Baba Yaga depicted inTales of the Russian People (published by V. A. Gatsuk in Moscow in 1894)Baba Yaga being used as an example for theCyrillic letterБ, inAlexandre Benois' ABC-Book
Baba Yaga is a female character (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) fromSlavic folklore who has two contrasting roles. In some narratives, she is described as a repulsive or ferocious-looking old woman who fries and eats children, while in others she is depicted as a nice old woman who helps the hero.[1] She is often associated with forest wildlife. Her distinctive traits are flying around in a woodenmortar, wielding a pestle, and dwelling deep in the forest in ahut with chicken legs.
Variations of the nameBaba Yaga are found in manySlavic languages. InSerbo-Croatian,Macedonian,Romanian andBulgarian,baba means 'grandmother' or 'old woman'. In contemporary Polish and Russian,baba /баба is also apejorative synonym for 'woman', in particular one who is old, dirty, or foolish. Andreas Johns speculates that"Baba" serves two linguistic purposes in the name: firstly, it adds a familiar component to the lesser-known word"yaga", and secondly, it clarifies that the character is female.[2]
The etymology ofyaga is less clear, and there is no consensus among scholars about its meaning. In the 19th century,Alexander Afanasyev proposed the derivation ofProto-Slavic *ož andSanskritahi ('serpent'). This etymology has been explored by 20th-century scholars. Related terms include the Serbian and Croatianjeza ('horror', 'shudder', 'chill'),Slovenejeza ('anger'),Old Czechjězě ('witch', 'legendary evil female being'), modern Czechjezinka ('wicked wood nymph', 'dryad'), and Polishjędza ('witch', 'evil woman', 'fury'). The term appears inOld Church Slavonic asjęza/jędza ('disease'). In otherIndo-European languages, the elementiaga has been linked toLithuanianengti ('to abuse (continuously)', 'to belittle', 'to exploit'),Old Englishinca ('doubt', 'worry', 'pain'), andOld Norseekki ('pain', 'worry').[3]
Vladimir Propp wrote that depictions of Baba Yaga taken from various fairy tales do not create a coherent image.[4]
The first clear reference to Baba Yaga (Iaga baba) occurs in 1755 inMikhail V. Lomonosov'sRussian Grammar [ru]. In Lomonosov's grammar book, Baba Yaga is mentioned twice among other figures largely from Slavic tradition. The second of the two mentions occurs within a list ofSlavic gods and beings next to theirpresumed equivalents inRoman mythology (the Slavic godPerun, for example, appears equated with the Roman godJupiter). Baba Yaga, however, appears in a third section without an equivalence, highlighting her perceived uniqueness even in this first known attestation.[5]
In the narratives in which Baba Yaga appears, she displays a number of distinctive attributes: a turning, chicken-legged hut; and amortar, pestle, and/or mop or broom. Baba Yaga may ride on the broom or, most recognizably, inside a mortar, using the broom to sweep away her tracks.[1] Russian ethnographerAndrey Toporkov [ru] explains Baba Yaga's selection of tools by numerous pagan rituals involving women. He suggests that the pestle was first to be used by Baba Yaga, because it may be used as a weapon (as such, it was used in a number of rituals) and the mortar was added later by an association.[6]
Baba Yaga often bears theepithetBaba Yaga kostyanaya noga ('bony leg'), orBaba Yaga s zheleznymi zubami ('with iron teeth')[7] and when inside her dwelling, she may be found stretched out over the stove, reaching from one corner of the hut to another. Baba Yaga may sense and mention therusskiy dukh ('Russian scent') of those that visit her. Her nose may stick into the ceiling. Particular emphasis may be placed by some narrators on the repulsiveness of her nose, breasts, buttocks, or vulva.[8]
Baba Yaga byIvan Bilibin, inVasilisa the Beautiful, 1900
Sometimes Baba Yaga is said to live in theFaraway or Thrice-ninth Tsardom: "Beyond the thrice-nine kingdoms, in the thirtieth realm, beyond the fiery river, lives the Baba Yaga."[9] In some tales, a trio of Baba Yagas appears as sisters, all sharing the same name. For example, in a version of "The Maiden Tsar" collected in the 19th century byAlexander Afanasyev, Ivan, a handsome merchant's son, makes his way to the home of one of three Baba Yagas:[10]
He journeyed onwards, straight ahead ... and finally came to a little hut; it stood in the open field, turning on chicken legs. He entered and found Baba Yaga the Bony-legged. "Fie, fie," she said, "the Russian smell was never heard of nor caught sight of here, but it has come by itself. Are you here of your own free will or by compulsion, my good youth?" "Largely of my own free will, and twice as much by compulsion! Do you know, Baba Yaga, where lies the thrice tenth kingdom?" "No, I do not," she said, and told him to go to her second sister; she might know.
