Baba Yaga: The Ancient Origins of the Famous ‘Witch’ | Monstrum

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One of the most beloved (and feared) figures in Russian and East Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is more than just a witch. She’s a rumored cannibal who lives in a strange rotating house and flies around in a magical mortar and pestle--but she’s also a helpful grandmotherly figure.

Who is Baba Yaga really? Pagan goddess? Evil witch? Scary old lady? Find out in this episode, which takes a look at traditional gender roles in Slavic history, pagan deities, burial practices of Neolithic Central Europe, and why this monstrous woman continues to endure. #BabaYaga #SlavicFolklore #mythology #MonstrumPBS

Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Stephanie Noone
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Editor: Sara Roma
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.

The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Armknecht, Megan, Jill Terry Rudy, and Sibelan Forrester. “Identifying Impressions of Baba Yaga: Navigating the Uses of Attachment and Wonder on Soviet and American Television.” Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-tale Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 62-79.

Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales. Ed. and Trans. Sibelan Forrester. University Press of Mississippi, 2013.

Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of Russian Folktale. Peter Lang, 2004.

Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Malgorzata. Fierce Feminine Divinities of Eurasia and Latin America: Baba Yaga, Kali, Pombagira, and Santa Muerte. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Ralston, W.R.S. Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore. Hurst & Co.

Rudy, Jill Terry and Jarom Lyle McDonald. “Baba Yaga, Monsters of the Week, and Pop Culture’s Formation of Wonder and Families through Monstrosity.” Humanities, 5(2), 2016.

Scielzo, Caroline. “An Analysis of Bába Yága in Folklore and Fairy Tales.” American Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 43, is. 2, 1983.

Warner, Elizabeth. Russian Myths. University of Texas Press, 2002.

[Corporis]

Baba Yaga has the coolest house of any monster covered so far. A fence made of bones with a skull lock?! So rad

[Hamstlanda]

Fun fact: “Chicken legs” is a misnomer, the Russian words for chicken and smoking are quite similar: куриных - курьих. The correct meaning was “smoked legs”, as mentioned in the video the house looked like a burial house placed on tree stumps. there was a practice of burning the tree stumps to preserve them from rot.
Basically Baba Yagá’s house represented the gateway to the world of the dead

[petzi_]

In Serbian “Baba” means Grandmother. And my Grandmother would joke that she would turn into Baba Roga (Yaga), if we would misbehave

[andreandretta]

It's a monster of focus, commitment, and sheer f*ing will.

[janakracmarova]

I have read quite a lot books with old slavic tales. In majority of stories Baba Jaga is as you said old witch living in or near the forest and her house is full of magic things. She often help main character (young girl or young man or prince) and give him powerful magic gift (magical sword, axe, box, potion or flute) or advice but it's in exchange for some manual labor. So she is fair and wise character, but only to people who are fair, good and deserve it. I think she is cool character, because in many stories witches are evil, but baba Jaga is more neutral, she helps good people and punish bad people. Evil character in slavic tales is more often male like Koschei, which is immortal powerfull very skinny wizard (sometimes almost skeleton) riding magical horse. Sometimes he abducts princesses. Baba Jaga help hero to defeat koschei and save his lady.

[autumnelemental]

Fun fact: in Polish translation of Hansel and Gretel, the witch is sometimes referred as Baba Yaga.
And Jaga itself is sometimes short name for name Agnieszka (Agnes).

[SarahWolverine]

Emily's little Wick rant at the end was delightful haha

I also find it interesting how that one Baba Yaga story with the girl who does the chores and gets rich, while her lazy stepsister gets eaten, parallels the German fairy tale of "Frau Holle" or "Goldmarie and Pechmarie" that I know. There we have the same family constellation, good girl falls down a well, ends up in a fairy tale land, meets Frau Holle, does her chores and gets showered in Gold at the end before she returns. Stepma and lazy girl see that, want that wealth and lazy girl also goes down the well but does nothing of worth and gets doused in bitumen at the end of her stay. The fact that baba yaga has a myth with a similiar skeleton, so to speak, just makes me wonder all the more where the roots of stories like these lie.

I really really love Monstrum for the thorough work it does in contextualizing myths and mythical figures, because fairy tales and myths and monsters and gods and godesses are such a deep look into a culture's psyche and history and enviroment. It shines light on who we are as people, who we are as cultures in such an honest way.

[makokun]

I love Baba Yaga! She’s the most multidimensional character ever. She’s sometimes evil, sometimes good. You can never tell. And her stories show a lot of her sides which make her sooo interesting.

[MoonBratStudio]

Thank you so much for wearing my Baba Yaga sweatshirt! I'm honored! --Moon Brat Studio

[BinroWasRight]

One of the most fascinatingly multifaceted figures in all of European folklore. This was lovely, thank you!

[ShadaOfAllThings]

"Elemental Goddess? Dark Sorceress? Terrifying Granny?"

Anyone who knows enough mythology will know immediately that none of these categories are mutually exclusive

[MariaVosa]

I too was utterly confused by the use of "Baba Yaga" as a code name for John Wick....
It's like calling him Medusa.

[РусланАляутдинов-ьэ]

I was waiting for this episode. Sometimes I feel like Baba Yaga is overrepresented in the west considering the wealth of other interesting slavic folklore characters but I'd be lying if I said I can't see why that is. Hope Koshey, Tugarin and others get more love from yours and other channels in the future.

[Spiritbound]

She also shows up and plays a major role in the movie “Bartock the Magnificent” which was a precursor to the “Anastasia” movie by the same studio. She set up as an evil witch but *spoilers* she turns out to just be an old lady that minds her business and sets the main character up to defeat the true villain. Truly one of my favorite childhood movies

[hugorsricardo]

I’m reading “Women who run with the wolves: myths and stories of the wild woman archetype” from Clarrisa Estés, which includes an interpretation of Vaselisa the Wise. Totally recommend it!

[Narokkurai]

I hear you on John Wick! Thought that was so weird when I first heard it I was like, "What? You're calling the most feared hitman in the world 'Evil Old Lady'? Ooookay."

[vladimirbmp]

Baba Yaga has her South Slavic counterpart - Baba Roga (meaning: Horned Grandma). She is also a very ambiguous character, her depictions and characterization varying from tale to tale, but a couple of things are in common: she has a horn (or two horns) on her head and hides in dark places to prey on children (old forests, huts, caves...). Some stories also depict her with bugs and snakes in hair, large nose, warts on face etc. The moral of Baba Roga stories is often to not be afraid of her, because though she is very ugly and frightening, she will play fair if you show her respect and keep your end of the bargain.

Gotta say, not sure about Russian, but in South Slavic languages, the word 'baba' doesn't have negative connotations. It just means 'grandma'.

[trezalkapeliskova]

This was such a nostalgic trip. Growing up in Czechia (a country in central Europe with mostly Slavic origin) I used to listen to the stories with Baba Yaga (in our transcription Baba Jaga) my whole childhood. I'm so happy you made an episode about her.

[alexanderstone]

As a Bulgarian, she was absolutely the most prominant folklore figuire that we thought of and feared as kids, maybe the strongest counterpart from Eastern Europe to America's Boogeyman

[questionablehistorian]

I laughed so hard the first time I watched "John Wick".