As some of you know, I
have written a series (a novella and two novels so far) about an updated
version of the Baba Yaga tales. The novella came out recently, and the first
book will be released on September 2nd. But not everyone is familiar
with Baba Yaga, so I thought I would introduce her to you. Here—let me fill up
the samovar with tea, and we call gather around the hearth fire while I tell
you a story…
Most people are familiar
with the standard fairy tales (many of which were written down by the Brothers
Grimm, and then prettied up into the versions we know today…the earlier stories
were, well, grim). You know Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, of
course. But when I set out to write an updated fairy tale, I wanted to use a
story that hadn’t been done quite so many times. There are some fabulous modern
rewrites of all those classics, as well as things like Beauty and the Beast,
but I wanted something completely different. I wanted, as it turned out, Baba
Yaga.
When I was growing up, I loved
fairy tales, and read as many as I could get my hands on, including a fabulous
series of old tales compiled by editor Andrew Lang into The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Yellow Fairy Book, and
so on. I’m guessing that it was there that I first encountered the Russian
witch known as Baba Yaga. (I am of Russian Jewish descent; I don’t recall this
being a story told at home, although my mother says that my grandfather would
have known it, and loved Russian culture, so it is also possible I heard it
from him.)
Unlike many of the more
conventional fairy tale heroines, the Baba Yaga wasn’t pretty. Nor, for that
matter, was she weak, or sitting around waiting to be rescued by a prince. If
anything, she rescued them. Or, you know, ate them. Baba Yaga wasn’t a
princess, you see—she was a witch. Ah, now you’re beginning to see why I
decided to write about her.
The Baba Yaga tales all
agreed on a few things: She was a powerful witch, and not to be trifled with.
She usually appeared in the guise of the “old crone” type of witch, and
sometimes traveled with a dragon named Chudo-Yudo. She lived deep in the woods
in a hut on long spindly chicken legs, which could move through the forest, or
turn its back to any passing journeyer. Unlike most witches, she didn’t fly
through the air on a broom; instead, she rode in a mortar steered by a pestle,
and used her broom to sweep away her tracks behind her. She was sometimes
cruel, but could also grant help or wisdom to a worthy seeker. She was often
associated with the three riders: White Horseman, the Red Horseman, and the
Black Horseman. She calls them, “My Bright Dawn, my Red Sun, and my Dark
Midnight.”
Then we get to the really
fun stuff.
You see, there are deeper
layers to the Baba Yaga than you might find in your average fairy tale. There
are those who consider her to be much more than simply a witch. According to
Judika Illes, who wrote about Baba Yaga in her books, Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies,
Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses (HarperCollins 2009) and The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft
(HarperElement 2005), the Baba Yaga started out as a goddess of birth and
death, and only over time did she devolve into the witch whose name was used to
threaten children who didn’t eat all their dinner.
It was in part what Illes
wrote which inspired my modern version of an immensely powerful, neither moral
nor immoral witch who was not exactly good nor essentially evil, but in fact,
had the potential to give great gifts to those she finds worthy, or kick a
little ass for those she does not.
“She is an underworld goddess who controls the forces of life and
death…She performs miracle cures. On the other hand, according to fairy tales,
personal encounters with Baba Yaga are often fatal; whether this was meant
literally or shamanically is unknown. Either way, she is potentially very
dangerous.”
And this:
“In some legends, she is completely solitary, but in others, she is a
midwife spirit who is the mother of three sons or three dragons. Sometimes
there is one Baba, sometimes there are three: three sisters…”
In The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, by John and Caitlin
Matthews [yes, I have a lot of pagan/witchy/mythical reference books—and your
point?], I found some more intriguing information about Baba Yaga:
“Although Baba Yaga has become the archetypal bogey-woman with which to
frighten children, she is actually a primal goddess whose knowledge of the
world is unequalled. Baba Yaga can also appear as a peasant woman of kindly
disposition…she is helpful to women and a guardian of good order and behavior,
punishing those who outrage it.”
And what became some of
the major components of the story:
“Baba Yaga confers upon Koshei, the dragon in human shape, his
immortality. She also controls the fire-breathing dragon Chudo-Yudo, who guards
the Water of Life and Death. Baba Yaga’s house sits between the world of
everyday and the Otherworld, where it acts as a guardian to the land of the
dead.”
Yes, there are three
Babas in my tales, each with her own Chudo-Yudo. Koshei shows up (looking, in
my mind, a lot like Rufus Sewell, but hey, you can imagine him any way you want
to). The riders are in there too, although they have traded in their horses for
motorcycles, just as my modern Baba’s wooden house on chicken legs is now an
Airstream trailer, and her mortar and pestle have been transformed into a
classic BMW motorcycle. After all, even the most powerful of witches needs to
keep up with the times.
My Baba Yaga may not be a
goddess, but she is mightily magical, with strong connections to the elements.
You definitely don’t want to get on her bad side. She might just let Chudo-Yudo
eat you.
There is something to be
said for taking ancient mythology and fashioning it into something modern that
is easier for us to connect with—after all, isn’t that what many of us do with
our spiritual paths, too?
For more information on
the legends of Baba Yaga, you can look here:
And if you are so
inclined, you can find up what Baba Yaga has been up to lately, at least in one
writer’s imagination. I hope you’ll be pleased when you finally meet her.
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