Ivan Bilibin, Baba Yaga, illustration in 1911 from "The tale of the three tsar's wonders and of Ivashka, the priest's son" (A. S. Roslavlev)
Ivan walks for some time before encountering a small hut identical to the first. This Baba Yaga makes the same comments and asks the same question as the first, and Ivan asks the same question. This second Baba Yaga does not know either and directs him to the third, but says that if she gets angry with him "and wants to devour you, take three horns from her and ask her permission to blow them; blow the first one softly, the second one louder, and third still louder." Ivan thanks her and continues on his journey.
After walking for some time, Ivan eventually finds the chicken-legged hut of the youngest of the three sisters turning in an open field. This third and youngest of the Baba Yagas makes the same comment about "the Russian smell" before running to whet her teeth and consume Ivan. Ivan begs her to give him three horns and she does so. The first he blows softly, the second louder, and the third louder yet. This causes birds of all sorts to arrive and swarm the hut. One of the birds is thefirebird, which tells him to hop on its back or Baba Yaga will eat him. He does so and the Baba Yaga rushes him and grabs the firebird by its tail. The firebird leaves with Ivan, leaving Baba Yaga behind with a fistful of firebird feathers.
Andreas Johns describes Baba Yaga as "one of the most memorable and distinctive figures in eastern European folklore", and observes that she is "enigmatic" and often exhibits "striking ambiguity".[12] He characterizes Baba Yaga as "a many-faceted figure, capable of inspiring researchers to see her as a Cloud, Moon, Death, Winter, Snake, Bird, Pelican or Earth Goddess, totemic matriarchal ancestress, female initiator,phallic mother, or archetypal image".[2]
"Iaga Baba" fighting with "Crocodile"A lubok of "Iaga Baba" dancing with a bald old man withbagpipes
Baba Yaga appears on a variety oflubki (singularlubok), wood block prints popular in late 17th and early 18th century Russia. In some instances, Baba Yaga appears astride a pig going to battle against a reptilian entity referred to as "crocodile".Dmitry Rovinsky interpreted this scene as a politicalparody.Peter the Great persecutedOld Believers, who in turn referred to him as a crocodile. Rovinsky notices that somelubki feature a ship below the crocodile, interpreted as a hint to the rule of Peter the Great, while Baba Yaga dressed in a Finnish dress ("chukhonka dress") is a hint to Peter the Great's wifeCatherine I, sometimes derisively referred to as thechukhonka ('Finnish woman'). A lubok that features Baba Yaga dancing with abagpipe-playing bald man has been identified as a merrier depiction of the home life of Peter and Catherine.[13][14] Some other scholars[who?] have interpreted theselubki motifs as reflecting a concept of Baba Yaga as ashaman. The "crocodile" would in this case represent a monster who fights witches, and the print would be something of a "cultural mélange" that "demonstrate[s] an interest in shamanism at the time".[15]
According to Andreas Johns, "Neither of these two interpretations significantly changes the image of Baba Yaga familiar from folktales. Either she can be seen as a literal evil witch, treated somewhat humorously in these prints, or as a figurative 'witch', an unpopular foreign empress. Both literal and figurative understandings of Baba Yaga are documented in the nineteenth century and were probably present at the time these prints were made."[15]
Ježibaba (seecs:Ježibaba), a figure closely related to Baba Yaga, occurs in the folklore of theWest Slavic peoples. The two figures may originate from a common figure known during theMiddle Ages or earlier; both figures are similarly ambiguous in character, but differ in appearance and the different tale types they occur in. Questions linger regarding the limited Slavic area—East Slavic nations, Slovakia, and theCzech lands—in which references to Ježibaba are recorded.[16]Jędza [pl], another figure related to Baba Yaga, appears in Polish folklore.[17]
