Slavic legend about Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga. Goddess, snake woman, fairy tale sorceress. Siberian version of the origin of Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is the wife of Veles and a strong sorceress, about whom many legends were composed in ancient Slavic mythology. Over time, this character gradually turned into an evil, scary, shaggy old cannibal on a bone leg, living in the forest in a strange house on bird legs and luring people to her. However, not all so simple. Has Baba Yaga always been a negative character, and what rituals and traditions are associated with her - read in the material.
What does her name mean and who is she
Scientists from different countries tried to translate the word Baba Yaga, and as a result, they did not come to a consensus. There were no discrepancies with the term baba, it is safe to say that this part of the name means a female person. And what about Yaga? For example, in the Komi language the word "yag" means forest. From Czech "jeze" is translated as an evil aunt. In Slovenian, "jeza" means anger, while Serbo-Croatian offers a variant of "jeza", which means horror. In Sanskrit, the word yaga comes from the root ah, which means to move. If we go back to the origins, then translated from the Proto-Slavic “ega” means horror, danger, and anger.
All variants, except, perhaps, Komi and Sanskrit, suggest something terrible, terrible, evil. However, this Baba Yaga was not always: initially this character was positive.
In pre-Christian Russia, Yaga was considered the most famous coastline, she kept the clan and folk traditions. After Russia was baptized, belief in pagan gods began to be considered heresy, and for the most part they turned into malicious and terrible creatures. This fate did not pass and Baba Yaga, who became a nasty, angry and ugly old woman, whose appearance and behavior inspired fear.
Yaga - a guide to the afterlife
In many Russian fairy tales, the main character must get to Far Far Away in order to achieve his goal. And it is Baba Yaga who helps him in this. After the prince, the peasant, any other good fellow gets to the grandmother, he asks her for help in this. At first, Yaga refuses, intimidating the hero, showing him his terrible dwelling, talking about his nightmarish deeds and about what suffering he will have to endure. But then he changes his anger to mercy and starts heating the bathhouse, where the guest carefully soars. This is nothing more than a ritual bath.
Then comes the time for treats, and this moment can also be considered as a kind of rite, the so-called mortuary dinner, designed to penetrate into the sinister realm of the dead. It turns out that the hero is alive, but after all the rituals, he is in a strange position, between the living and the dead, which later transformed into the saying "neither alive nor dead."
But after that, he easily falls into the desired kingdom, fulfills his mission there and wins.
Yaga healer and healer
Baba Yaga knows how to prepare a variety of potions, love potions, tinctures, she dries roots and herbs, in general, fully corresponds to the image of a healer. In ancient times, people who knew how to use the gifts of nature and achieve the desired results with the help of herbal remedies were most often feared, but at the same time revered. Once again they were not contacted, they were contacted only when there was a strong need for it.
Many healers really lived very secluded, often settled in the forest. This is understandable - it was more convenient to find the right herbs there and no one could interfere with the process of preparing medicines.
In old fairy tales, it is often mentioned that Baba Yaga roasts babies in the oven, putting them there on a shovel. But, if we recall the ritual of "baking" babies who were sick with rickets, then everything will become clear. The baby was wrapped in a kind of sheet of dough, laid on a shovel for bread and put into a warm heated oven several times. After that, the child was swaddled, the used dough was thrown out into the yard, where it (according to legends - along with the disease) was eaten by dogs.
Sinister attributes and contradictions
Baba Yaga lives, as every child knows today according to fairy tales, in a house on chicken legs. Why does this granny live in such a dwelling? The answer may be related to the fact that in ancient times it was customary for the Slavs to build original crypts for the dead, which were small buildings on high piles. Such houses were placed on the edge of the forest. There is an assumption that this is why Baba Yaga lives in a kind of house for the dead, and her hut can be considered as a transit point between life and death.
