Hi everyone, Lisa LaFlam here. Carry the Fire, a podcast from the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation is back with 10 new episodes. Subscribe and share to help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Humans are fascinated by gore and violence, but even more so, the mysterious and unsolved.
Interest in these disturbing and unpleasant subjects is called morbid curiosity, and it has gripped millions of people throughout the ages. I am one of those people. My name is Halle, and this is the Morbid Curiosity Podcast. Hags are a common character in the folklore of cultures all over the world.
When I say Hagg, I mean an elderly woman who uses magic to help or hinder those who encounter her. She often targets children or young women as her victims. Some examples of these archetypical witchy characters include La Baffana from Italy, Nellie Long Arms, Ginny Green Teeth and Black Annus from Northern England, the Bruja of Mexico, and Muma Paduri from Romania. One of the most famous Hags of folklore is Baba Yaga.
In the West, Baba Yaga is the most well-known character in Slavic folklore. While not often the main character, she appears in a multitude of books, films, and other entertainment, she's intriguing as she's both malicious and benevolent. References to Baba Yaga in modern western pop culture are often negative. In the John Wick films, for example, Wick, who is an elite assassin, is nicknamed Baba Yaga by his employers, a Russian crime syndicate in New York.
However, the film suggests Baba Yaga was a supernatural boogeyman-like entity. Baba Yaga is not a boogeyman. She is a different being altogether. That said, considering John Wick's kill count, the name is still relevant, as Baba Yaga was a prolific killer.
The version of Baba Yaga from the Hellboy series is more representative of the folklore that the character originates from. Similar representations also feature in Castlevania, Dungeons & Dragons, Blacktail, Tomb Raider, and Doctor Who. Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by Baba Yaga by the character of you Baba in his award-winning 2001 movie, Spirited Away. But who is Baba Yaga?
Where and when does her myth originate? And why does her name still spark feelings of unease today? Like other witchy crones from folklore and fairy tales, Baba Yaga is an old woman who lives in the forest in a wooden hut and rides a broomstick. However, her hut and her broomstick are special.
Her hut has legs, birds legs to be exact, that can turn and move the hut through the woods. Her hut is also decorated with human bones and teeth, and human skulls adorn her fence posts. Her broom is part of a larger vehicle, a large iron mortar and pestle, drawn by several demons in some tales. The broom serves to sweep away any tracks she might leave behind.
When she flies in the mortar, just above the ground, she causes storms so strong they cause people and animals to groan and plagues that kill. She travels in search of human flesh, stealing, cooking and eating her victims, usually children. Baba Yaga herself is physically unique. She's often accompanied by the epithet, bony leg or iron teeth, both hinting at her ferocious appearance.
Her bones stick out in some places, she has one fang-like tooth, her breasts hang below her waist and she wears only a shift dress with no girdle or head covering, which was considered unseemly in 1700s Russia. Any human who saw her was struck dumb. She also had a wand that she used to turn living things into stone. And inside her hut, she often stretched out over the stove, reaching from one corner of the hut to the other.
While lying in this position, her nose was said to poke the ceiling. This nose could smell humans, especially Russian visitors. Some narrators went into detail on the repulsiveness of her nose, breasts and buttocks. In some stories, Baba Yaga is one of three elderly sisters who all have the same name and live in different areas of the forest.
In others, she's a benevolent sorceress who assists those who encounter her. In still others, she is the guardian of the Fountain of Life. But in all tales, Baba Yaga hovers around in a giant mortar, wielding a pestle and lives deep in the forest in a hut, standing on bird's legs. Originally, Baba Yaga was a character from early Slavic folklore.
The Slavic people are a multitude of peoples who speak Slavic languages, such as Russian, Polish, Bulgarian and others. Slavic peoples reside throughout Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. There's also a large Slavic minority scattered across the Baltic states and Central Asia and a substantial Slavic presence in the Americas, Western and Northern Europe due to immigration. The Slavic peoples controlled large parts of Central, Eastern and South-East Europe between the 6th and 7th centuries CE.
They followed their own pagan religion, which was first documented by Byzantine historian Procopius. There aren't many sources from early Slavic writers in existence, so folklorists and researchers have had to use secondary sources written by people outside of the Slavic culture, as well as archaeological finds to piece together early Slavic religion. Historical documents about Slavic religion include the primary chronicle, compiled in Kiev around 1111 CE, and the Novgorod 1st Chronicle, compiled in the Novgorod Republic, a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia. These documents detail the annihilation of the official Slavic religion of Kiev and Novgorod by Christian crusaders.
From the 11th century onwards, various writings against Slavic religion and Slavic gods preserved elements of the religion for 20th century scholars to research. Many Slavic peoples stubbornly resisted the northern crusades, and the history of their resistance is well documented by 11th and 12th century Latin chroniclers. These documents, together with minor German writings and the Icelandic Nithlinger saga, provide the most detailed descriptions of northwestern Slavic religion. The religions of other Slavic populations are less well documented.
