Baba Yaga as a mother
In his 1946 publication Historical Roots of the Wonder Tale, Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp refers to Baba Yaga as a “mother without being a wife.” (Propp 1946) Propp makes specific reference to Baba Yaga’s relationship to the forest and the animals within
Similarly, Joanna Hubbs notes that Baba Yaga seems to exist as a mother goddess figure, but one that represents a “fundamental paradox of nature” (Hubbs 1988) For she is not simply a mother but rather a “cannibal mother.” Her multitude of offspring range from the creatures of the woods to her forty maredaughters to the astral bodies which exist within her abode, but Baba Yaga seems eager to devour all of them. However, Hubbs’ discussion surpasses her analysis of Baba Yaga as a mother to examine the more traditionally feminine characteristics that come with that role; it is the “feminine power” that Baba Yaga embodies that evokes the most fear (ibid).
Significance of the pestle and mortar
The most common form of transport for Baba Yaga, as well as the most commonly occurring attribute for her in general, is her pestle and mortar. In the traditional tales, Baba Yaga sits and rides in her mortar, pushing herself along (or sometimes steering) with her pestle and sweeping away her tracks with a broom (Johns 2004). Andreas Johns notes that these attributes are most commonly brought into the story when she is pursuing or trying to abduct someone.
The pestle and mortar seemed to have had a number of uses and significances in traditional Slavic culture. Often they were used in healing rituals for children’s sicknesses; the children were placed inside of a mortar and ritually “ground” while “words were pronounced” (ibid). A.L. Toporkov notes that the pestle, in particular, is a device that commonly appears in tales of the Slavic rusalka sirens, as well as the Iron Woman, a figure that haunted the wheat fields and kidnapped children (Toporkov 1989). Incidentally, Toporkov also notes that some rituals used to prevent disease in cattle involved naked women riding on brooms carrying oven forks and pokers while hollering obscenities (ibid).
Joanna Hubbs takes a different approach in interpreting the use of Baba Yaga’s pestle and mortar, which she sees as being “both complex and deceptively simple.” Hubbs describes the pestle and mortar as being representations of the human sex organs, with the pestle symbolizing a phallus and the mortar symbolizing a womb. Baba Yaga’s action of sitting in the mortar-womb and pushing herself along with the pestle-phallus could, therefore, be seen as he creating life – a life that takes the form of flax used by women to spin cloth (Hubbs 1989).
Links to the devil
In the 18th century story “The Tale of the Noble Zaoleshanin, a Knight in the Service of Prince Vladimir,” author Vasili Levshin offers one of the more vivid interpretations of Baba Yaga’s origins, depicting her as a creation of the devil. In an effort to create “the most perfect evil” (Johns 2004), the devil cooked twelve sinister women in a cauldron, added his own spit, and from the mix, Baba Yaga was conceived. In several different versions of folktales including Baba Yaga, she is presented as having “dealings with the devil” (Gospordarev 59) and in some stories is even presented as being the sister of the devil (Sokolov 66).
Significance of the “bony-leg”
Baba Yaga’s “bony leg” or “bony-legged” epithet is, according to N.M. Vedernikova, one of the ways in which Baba Yaga is presented as a frightening, monstrous entity (Vedernikova 1980). Much of the folktale storytelling regarding Baba Yaga includes rhythmic, rhyming phrases that make her image easier to remember. The same is certainly true of her bony-leg epithet: Baba
The leg itself is sometimes made of other materials, such as iron, clay, or even gold. There are many connections between her bony-leg and it’s animal-like quality, leading some scholars to believe that Baba Yaga originally took the form of an animal that later became a woman. Vladimir Propp suggests that Baba Yaga possessed an animal leg that later became a mere bony leg because of her “association with death” (Propp 1946). K.D. Laushkin had a similar theory but believed she pass through “an intermediary stage of one-leggedness” before acquiring the bony-leg she would become famous for (Laushkin 19790).
Laushkin notes the prominence of figures in Greek mythology that are lame, limp, or have distinct types of feet and legs. He also notes that many of these figures seem to be associated with the snake such as “exhibiting a snake-like nature.” Baba Yaga herself turns into a snake in at least one story prior to her death, which Laushkin says may be an indication of her original form because of the animal’s association with death. Additionally, according to the more local Belarusian legends, devils have a limp because they were cast down from the heavens, and the chief devil is referred to “
Bibliography
Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. N.p.: Indiana UP, 1988.
Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang, 2004.
Groscillo, Helena, Martin Skoro, Sibelan Forrester, and Jack Zipes, eds. Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales. N.p.: U of Mississippi P., 2013.
Laushkin, K. D. “Baba-Iaga i odonogie bogi. (K voprosu o proishkhozhdenii obraza).” In Fol’klor i etnografia. Ed. B. Putilov. Leningra: Nauka. 1970.
Propp, Vladimir Ia. Istoricheskie korni volshebnoi skazki. Leningrad, LGU. 1946.
Toporkov, Andrei L. “Oktuda u Baby-Iaga stupa?” Russikaia rech’ 1989 (4): 126-130.
Vukanović, T. P. “Witchcraft in the Central Balkans I: Characteristics of Witches.” Folklore 100, no. 1 (1989): 9-24.
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