Protecting her home, she erects a fence of bones, decorated with skulls. This character moves in a mortar, while during the flight he uses a broom to cover his tracks. The stupa looks like an oak log, and in the old days they kept the dead in it. Consequently, Baba Yaga is essentially rushing through the air in a coffin, in an oak mortar. This old woman has the talent of a sorceress, she is able to easily cause damage. Yaga is entertained by the fact that by cunning he lures people into his house, most often young men or children, in order to fry them in his huge oven and eat them.
Indeed, scary. Despite this, if we recall Russian folk tales, it is unlikely that at least one will come to mind in which Baba Yaga carried out her threats. On the contrary, the heroes, getting to the old woman's house, take a steam bath, eat deliciously, sleep sweetly, and then they also receive guidance, advice and gifts. They are offered valuable unusual items, for example, a flying carpet, gusli-samogudy, boots-walkers. With their help, the guest of Baba Yaga receives a special power, becomes practically invulnerable, which helps him to carry out his plans. Baba Yaga seems to endow the main character with special abilities, helping him defeat evil and achieve his goal. From an evil old woman, a kidnapper and a hooligan, Yaga returns to her original image - albeit a grouchy and absurd, but a kind woman-keeper.
If we analyze folk tales, then Yaga seems to be not just an evil old woman who knows how to conjure. She is something else, able to modify time and space, possessing divine power.
Let's answer the question first: Who is the fabulous Baba Yaga? This is an old evil witch who lives in a deep forest in a hut on chicken legs, flies in a mortar, chasing her with a pestle and covering her trail with a broom. He likes to feast on human flesh - small children and good fellows. However, in some fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not at all evil: she helps the good fellow by giving him something magical or showing the way to him.Here is such a controversial old woman. On the question of how Baba Yaga got into Russian fairy tales, and why she is called that, researchers have not yet come to a common opinion. I propose to get acquainted with the most popular versions.
According to one of them, Baba Yaga is a guide to the other world - the world of ancestors. She lives somewhere on the border of the worlds of the living and the dead, somewhere in the "far away kingdom". And the famous hut on chicken legs is, as it were, a gateway to this world; therefore it is impossible to enter it until it turns its back to the forest. Yes, and Baba Yaga herself is a living dead. The following details speak in favor of this hypothesis. Firstly, her dwelling is a hut on chicken legs. Why exactly on legs, and even "chicken ones"? It is believed that "chicken" is a modified "chicken" over time, that is, fumigated with smoke. The ancient Slavs had such a custom of burying the dead: a "hut of death" was placed on the pillars fumigated with smoke, in which the ashes of the deceased were placed. Such a funeral rite existed among the ancient Slavs in the 6th-9th centuries. Perhaps the hut on chicken legs points to another custom of the ancients - to bury the dead in domovins - special houses placed on high stumps. In such stumps, the roots come out and are really somewhat similar to chicken legs.
Yes, and Baba Yaga herself - shaggy (and braids in those days were untwisted only to dead women), blind-sighted, with a bone leg, a hooked nose (“nose has grown into the ceiling”) - a real evil spirits, a living dead. The bone leg, perhaps, reminds us that the dead were buried with their feet towards the exit of the domino, and if one looked into it, one could see only their feet.
That is why Baba Yaga was often frightened by children - just like they were frightened by the dead. But, on the other hand, in ancient times, the ancestors were treated with respect, reverence and fear; and, although they tried not to disturb them over trifles, as they were afraid of bringing trouble on themselves, in difficult situations they still turned to them for help. In the same way, Ivan Tsarevich turns to Baba Yaga for help when he needs to defeat Kashchei or the Serpent Gorynych, and she gives him a magical guide ball and tells how to defeat the enemy.
According to another version, the prototype of Baba Yaga is witches, healers who treated people. Often these were unsociable women who lived far from the settlements, in the forest. Many scientists deduce the word "Yaga" from the Old Russian word "yazya" ("yaz"), meaning "weakness", "illness" and gradually fell into disuse after the 11th century. The passion of Baba Yaga to fry children in the oven on a shovel is very reminiscent of the so-called rite of "baking", or "baking", babies with rickets or atrophy: the child was wrapped in a "diaper" of dough, placed on a wooden bread shovel and stuck three times into a hot bake. Then the child was unrolled, and the dough was given to the dogs to eat. According to other versions, the dog (puppy) was put into the oven along with the child, so that the illness passed to him.
And it really helped a lot! Only in fairy tales this rite changed sign from "plus" (treatment of the child) to "minus" (the child is fried to eat). It is assumed that this happened already in those times when Christianity began to take hold in Russia, and when everything pagan was actively eradicated. But, apparently, Christianity still could not completely defeat Baba Yaga - the heiress of folk healers: remember, did Baba Yaga manage to fry someone in at least one fairy tale? No, she only wants to do it.
They also derive the word "Yaga" from "yagat" - to shout, putting all their strength into their cry. Giving birth was taught to women giving birth by midwives, witches. But also "yagat" meant "shouting" in the sense of "swearing", swearing. Yaga is also derived from the word "yagaya", which has two meanings: "evil" and "sick". By the way, in some Slavic languages, "yagaya" means a person with a sore leg (remember Baba Yaga's bone leg?) Perhaps Baba Yaga absorbed some or even all of these meanings.
Proponents of the third version see in Baba Yaga the Great Mother - a great powerful goddess, the foremother of all living things ("Baba" is the mother, the main woman in ancient Slavic culture) or a great wise priestess. In the days of hunting tribes, such a priestess-sorceress disposed of the most important rite - the ceremony of initiation of young men, that is, their initiation into full members of the community. This rite meant the symbolic death of a child and the birth of an adult man, initiated into the secrets of the tribe, who has the right to marry. The rite consisted in the fact that teenage boys were taken into the depths of the forest, where they were trained to become a real hunter. The rite of initiation included the imitation (performance) of "devouring" the young man by the monster and the subsequent "resurrection". It was accompanied by bodily torture and injuries. Therefore, the initiation rite was feared, especially by boys and their mothers. What does the fabulous Baba Yaga do? She kidnaps children and takes them to the forest (a symbol of the initiation rite), roasts them (symbolically devours), and also gives useful advice to survivors, that is, those who have passed the test.
As agriculture developed, the initiation rite became a thing of the past. But his fear remained. So the image of a witch who performed important rituals was transformed into the image of a shaggy, terrible, bloodthirsty witch who kidnaps children and eats them - not symbolically at all. This was also helped by Christianity, which, as we indicated above, fought pagan beliefs and represented pagan gods as demons and witches.
There are other versions, according to which Baba Yaga came to Russian fairy tales from India ("Baba Yaga" - "yoga mentor"), from Central Africa (stories of Russian sailors about an African tribe of cannibals - Yagga, led by a female queen). .. But we will stop there. It is enough to understand that Baba Yaga is a multifaceted fairy-tale character who has absorbed many symbols and myths of the past.
Nowadays it is difficult to imagine a holiday without fairy-tale characters. On the one hand, heroes or, for example, in the case of the New Year, Santa Claus, and on the other, Baba Yaga, perform. She, as always, wants to harm or plot something bad and is an opponent of all that is good. In folk tales and in the minds of modern people. It is always evil against which good fights. And is it really so? Is it evil real baba yaga Or is it just a general delusion that has settled in everyone's head. This character is interpreted in different guises. Sometimes she is a beautiful girl helping people, somewhere an old woman with one leg and a long nose. To find out who is real baba yaga, it is necessary to analyze the folklore of countries, the religious component of ancient peoples, as well as the history of writers.
The real legend of Baba Yaga in various mythologies.