Descriptions of them were only produced after Christianization and contain a lot of embellishment. Modern research of the pre-Christian Slavic beliefs is challenging because of the lack of primary sources, the fact that nobility and peasantry worshipped separate deities, and that many Christian beliefs were integrated into Slavic folklore. The Baba in Baba Yaga's name means old woman or mother. The Yaga is a little more obscure, but likely denotes an ill-natured woman in east and west Slavic languages.
In south Slavic languages, it's closer towards for illness, wound, or suffering. The primary Slavic god was the creator of lightning, Peron, and animal sacrifices were made to him, as well as other gods, creatures and nature spirits, such as Leshy, Chorz, and Kigomura. You may recognize some of these creatures as they appear in the Witcher series of books and games. The Witcher universe is largely based on Slavic folklore.
While Baba Yaga has roots in early Slavic folklore, the first clear reference to her comes from a 1755 book, Russian Grammar, by Mikhail V. Lamanozov. Baba Yaga is mentioned twice, and the second mention occurs within a list of Slavic gods and supernatural beings, and their presumed equivalents in Roman mythology. For example, Peron is equated to the Roman god Jupiter.
Baba Yaga, however, has no equivalent, highlighting her uniqueness. Because of her ability to create storms when she flies, it's thought by some scholars that Baba Yaga may have originally been a personification of the northern European winter and its debilitating power, with the sweeping of her tracks related to the sweeping swirling of snowstorm. Other scholars believe Baba Yaga is both a nature goddess and a death goddess, similar to Persephone in Greek mythology. Another theory is that Baba Yaga may be related to the early Slavic tradition of hedge witches called Babivorose.
Vorozia means harmless old woman, devoted to sorcery in old Russian. These female magical practitioners made potions and cast spells. This could be where Baba Yaga's mortar and pestle come from, from mixing potions. Russian ethnographer Andre Toporkov suggests Baba Yaga's collection of tools are similar to those used in pagan rituals involving women.
Sorcery was seen as protective and could be practiced by anyone, whereas witchcraft was an inherent magic, practiced by invisible means. This distinction wasn't consistent across Slavic folklore, but neither which nor sorceress were seen as inherently evil. The transformation of a harmless sorceress into a diabolical witch may have something to do with the demonization of pagan folklore by the medieval Christian church. The church fought a very hard battle against these women in ancient Russia, which is likely why Baba Yaga's origins are so murky.
It could also be the reason why there are so many dualities in her tales, some of which I'll share with you in a moment. In some tales, she's incredibly wicked and cruel. While in others, she's more benevolent, but no less fierce. In still others, she more closely resembles a trickster character, like Loki, the Norse god of mischief, or coyote from Native American folklore.
She's dangerous to deal with, but she can also prove invaluable in dangerous circumstances. Baba Yaga is one of the most popular figures in Russian folk tales, and is familiar to most of the Russian people, her story having been passed down through the generations, surviving wars and revolutions. The first written stories about her appeared in the 19th century, published by Alexander Afenysiev. Before this, Baba Yaga appeared in woodcut art from at least the 17th century, and was regularly part of Russian oral fairy tales in folklore.
The first tale I'm going to share is The Tale about Baba Yaga, a Russian fairy tale published in a late 18th century compilation of fairy tales. Variants from oral tradition were collected in the 19th and 20th centuries from several Slavic language-speaking storytellers. The tale goes like this. In a distant kingdom, a wise woman named Baba Yaga Boney liked as a single son of virtuous character.
He falls in love and marries a human girl. Baba Yaga despises her daughter-in-law and plots to kill her one way or another. When her son is away, Baba Yaga, who's been falsely kind to the girl, asks her to go to the woods and milk her cows. The girl starts toward the cow pen, but her husband intercepts her.
He tells her that the cows are in fact bears that will kill her. He suggests that she milks some mares and gives that to Baba Yaga to fool her. The girl does as he suggests, and Baba Yaga is surprised to see her come home. The next day, Baba Yaga asks the girl to go into the woods and sheer her sheep.
Again, on her way to do so, the girl's husband appears and warns her that the sheep are actually wolves that will tear her to pieces. He teaches her a magic command that will cause the wolves to shear themselves. The girl climbs up a tree near the wolves and chants the magic command. To Baba Yaga's greater surprise, she returns home with the fur.
Seeing that the girl is more resourceful than initially thought, Baba Yaga sends her to her sister to retrieve a reed for weaving. Along the way, the girl meets her husband, who gives her oil, lard, needles, and pins, as well as a comb, a tablecloth, a brush, and a ring. The girl uses these items on her quest. She oils the hinges of the door of the sister's hut, gives the pieces of lard to two dogs to keep them from barking, gives lard to the cat to keep it from yelling, and needles and pins to a group of servant girls inside the hut.
