August 2016

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Where does Baba Yaga live?

If you ask where Santa Claus lives, everyone will answer: "In Veliky Ustyug." But where Baba Yaga lives - he will think about it. Either the character is negative, or she really climbed so far into the dense forest that she could not be found. And this fabulous grandmother lives in the village of Kukoboy, Yaroslavl Region.

And the character, by the way, is not so negative and wow, what an interesting one! Some scholars even describe theories of the origin of Baba Yaga. It turns out that she didn’t fry the children in the oven at all to eat, but only “baked” in the dough - this is how babies were treated for rickets and other diseases before. And in one of its meanings, the ancient Slavic “yagat” just means “burn”. And Baba Yaga is also a guide to "parallel" worlds, and no Ivan Tsarevich would ever have found his Vasilisa and saved him from Koshchei the Deathless, if Grandmother had not shown him the way.

Apparently, the inhabitants of the village of Kukoboy could not pass by such a bright and ambiguous character, so in 2004 they settled Baba Yaga in their forest, in a hut on chicken legs, which really turns its back to the forest, and to the people in front, and on it you can even ride with the wind.

Getting to Babushka is not easy - four hours by car from Yaroslavl through dense forests and roads. Grandmother has settled down over the decade, made friends for herself - Leshy, Kikimora and the Bear, who help her meet and entertain guests.

Come to Kukoboy! Russian beauties will meet you there, feed you pies and tell interesting stories about the village, which has its own ancient history, and its fabulous inhabitants. And Baba Yaga herself with her friend Leshim will make you fly on a broomstick, dance and dance, and only then will they let you out of their possessions.

Ekaterina KURAKINA

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.

The most extraordinary and striking negative hero of Russian folk tales is considered Baba Yaga. In all fairy tales, her image changes dramatically, and in some of them Baba Yaga turns into a hospitable hostess. This is a cunning and at the same time funny character of a mysterious old woman, from whom you can always expect new surprises.

What do you know about Baba Yaga

What do we know about Baba Yaga from fairy tales that were read to us in childhood? This is an old woman with a hump who never walks, but uses her flying stupa to get around. Her hair is always disheveled, her clothes are dirty, and her nose is long and hooked. Baba Yaga has become a kind of embodiment of the forces of evil, who are constantly striving to harm people.

Initially, the prototype of Baba Yaga was found in Slavic mythology as an evil forest sorceress, in her power are all whirlwinds, blizzards and winds, as a guardian and conductor between "this" and "other" world. In Russian folklore, Baba Yaga is not a warrior, she has a bone leg, animals and birds obey her. The mysterious sorceress lives in the most dense forests, and her hut, in which everything has fallen into decay, stands on chicken legs. The old woman spends most of her time in the forest, gathering various roots and medicinal herbs to make special infusions.

The most common images of Baba Yaga in fairy tales

In most Russian folk tales, Baba Yaga acts as a kidnapper. Most of all, she likes small children, whom she constantly strives to steal and put in the oven. It is this image of Baba Yaga that is shown in the fairy tale "Geese Swans", where the servants of the cunning sorceress stole Ivanushka for her next dinner. Here Yaga is shown to be very cunning, angry and merciless, because she wants to eat not only Ivanushka, but also Alyonushka.

Much less often in our fairy tales, you can meet the good Yaga, who seeks to bestow magical things on her guest. To do this, the brave young man needs to pass a difficult test and answer the questions of Yagi herself. It is this image that is shown in the Russian fairy tale "Baba Yaga", written by Afanasyev. She gives elegant dresses to the girl for good service, but also punishes her for any mistake by breaking her bones. Such a Yaga can be sympathetic and give good advice to other heroes, but still, at any opportunity, her evil nature will manifest itself.

Baba Yaga is a multifaceted character in Russian folk tales that can change dramatically. But the image is so colorful and bright that no one can forget the mysterious Baba Yaga!

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Municipal educational institution

"Koltalovsk secondary school"

Research work

Subject: Baba Yaga. Who is she?"

Humanitarian Section

Introduction

Chapter I. Image of Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore.

Chapter II. The origin of Baba Yaga and the etymology of her name.