Many different myths and beliefs appeared on the Slavic land. One of these myths is the myth of Baba Yaga. The mythology of the Slavs tells us that Baba Yaga, she is also Yagishna and Yaga-Yagishna, is one of the most ancient characters in Slavic folklore. Initially, among the Slavs, she was a goddess, or rather, the goddess of death. She looked more fantastic than today, it was believed that she was a woman with a snake tail, guarding the entrance to the world of death and seeing off the dead on their journey to the underworld. Here you can see a parallel with another mythological character - Echidna from the myths of Greece. Moreover, according to the legends, after Hercules and Echidna shared a bed, the first Scythians appeared, from whom, in turn, the Slavs descended. The modern Baba Yaga, despite her human form, has many similarities with the real Baba Yaga. It can be assumed that the one-leggedness of Baba Yaga has a direct reference to the ancient Baba Yaga, with a snake tail. All these facts, moreover, connect this character with an animal-like image, namely, they personify with a snake. This reptile for a long time was considered a minion of unclean forces. In ancient manuscripts, the snake is the guardian of the underworld. Later, snake-like people appeared. Based on the above, it can be assumed that real baba yaga is a reference to the goddess of death among the ancient Slavs, whom they honored and respected. Due to the fact that Baba Yaga had such power, knowledge and strength, many heroes went to her for advice or help.
In addition to all of the above, there was another belief about the real Baba Yaga. It was believed that she could live in any village, pretending to be one of the villagers. In this case, this representation compares her to an ordinary witch. Most likely, this idea came from the inquisitorial times of Europe. But specifically among the Slavs, Baba Yaga was still a stronger character than an ordinary witch. Usually she lives in a deaf, dark place in the forest, where it is very difficult to get through. It was believed that the place where her hut on chicken legs stands is a kind of border between two dimensions. Myths also say that the real food that Baba Yaga eats is human meat, which gives her strength. Only a half-dead creature can live on the border of the worlds; as a result of this fact, the real Baba Yaga has almost unlimited power.
In Slavic fairy tales and myths, Baba Yaga appears in different roles. Sometimes this is a creature that has a wonderful command of sword fighting techniques and can fight unevenly with any hero. Most often, this is an old woman who kidnaps children and eats them, in connection with which she is hunted. Also, Baba Yaga can act as an adviser to the hero. Having invited the hero to visit, she will give him a drink, feed him and, if necessary, give advice on how to defeat evil. The real old Baba Yaga mostly moves with the help of a stupa. So that no one follows, a broom is attached to the stupa, which sweeps up all traces of it. Baba Yaga has endless knowledge, knows the future, as well as dark magic. She has the power of darkness at her disposal. Baba Yaga also commands snakes, black cats, frogs, crows. All those animal eyes and ears are witches. Moreover, in each of them she can reincarnate and observe people. The beliefs say that Baba Yaga can command the forces of nature.
As usual, it is compared with something bad. Death itself dwells around her. She kidnaps and eats people, especially children. Sometimes it is compared with a real winged serpent. Baba Yaga lives in a hut on chicken legs. It is believed that this hut is a kind of portal to another world.
Versions of the origin of the image of Baba Yaga.
Despite all her negativity, Baba Yaga was considered something like the mother of the universe. For example, like the Greek mother of all creatures, Echidna, Baba Yaga has sons and daughters. She controls three riders (a black rider, a white rider and a red rider), who bypass her possessions and catch all travelers. As already mentioned above, Baba Yaga is a character in the myths of many countries. In addition to Echidna, the Greeks have another similar character. This is Hekate, goddess of the night. The heroes of Greece were afraid of her, but, nevertheless, sometimes they asked for advice and sought help, as, for example, was the case with Jason. In Indian mythology, there is the character of Kali, among the Germans - Hel, who is in charge of the underworld. Most likely, it was from the Scandinavian peoples that the Slavs got the legend of Baba Yaga.
Another version of the birth of Baba Yaga also comes from the ancient Slavic peoples. In their times, the funeral of the deceased was a whole rite. Since ancient times, the dead were kept in small houses located above the ground, on stumps. It was these stumps and houses that became the prototype of the Hut on Chicken Legs. The roots of the stumps looked very much like chicken legs. Due to the fact that they used to think that the dead were flying, these houses stood as a door from the settlement. Dead people were laid in the houses with their feet towards the exit, and if anyone looked in there, he only saw the legs of the dead man. Hence the bone leg. Ancient people treated the dead with respect and tried not to disturb them in vain, but there were cases when they were addressed with advice. Other sources tell us that real baba yaga- this is a priestess of the cult of death, who performed rituals, sacrificed animals and concubines, so that the soul would find its way to another world. In any case, the real truth is that Baba Yaga has firmly taken root in modern folklore and legends of the world.
