Folklore Wednesday: Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga by I. Bibilin (1900)

One of the first tales – that I can remember – which really scared me was a tale of Baba Yaga in a children’s story compendium which contained stories from around the world. This specific tale ended with Baba Yaga’s eyes smeared with tar. The illustration with the story was really the thing that scared me – she was drawn as having a forked tongue and had chicken feet as a necklace around her neck. It was only later, when I really got into folklore and mythology, that I learned more about the figure of Baba Yaga.

A witch from Eastern European lore, she lives in a house that stands on chicken legs and have windows which shut like eyes. “Surrounding the hut is a fence made of human bones and decorated with skulls.” (2008:234) The Mythical Creatures Bible describes her as a Hag and adds “…[l]ike other Hags, she is a wizened old woman with a long hooked nose”  (2008:234). In the same volume she is described as travelling through the air in a mortar which she rows with its pestle and clears her tracks with a birch broom. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology (2007:183), however, describes her means of travel as an iron kettle with which she flies through the air.

One thing on which all sources seem to agree is that she is “a cannibalistic witch who lures human victims, especially children, to her hut and devours them.” (2008:234). The Mythical Creatures Bible also notes “scholars believe that Baba Yaga was originally a potent female nature spirit, a provider of healing, protection, and guidance” (2008:234).

There are many illustrations of Baba Yaga (not all of which are quite as scary as the one from the children’s book in which I first read about her!), but here I am only going to show a few. Or go and look on this board on Pinterest.

Baba Yaga by Rima Staines (2010) - Follow the linkfor her other wonderful artwork. 

For more information and stories about Baba Yaga, visit these pages:

Sacred Texts

Old Russia  

The Wikipedia article  

Sources:

Rosen, Brenda. 2008. The Mythical Creatures Bible. Sterling Publishing, New York.  

Cotterell, A. & R. Storm. 2007. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. Hermes House, London. 

Inspiration Friday – The making of myths for other Lovers of Myths

The poem Mythopoeia by JRRTolkien, can be found in the new edition of Treeand Leaf. The following passage of the poem can also be found in Tolkien’s famous essay “On Fairy-Stories”. 

The heart of man is not compound of lies,

but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,

and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,

man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.

Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,

and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,

his world-dominion by creative act:

not his to worship the great Artefact,

man, sub-creator, the refracted light

through whom is splintered from a single White

to many hues, and endlessly combined

in living shapes that move from mind to mind.

Through all the crannies of the world we filled

with elves and goblins, though we dared to build

gods and their houses out of dark and light,

and sow the seed of dragons, ‘twas our right

(used or misused). The right has not decayed.

We  make still by the law in which we’re made.

-          JRR Tolkien, Mythopoeia, p87, Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.

I adore this passage and think it should be added to the quotes on the wall by my desk. Tolkien's work, for me, has that magical spark (for want of a better word) that makes my mind and heart come alive. I hope you have enjoyed this past month of Inspirational Tolkien Fridays as much as I have. 

And, as a last treat; here's Tolkien reading Namarië: