A character known to everyone from children's fairy tales, an evil witch from a hut on chicken legs, flying in a mortar and luring small children into the stove … But she is not always on the side of evil forces, in other fairy tales Baba Yaga is quite a pretty old woman, helps the heroes and even her insidious intentions eventually turn into good. Let's try to figure out what kind of fairy-tale character this is, where she appeared in Slavic mythology, what her name means.
Character origin
About the origin of this wonderful old woman, researchers put forward many versions. Consider the two most famous of them.
- Baba Yaga is a Fino-Ugric mythological hero who later came to Russian soil. Perhaps the tales about the character originate in the pagan funeral rites of these peoples, who used to bury the dead in dominas - small houses standing on high stumps (like a hut on chicken legs). According to this version, it turns out that Baba Yaga is an otherworldly evil spirit, a dead man. Hence the dual nature of the character is possible. On the one hand, people were terrified by the inhabitants of the afterlife. On the other hand, in ancient times, ancestors were honored and asked for help in difficult times. So Baba Yaga gave the hero (for example, Ivan Tsarevich) a magic ball and other useful things.
- There is another opinion that Baba Yaga is a healer who healed people with folk remedies. For example, the well-known story about roasting children in the oven refers us to the ancient method of treating sick and premature babies: the child was laid on a wooden shovel and heated in the oven.
Origin of name
Many are interested in Baba Yaga - what does this name mean? Here, too, there is no consensus. Some scholars consider the word "yaga" to be derived from the ancient Slavic word "ide" (disease). This confirms our second version of Baba Yaga as a healer, a deliverer from diseases.
There is a version about the Indian origin of Baba Yaga and her name, which is consonant with the word "yogi".
Another idea is that the second part of the name "yaga" originates from the word "yag" - a sleeveless fur coat, which is often depicted as a sorceress.
In this this small article, we only slightly touched on the topic of who Baba Yaga is, where she came from, what her name means. As you can see, there are still many unknown and controversial arguments on this score. In the meantime, we can read fairy tales with pleasure and enjoy films about this interesting and bright fairy-tale heroine.