Baba Yaga's sister is surprised to see the girl and gives her the reed, then leaves to prepare a bath for her, as even witches want their food clean. The servant girls quickly warn her that Baba Yaga's sister is going to devour her and she must flee. The girl takes the reed and runs. Baba Yaga's sister discovers this, complains that the servants, the cat, the dog, and the door didn't stop the girl, and flies after her in her mortar and pestle.
Realizing that the witch is chasing her, the girl throws the comb, the tablecloth, the brush, and the ring behind her as she runs. Each object creates a magical obstacle. The comb becomes a dense forest, the tablecloth, a river, the brush, a steep mountain, and the ring, a brick wall. Baba Yaga's sister manages to traverse the first three obstacles, but runs head on into the brick wall.
She's up-chase and leaves the girl be. The human girl then delivers the reed to Baba Yaga, who is pleased with her daughter-in-law's guile and cletternus. There are many variants of this tale, some of which switch the characters of the husband and his wife so that the husband must complete all the tasks with his wife's help. Another version has the girl disguised as a soldier to save her father from fighting the war before being abducted by her future husband and hated by her mother-in-law.
Alexander, off an Icy ofs collection of Russian fairy tales, contains many Baba Yaga stories. One of the most famous of these is called the Selisa the Fair. A merchant and his wife had an eight-year-old daughter named Vasilisa. The wife grew ill and just before her death gave Vasilisa a doll with her blessing.
This doll was magical. If given something to eat, it would help its owner out of trouble. The merchant eventually remarries to a widow with two daughters a little older than Vasilisa. The stepmother dislikes Vasilisa and gives her various back-breaking jobs, but the doll helps her by doing all the work.
When Vasilisa grows up, all the eligible men in the city try to attain her hand in marriage. The stepmother denies them all, proclaiming that her youngest will not marry before her One day, the merchant leaves for a long business trip, and while he's gone, the family moves to another house at the edge of a dense forest, a forest that contains the hut of Baba Yaga. The stepmother often sends Vasilisa into the forest, hoping that Baba Yaga will devour her, but the doll always guides Vasilisa home safely. Furious, the stepmother sends her directly to Baba Yaga's hut for fire.
For context, during the autumn, women's work is done by the light of a single candle, which the stepmother snuffed out. The doll promises to take care of Vasilisa, so she sets off into the woods. On her way, she passes three horsemen, one dressed in all white, one all in red, and one all in black. When Vasilisa reaches the hut of Baba Yaga, she's afraid.
Baba Yaga's fence is made of human bones, and on it hang human skulls. The eye sockets illuminate like lanterns, casting terrifying shadows. With a resounding crack of thunder, Baba Yaga rides out of the forest in her flying mortar. Vasilisa asks Baba Yaga for fire, and Baba Yaga strikes a deal with her.
Vasilisa must first be her servant, or Baba Yaga will devour her. As she's a good servant, Baba Yaga will give her what she asks. At Baba Yaga's command, the gates open, and then lock themselves behind them. Baba Yaga gives Vasilisa various impossible tasks, but she completes them all perfectly with the doll's help.
The three horsemen pass by the hut, and Baba Yaga calls to her assistants three pairs of hands that appear and respond at her call. Baba Yaga explains that the white, red, and black horsemen are day, sun, and night, but does not explain what the hands are. She warns that she dislikes those who give away her secrets, and eats those who are too serious. After a long time serving Baba Yaga, Baba Yaga asks Vasilisa how she manages to accomplish all her tasks.
Vasilisa states that she did so by her mother's blessing. Baba Yaga, who rejects those who are blessed, throws her out of her home, but not empty-handed. She gives Vasilisa a skull with burning eyes to use as a lamp. Vasilisa doesn't want to take it, but the skull insists asking to be taken to her stepmother's house.
When they arrive, the fire from the skull's eye sockets incinerates the stepmother and her two daughters. Vasilisa buries the skull and moves to the city, where she lives with an old cloth maker, spinning and weaving while waiting for her father to return. The fabric she makes is so fine that the cloth maker brings it to the royal palace. The king asks Vasilisa to make clothing for him, and soon asks her to marry him.
She agrees. When her father returns, he joins her at court, as does the cloth maker who took her in. Vasilisa continues to carry the doll in her pocket for the rest of her life. In some versions of this story, the tale ends with the death of the stepmother and step sisters, and Vasilisa lives peacefully after their removal.
Vasilisa figures in several other Slavic folk tales in which she is the daughter of the seeking and helps a prince escape his underwater kingdom with her magic. Another well-known tale where she and Baba Yaga appear is the frog princess, also called Vasilisa the Wise. Prince Ivan and his two older brothers must marry. To choose wives, they are instructed to shoot arrows in different directions, and marry whoever the arrow lands near.