Similarities between Baba Yaga and other beings in folklore may be due to either direct relation or cultural contact between the Eastern Slavs and other surrounding peoples.[citation needed] In Central and Eastern Europe, these figures include the Bulgariangorska maika (Горска майка', 'Forest Mother', alsothe name of a flower); the Hungarianvasorrú bába ('Iron-nose Midwife'), the SerbianBaba Korizma,Gvozdenzuba ('Iron-tooth'),Baba Roga (used to scare children inBosnia,Croatia,Montenegro,North Macedonia andSerbia),šumska majka ('Forest Mother'), and the babice; and the Slovenianjaga baba orježibaba,Pehta orPehtra baba andkvatrna baba orkvatrnica. In Romanian folklore, similarities have been identified in several figures, includingMuma Pădurii ('Forest Mother') orBaba Cloanța referring to the nose as a bird's beak. In neighboring Germanic Europe, similarities have been observed between the AlpinePerchta andHolda orHolle in the folklore of Central and Northern Germany, and the SwissChlungeri.[18]
Some scholars have proposed that the concept of Baba Yaga was influenced by East Slavic contact withFinno-Ugric andSiberian peoples. The "hut on chicken legs deep in the forest" plainly resembles huts raised on one or several stilts using stump with roots for the stilts, in popular use by Finno-Ugric peoples and also found in forests rather than villages. The stumps with roots may be uprooted and laid in a new place as in the example exhibited in Skansen, or in ground where it was felled. Like Baba Yaga's hut, these are normally cramped for a person, though unlike Baba Yaga's house they do not actively walk and also do not contain a stove, being intended as storehouses and not for living.[19] TheKarelian figureSyöjätär has some aspects of Baba Yaga, but only the negative ones, while in other Karelian tales, helpful roles akin to those from Baba Yaga may be performed by a character calledakka ('old woman').[20]
Animated segments telling the story of Baba Yaga were used in the 2014 documentaryThe Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, directed by American filmmakerJessica Oreck.[22]
GennaRose Nethercott's first novel,Thistlefoot, "reimagines Baba Yaga as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern Europeanshtetl in 1919, during a time ofcivil war andpogroms."[23]
Sophie Anderson's bookThe House With Chicken Legs, which received various accolades,[24][25][26][27] features Marinka, the granddaughter of Baba Yaga. Here "Yaga" is not a name, but a title for the guardian who guides the dead into the afterlife, and Marinka is being trained for this role. Yagas are reimagined as kind and benevolent.[28][29]
Babaroga, which is theSerbo-Croatian term for Baba Yaga, served as an inspiration to Australian filmmakerJennifer Kent for the creation of the Babadook, a creature from her 2014 filmof the same name.[30]
There is a large number of Russian fairy-tale and fantasy films where Baba Yaga features as a prominent secondary character, either a villain or a helper. In a number of them Baba Yaga is among the main characters.
2006: A Russian full feature animated filmBabka Yozhka and the Others [ru] received several awards. "Babka Yozhka" is a diminutive for "Baba Yaga" and the animated film is a about a little foundling girl brought up by Baba Yaga and other fairy tale creatures.[31]
A 2025Doctor Who audio spinoff fromBig Finish Productions featured a story where the Doctor goes to look for Baba Yaga and meets Vasilisa the Beautiful.[35]
She appears as a playable character in the video gameSmite.[36]
^Русские народные картинки: в 2-х томах. Т. 1 / Собрал и описал Д.А. Ровинский; посмертный трудпечатан под наблюдением Н.П. Собко. СПб.: Издание Р. Голике, 1900. 368 с
Hubbs, Joanna (1993).Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian culture (1st Midland Book ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.ISBN978-0-253-20842-2.OCLC29539185.
Cooper, Brian (1997). "Baba-Yaga, the Bony-Legged: A Short Note on the Witch and Her Name".New Zealand Slavonic Journal:82–88.JSTOR23806796. Accessed 31 Aug. 2024.
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