The lost image of Baba Yoga, which is Yaginya- this is the image of a kind and wise woman, a bright Goddess, showing the right path. The Russian Baba Yaga (as described in later tales) is distinguished by the fact that she is represented by a bony old woman threatening to eat travelers and children. Slavic Baba Yaga is a beauty, wise with great knowledge of the Vedas and life experience, possessing magical skills and able to sympathize. Slavic mythology suggests different names for Yagini - Yagunya, Yaginishna, Aga Yaginishna, Yaga (derived from - Yoga, affectionate - Yozhka). Storm-Yaga is a nickname for the swift flights of the Goddess on her fiery mortar.
Yaginya is supposedly the daughter of ordinary people, adopted after their death by the Goddess Makosh. But there are myths about her marriage - Baba Yoga was the wife of Veles, the God of Magic, wisdom and the Three Worlds. In the same myth, a terrible story is told - later, Yagin was tormented by mother Veles - Amelfa, the daughter of the Heavenly Cow Zimun, and Veles, in order to save the life of Yaguni, voluntarily went to Nav.
Slavic Baba Yaga should be fully referred to as “Slavic Baba Yoga”. That is, this is a woman who owns yogic knowledge, who knows about the movements of forces in the Universe. Baba Yoga became a Goddess who helped people see their way - even later tales show that Baba Yaga gave magical items to travelers and saved children.
How is Yaginya represented by the Slavs?
The Slavs were very fond of Yaginya, because she is the wife of Veles, who also had a direct relationship with the prophetic forest. She suited the mighty Veles as a life partner, in all the incarnations that they experienced. Here is what the legends about their meeting reveal to us:
The yaginya was the mistress of the borders, and the keeper of the lands of the Explicit. Without her knowledge, not a single soul could set foot in the Forest. Makosh could not marry her willful daughter for a long time, because the agreement she had with her was this: only the one who, in an honest and equal fight, defeats the young goddess, and becomes her beloved husband. Many who wooed the beautiful Yagina, but only the heart of the maiden did not lie to anyone, as if she was waiting for her hour. And she waited until Veles himself met her on the way.
He stepped on her lands, but only he didn’t want to open the gates by his own strength, but, as it should be, by the invitation of the hostess. And they fought, but not to the death, but for love. Because Yaginya, who knows everything, knew that fate was destined for her to become an eternal and faithful wife for Veles.
And Veles and Yaginya settled on the borders of the Worlds, and the roots of all plants on the earth stretched from their house, and all the rivers flowed.
Some believe that the Yagina and the word "Goddess" have a consonance for a reason. By all standards, as a woman, she surpassed many heroes and male confessors. She managed to go through her internal change in such a way that she acquired the skill of walking between worlds, as if going from a bedroom to an upper room! There is a belief that only men can do this, but we often see the opposite - there are women who became Goddesses. Yaginya - Goddess of the Ways in the World of Reveal. And, it seems, we see echoes of this image in the portrait of an old hermit woman in the forest.
Attributes and symbols of Yagini
FROM 10 to 16 February Slavic tribes and clans remember Yagin along with the Great and Wise Veles.
Our ancestors represented mother Yaginya as a beautiful woman, who was wearing golden walking shoes, light and clean clothes, light brown braids, braided and tucked under Slavic jewelry.
Her invariable attributes were not only a ball, a stick and a wooden mortar, which are presented in late Russian fairy tales, but also an apple on a plate, showing everything that is happening in the area. Friendship with birds - eagle owl, owls and animals that live in the forest.