Two of the brothers lose their arrows, which land in the houses of an aristocrat and a wealthy merchant, both with beautiful daughters. Prince Ivan's arrow lands in a swamp, in the mouth of a frog. At night, the frog turns into a princess, as she does every night. The frog princess, named Vasilisa the Wise, is a beautiful, intelligent, friendly, skilled young woman who was forced to spend three years in a frog's skin for disobeying an evil wizard.
Her final test before she can be free is to dance at the King's banquet. On the night of the banquet, the frog princess sheds her frog skin, and to her dismay, the prince then burns it. Had the prince been patient, the frog princess would have been freed, but instead, she is snatched up by the evil wizard who cursed her and taken away. This Ivan sets out to find her, and during his journey, he meets Babayaga, knowing she could easily overpower him, the prince faints confidence and scolds Babayaga for not offering him hospitality.
She is impressed by his spirit and tells him of the wizard who has imprisoned Vasilisa. She also explains how to find the magic needle that's needed to rescue her. In other versions of this tale, Vasilisa flies into Babayaga's hut as a bird. Prince Ivan catches her, but she then turns into a lizard and he cannot hold on.
Babayaga reputes him and sends him to her sister, where he fails again. He is sent to the third sister, and this time he catches Vasilisa and holds on through many transformations. Afterward, she is free of her curse, and free to marry him. In each of these tales, Babayaga is not the central character, but interacts with the protagonist in several ways.
In the tale about Babayaga, she antagonizes her daughter-in-law, but ends up liking her in the end. In Vasilisa the Fair, Babayaga seems a cruel mistress, but she fulfills her promise of fire, and then gets rid of the step-family on top of that. In the frog princess, Babayaga is a fearsome witch, but warns to the prince who stands up to her, giving him a chance to find his true love. In all three tales, she is described as terrifying and dangerous, but acts as more of an ally in the end.
Her lore has probably lasted into the modern era due to pure curiosity about her character. Is she good? Is she evil? What is her motivation?
She changes from tale to tale, going from child-eating cannibal to assistant of heroes and abused women. She is a paradox. It's possible she represents nature in this way, life and death, growth and destruction, benevolence and malevolence. She leaves an impression in our minds because she is unpredictable.
Traditional Babayaga tales encourage resourcefulness and ingenuity. Encounters with her, test the protagonist and awaken their ability not only to survive, but also to thrive. Babayaga helps them overcome fear through problem-solving and courage, allowing the protagonist to discover they have the tools necessary to cope with fear in their imagination and in reality. Understanding oneself in this way is tied to maturation, and thus Babayaga's hut becomes a place of learning, of character development.
In Vasilisa the Fair, Vasilisa doesn't defeat Babayaga, Babayaga lets her go. She is terrifying, but just. She doesn't hurt Vasilisa as long as Vasilisa respects her. She sort of combines the wicked witch and fairy godmother tropes, creating a far more powerful and unpredictable force than either of them.
There's an argument that Babayaga is one of the most feminist characters in folklore. She is unpredictable, untamable. She lives in the wilds, exerting power without being conventionally attractive, living by her own magical rules. She commands fear and respect, but also awe and desire.
She is both careless and cunning, caring and cruel. Even her home is both a house and a chicken, making her housebound in a sense, but not in any way tied down. She completely flips the nurturing mother stereotype on its head by eating children rather than caring for them. In the tales, she's often a mother, but never a wife.
No explanation is given for this, it just is. Babayaga is both a mother and the thing that children fear. She usually comes into the story only after the parent figure leaves. She is a crosser of categories and boundaries, a reminder that we can learn as much from the dark as the light.
Mindy Ryan, editor of a modern collection of Babayaga stories called Into the Forest, Tales of the Babayaga, states that, quote, she is a figure that reminds us that we are ferocious and untamable, end quote. When a protagonist enters the realm of Babayaga, they face not only the possibility of death, but also the possibility of attaining their goals. Encountering death also means learning how to live. Learning how to live means maturity, and with maturity comes understanding and identifying with other humans.
In all her tales, including modern retellings, Babayaga remains complex and fascinating. Her presence often leaves a deep impression, which can lead to identifying with her, wanting to know more about her and find more tales that feature her. She holds a special place in the hearts and minds of those who know her because she helps us navigate our own identities. In Babayaga, we see both the good and the bad that is in everyone.
She merely embraces it more than others. That's why Babayaga ignites our morbid curiosity. The morbid curiosity podcast is produced by H.Loyd. If you'd like to get in touch or suggest a morbid topic, you can do so on Facebook and Instagram at morbid curiosity podcast or on our website www.morbidcuriositypodcast.com.
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