Chapter 3

Conclusion.

List of used literature.

Introduction

“Baba Yaga is a kind of witch, an evil spirit,
under the guise of an ugly old woman.

"Baba Yaga - positive
character of ancient Russian mythology.

Relevance. Fairy tales are beautiful works of art. Our memory is inseparable from them. Russian fairy tale has created an intricate world. Everything in it is unusual: the ax itself cuts the forest, the stove talks, the apple tree covers with its branches the children running from the swan geese sent by Yaga.

In almost all fairy tales, one of the heroes is Baba Yaga. What is it about this dashing creature that frightens, and at the same time attracts, attracts to fairy tales. We have always been interested in the question: who is Baba, where did she appear in Russian folk tales and what does her name mean?

Therefore we have chosen research topic: "Baba Yaga. Who is she?"

Object of study- the image of Baba Yaga.

Subject of study- the name of Baba Yaga, her magical attributes (hut on chicken legs, stupa).

Research objectives:

2. Analyze and summarize the data obtained.

Research methods: to solve the tasks set in the work, a descriptive method is used (namely: observation, classification, generalization).

Research material the texts of fairy tales served,

scientific research about Baba Yaga.

Practical significance of the study: this material can be used in literary reading lessons, during class hours and quizzes.

CHAPTER 1

Image of Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore

Baba Yaga is a character of Slavic mythology and folklore (especially a fairy tale) of the Slavic peoples, an old sorceress endowed with magical powers, a witch, a werewolf. By its properties, it is closest to a witch. Most often - a negative character.

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga has several stable attributes: she knows how to conjure, fly in a mortar.

Lives in the forest in a hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a fence of human bones with skulls.

She pursues her victims in a mortar, chasing her with a pestle and covering her trail.

broom).

Baba Yaga has the ability to decrease in size - this is how she moves in a mortar. She lures good fellows and small children to her and roasts them in the oven (Baba Yaga is engaged in cannibalism).

According to the largest specialist in the field of theory and history of folklore, there are three types of Baba Yaga: a donor (she gives the hero a fairy-tale horse or a magical object); the kidnapper of children, Baba Yaga the warrior, fighting with whom "not for life, but for death", the hero of the fairy tale moves to a different level of maturity.

At the same time, the wickedness and aggressiveness of Baba Yaga are not her predominant features, but only manifestations of her irrational (inaccessible to the understanding of the mind) nature. There is a similar hero in German folklore: Frau Holle or Berta.

At the same time, the wickedness and aggressiveness of Baba Yaga are not her predominant features, but only manifestations of her irrational (inaccessible to the understanding of the mind) nature. There is a similar hero in German folklore: Frau Holle or Berta.

The dual nature of Baba Yaga in folklore is associated, firstly, with the image of the mistress of the forest, who must be appeased, and secondly, with the image of an evil creature that puts children on a shovel to fry.

(this is reminiscent of the rite of "baking a child")

Baking a child is a ritual performed on infants with rickets or atrophy (according to popular terminology, canine old age or dryness): an infant is placed on a bread shovel (sometimes wrapped in dough) and thrust into a hot oven three times. According to other versions, a puppy is put into the oven with the child so that the disease passes from the baby to the animal.
The fairy tale only corrected the plus sign (baking a child should benefit him) to a minus sign (Yaga fries and eats children). Most likely, this happened during the period of the establishment of Christianity, when everything pagan was eradicated and demonized.
This image of Baba Yaga is also associated with the function of a priestess who leads adolescents through the rite of initiation (the initiation of a young man into full members of the community). The initiation rites were created by the tribal system and reflected the interests of the hunting society. They contained not only tests in dexterity, accuracy and endurance, but were also a partial familiarization of adolescents with the sacred secrets of the tribe. The rite usually consisted in the fact that boys of 10-12 years old were taken away from the village for some time (most often into the depths of the forest, to a specially built hut), where they went through a special school of a hunter and a member of society. There they were subjected to various tests. The most terrible ordeal consisted in staging the "devouring" of young men by monstrous animals and their subsequent "resurrection". It was accompanied by bodily torture, injuries, ritual surgery. This mysterious and painful rite meant the symbolic death of a child and his rebirth as a full-fledged adult member of the community - a man, a warrior and a hunter who was allowed to marry

Often the initiation ceremony was directed and led by a woman - a witch or priestess. There is a version that she personified the Great Mother - a pagan goddess, the ruler of the world and the progenitor of all living things. This mysterious figure, most likely, became the basis for creating the fabulous image of Baba Yaga, who lives in a forest hut, kidnaps children(i.e. takes away for the rite of initiation), roast them in the oven(symbolically devours so that a man is born), as well as gives advice and helps selected heroes who have passed the test.

