that Baba Yaga emigrated to us from the Northern part of the planet. Residents of the North used to build their homes on poles, this was necessary so that wild animals could not penetrate into the reindeer herders’ homes; in addition, at a height, the snow did not completely cover the house, and it was possible to get out of the snow blockage. These buildings in their shape resemble Baba Yaga’s home - a hut on chicken legs. There is also an assumption that she received this name because she lived in an area where moss grows - reindeer moss, which was once called “yag”.

Everyone has seen that Baba Yaga wore a sleeveless fur coat, and there is a possibility that her name came from a simple phrase - baba in a yaga (sleeveless fur coat).

In addition, there is a belief that Baba Yaga had Asian roots and, accordingly, bore an Asian name. Proof of this is her expression: “Fu-fu, it smells like the Russian spirit.” The fact is that each race has its own body odor, and most often people can smell the smell belonging to a person from a different race from a distance.

There is another incredible version, but it also has a place. Baba Yaga is a creature who came to our world from the world of the dead, that is, a deceased woman. In ancient times, the deceased were buried in houses that stood on stumps at some height, the roots of which peeked out of the ground, and resembled chicken feet. The door to the room was located in the opposite direction from the area where the villages were located, that is, in front to the forest, and back to populated areas. People believed that at night the dead could fly in their coffins, so they were laid with their feet facing the exit. Anyone who entered any house could see the legs of a dead man. This is where the expression “Baba Yaga bone leg” comes from. The deceased were treated with great respect and were not disturbed unnecessarily. Although if troubles arose, people believed that the deceased could help them in difficult situations and turned to them for help.

Well, the final version is that Baba Yaga arrived on our Earth from space and is an alien. Her stupa is a kind of spaceship. Rather, it is even a device that makes up one of the stages of a huge spaceship necessary for mobile movement in space over short distances.

The options for the origin of the sorceress presented above cannot be refuted or confirmed - everyone chooses the option that is close to them. But, I think, regardless of her origin, we will love Baba Yaga, as the image that has been familiar to us since childhood, showed us a mysterious, original personality, with a bright and independent character.