Baba Yaga

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga /ˈbɑːbə jəˈɡɑː/ (Russian: Баба-яга) is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking witch. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg). Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp's folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.

Andreas Johns identifies Baba Yaga as "one of the most memorable and distinctive figures in Slavic European folklore", and observes that she is "enigmatic" and often exhibits "striking ambiguity". Johns summarizes Baba Yaga as "a many-faceted figure, capable of inspiring researchers to see her as a Cloud, Moon, Death, Winter, Snake, Bird, Pelican, Mermaid or Earth Goddess, totemic matriarchal ancestress, female initiator, phallic mother, or archetypal image". The mermaid figurehead of the tea clipper Baba Yaga was named after the character.

Variations of the name Baba Yaga are found in the languages of the Eastern Slavic peoples. The first element, baba, is transparently a babble word, meaning 'woman', or, specifically, 'old woman'. The same word is still used for both grandmother and old woman in general in Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbo-Croatian languages. In modern Russian, the word бабушка babushka (meaning 'grandmother') derives from it, as does the word babcia (also 'grandmother') in Polish or бабця babcya in Ukrainian. Baba may also have a pejorative connotation in modern Ukrainian and Russian, both for women as well as for "an unmanly, timid, or characterless man". In Polish, the term is considered to be pejorative, meaning 'vicious or ugly woman'. In Czech both of those meanings apply. Similarly to other kinship terms in Slavic languages, baba may be employed outside of kinship, potentially as a result of taboo. For example, in variety of Slavic languages and dialects, the word baba may be applied to various animals, natural phenomena, and objects, such as types of mushrooms or a cake or pear. This function extends to various geographic features. In the Polesia region of Ukraine, the plural баби baby may refer to an autumn funeral feast.

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