Baba Yaga

Author: Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumen­thal

Time Period: 1851 CE–1900 CE

Country or Culture: Russia

Genre: Folktale

PLOT SUMMARY

Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal’s version of “Baba Yaga” begins by introducing a peasant man and his twin children, a boy and a girl. When their mother dies, the husband mourns for more than two years before he remarries and has more children. Jealous of her stepchildren, the new wife orders them to go to her grandmother “who lives in the forest in a hut on hen’s feet. You will do everything she wants you to, and she will give you sweet things to eat and you will be happy” (de Blumenthal 119). The twins decide to go to their own grandmother, who tells them that the other grandmother is really a wicked witch. She advises them to be kind, avoid speaking badly of anyone, and “not despise helping the weakest, and always hope that for you, too, there will be the needed help” (120). With that, she feeds the children and sends them on their way.

In the forest, the children arrive at a hut that “stood on tiny hen’s feet, and at the top was a rooster’s head” (120). The children command the hut to face them, and inside they observe the witch resting. Despite their fear, the children politely inform the witch of their willingness to serve her. The witch replies that satisfactory service will bring reward, but “if not, I shall eat you up” (121). She orders the girl to spin thread and the boy to fill a tub using a sieve. As the girl weeps, mice appear and offer to help her if she gives them cookies. She does, and they tell her to find a black cat, give it some ham, and it will also help them. The girl then finds her brother distraught as he fails to fill the tub. Birds appear and ask for breadcrumbs. When the children comply, the birds advise them to cover the sieve with clay. The plan works, and they fill the tub.

The children finally meet the cat and feed it some ham. The cat then gives the children a towel and a comb, telling them to run from the witch and throw down the objects behind them when she pursues them. The towel will become a river, and the comb will transform into a dark wood with magic protective powers. Baba Yaga returns and is forced to acknowledge the children’s success but says that tomorrow “your work will be more difficult and I hope I shall eat you up” (123).

The next morning, the children are given more tasks but instead take the towel and comb and run off. They overcome every obstacle—pursuing dogs, a closed gate, and treacherous tree branches—with kindness and generosity. When Baba Yaga finds the children gone, she beats the cat and asks it why it let the orphans go. The cat replies that the children fed her “some good ham” (124). Likewise, the dogs, the gate, and the birch tree all praise the children’s kindness. Baba Yaga then hurriedly decides to pursue the children on her broomstick. The children throw the towel behind them, and a river blocks Baba Yaga until she finds a shallow crossing. But the comb becomes a dark, impenetrable forest, and the witch is forced to return home without her servants. The children reunite with their father, who sends his evil wife away, and “from that time he watched over their happiness and never neglected them any more” (127).

SIGNIFICANCE

The tale of Baba Yaga was originally collected by Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev (1826–71) in the mid-nineteenth century, and stories of Baba Yaga are common throughout central and eastern Europe with the character being portrayed primarily as the malevolent figure found in de Blumenthal’s rendering. Baba Yaga is highly ambiguous in the tradition overall, however, and de Blumenthal’s notes define the name Baba Yaga as meaning “grandmother witch” (151). Baba Yaga represents in Russian folklore a mother goddess figure or a crone who can be wicked or benevolent, and when benevolent, she is often both terrifying and wise. In some retellings, she is a wise hag who offers magical gifts or profound advice.

In the Russian tale of Vasalisa the Wise, Baba Yaga is clearly not a one-dimensional witch but a frightening goddess figure. Poet and psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés tells a version of this story, which is in fact an analogue of the Cinderella tale, underscoring Baba Yaga’s ambiguous power. In this tale, with a plot similar to de Blumenthal’s story, Vasalisa’s mother dies but leaves the girl a doll that she promises will help her in times of trouble. When Vasalisa’s father remarries a widow with two daughters, the new women abuse Vasalisa and finally decide to put out the fire so they will have an excuse to send her to Baba Yaga, the keeper of fire. On the way to Baba Yaga’s wild hut that stands on chicken legs, Vasalisa encounters three horsemen. The white and red horsemen ride past Vasalisa, but the black one enters the hut and causes night to come. As in de Blumenthal’s story, Baba Yaga demands difficult tasks, and Vasalisa performs them with the help of her magic doll so that Baba Yaga finally agrees to hand over the fire. Vasalisa returns home with the fire, which magically burns the evil stepmother and stepsisters to death.

In this story, Baba Yaga as keeper of the fire and as hostess of the three horsemen (who represent day, sunrise, and night) emerges as a fearful yet just earth goddess, an essential figure for Vasalisa’s initiation into adulthood and her victory over her oppressors. This version of the story also suggests that the magic powers of the towel and comb in de Blumenthal’s tale stem from Baba Yaga herself, even though the children’s kindness is also a pivotal force. Both tales thus present Baba Yaga as a supernatural elemental figure whose ferocity and magic provide a crucial test of human survival and who serves as a conduit of growth.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Baba Yaga.” Old Russia. Oldrussia.net, n.d. Web. 17 June 2013.

De Blumenthal, Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano. “Baba Yaga.” Folk Tales from the Russian. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1903. 118–27. Print.

Estés, Clarissa Pinkola. «The Doll in Her Pocket: Vasalisa the Wise.» Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. New York: Ballantine, 1995. Print.

Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993. Print.

Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Lang, 2004. Print.