Researchers of Slavic mythology believe that Yagunya was nicknamed Mother precisely for her immense love for children. Our ancestors, the Slavs, believed that after another great war between different clans, many orphans remained. There were difficult and dark times of the reign of evil entities, ignorance, confusion and enmity. Before the onset of this terrible era, Yaga sought to take to her Skit (dwelling) as many orphans of the Slavic family and the Russian family as possible. There she already taught them the Vedas and the knowledge that she herself possessed. The goddess did everything so that her children would not be touched by the ignorance of the new era of times.
Baba Yaga is a mysterious creature that is described in many Russian fairy tales. To this day, scientists are concerned about the still unsolved mysteries surrounding this mysterious creature. Who is Baba Yaga?
Scientists translate the strange name of this old woman in different ways. Some are convinced that "yaga" corresponds in some Indo-European languages to the meanings of "vexation, illness, mourn." But from the Komi language "yag" is translated as "pine forest" or "pine forest", and the word "woman" means a woman. Therefore, Baba Yaga is a forest woman.
Baba Yaga lives in the forest, she flies in a mortar. Engaged in witchcraft. She is assisted by swan geese, red, white and black riders, as well as "three pairs of hands." Researchers distinguish three subspecies of Baba Yaga: a warrior (in a battle with her, the hero moves to a new level of personal maturity), a giver (she gives magic items to her guests), and a kidnapper of children. It is worth noting that at the same time she is not an unambiguously negative character.
She is described as a terrible old woman with a hump. At the same time, she is also blind and only senses a person who has entered her hut. This dwelling, which has chicken legs, gave rise to a hypothesis among scientists about who Baba Yaga is. The fact is that the ancient Slavs had a custom to build special houses for the dead, which were installed on piles, towering above the ground. Such huts were built on the border of the forest and the settlement, and they were placed in such a way that the exit was from the side of the forest. 
It is believed that Baba Yaga is a kind of guide to the world of the dead, which in fairy tales is called the Far Far Away Kingdom. Certain rituals help the old woman in this task: ritual bathing (bath), "mortuary" treats (feeding the hero at his request). Having visited the house of Baba Yaga, a person temporarily turns out to belong to two worlds at once, and also receives some specific abilities.
According to another hypothesis, Baba Yaga is a woman healer. In ancient times, unsociable women who settled in the forest became healers. There they collected plants, fruits and roots, then dried them and prepared a variety of drugs from this raw material. People, although they used their services, were at the same time afraid, because they considered them to be witches associated with unclean forces and evil spirits.
Not so long ago, some Russian researchers put forward another very interesting theory. According to her, Baba Yaga was none other than an alien who arrived on our planet for research purposes.
The legends say that the mysterious old woman flew in a mortar, while covering her mark with a fiery broom. All this description is very reminiscent of a jet engine. The ancient Slavs, of course, could not know about the wonders of technology, and therefore, in their own way, interpreted the fire and loud sounds that an alien ship could make.
This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the arrival of the mysterious Baba Yaga, according to the descriptions of ancient peoples, was accompanied by the fall of trees at the landing site and a storm with a very strong wind. All this can be explained by the impact of a ballistic wave or the direct action of a jet stream. The Slavs who lived in those distant times could not know about the existence of such things, and therefore explained it as witchcraft.
The hut, standing on a chicken leg, apparently was a spaceship. In this case, its small dimensions are quite understandable. And chicken legs are the stand on which the ship stands.
The appearance of Baba Yaga, which seemed so ugly to people, could be quite ordinary for alien creatures. Humanoids, judging by the descriptions of ufologists, do not look prettier.
Legends also state that the mysterious Baba Yaga was allegedly a cannibal, that is, she ate human flesh. From the point of view of the new theory, various experiments on people were carried out on the ship. Later, all this was overgrown with legends and fairy tales that were told to children. In this form, this story has come down to us. It is difficult to prove something when so many years have passed, but still the mysterious Baba Yaga left her mark on history, not only fabulous, but also, perhaps, quite material. It just hasn't been found yet.