So in many fairy tales, Baba Yaga wants to eat the hero, but after feeding, giving him drink, he lets him go, giving him a ball or some secret knowledge, or the hero runs away himself.

CHAPTER 2

The origin of Baba Yaga and the etymology of her name

Yaga is a famous person, but where did her name come from? Baba Yozhka, from Yash, foot and mouth disease, and then ancestor. Ancestors are the progenitors of all living things, that is, Baba Yaga held an honorary position in the pantheon of the ancient Pagans.

There is an interpretation according to which Baba Yaga is not a native Slavic character, but an alien one, brought into Russian culture by soldiers from Siberia. The first written source about her is the notes of Giles Fletcher (1588) “On the Russian State”, in the chapter “On Permians, Samoyeds and Lapps”

“As for the story about the Golden Baba or Yaga Baba, about which I happened to read in some descriptions of this country, that she is an idol in the form of an old woman who gives prophetic answers to the priest’s questions about the success of the enterprise or about the future, then I was convinced that it's just a fable."

According to this position, the name of Baba Yaga is associated with the name of a certain object. In N. Abramov's "Essays on the Birch Territory" (St. Petersburg, 1857) there is a detailed description of the "yaga", which is clothing "like a dressing gown with a turn-down, a quarter, collar. It is sewn from dark non-spewers, with wool outward ... The same yags are assembled from loon necks, with feathers outward ... Yagushka is the same yaga, but with a narrow collar, worn by women on the road ”(a dictionary gives a similar interpretation in Tobolsk origin).

Another hypothesis of the origin of the name of Baba Yaga. In the Komi language, the word yag means boron, pine forest. Baba is a woman (Nyvbaba is a young woman). Baba Yaga can be read as a woman from a forest forest or a forest woman.

There is another character in Komi fairy tales, Yagmort (Forest Man).
However, this position contradicts the data of modern scientific etymology, according to which the name of Baba Yaga is in no way connected with the Turkic name of clothes “yaga”, which goes back to jaka / jaka - collar.

According to Max Vasmer, Yaga has correspondences in many Indo-European languages ​​​​with the meanings of “illness, annoyance, wither, get angry, annoy, mourn”, etc., from which the original meaning of the name Baba Yaga is quite clear.

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.

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.

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). The sailors were horrified by the orders laid down there for centuries. Matriarchy flourished in the tribe, the priestess wore the tibia of a slain beast. There was also natural cannibalism.

They also derive the word "Yaga" from "yagat" - to shout, putting all their strength into their cry. “Yagat” meant “shouting” in the sense of “swearing”, cursing. 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 sick foot (remember the bone leg of Baba Yaga?) Perhaps Baba Yaga absorbed some or even all of these meanings.

CHAPTER 3

Magic attributes of Baba Yaga (hut on chicken legs, stupa)

The image of the "hut on chicken legs" is a unique phenomenon, constituting a single whole with the image of Baba Yaga herself. First, she is able to move (chicken legs). Secondly, it recognizes the human voice and responds to commands. Third, she is able to see through windows, speak through doors, and think.

The hut is often surrounded by a fence made of human bones; skulls with eye slits are planted on them. And instead of wooden supports on which the gate is hung, there are human legs, instead of a bolt - human hands, and in place of the lock for the key a human mouth with sharp teeth is mounted.

In ancient times, the dead were buried in dominoes - houses located above the ground on very high stumps with roots looking out from under the ground, similar to chicken legs. Domovins were placed in such a way that the hole in them was turned in the opposite direction from the settlement, towards the forest. People believed that the dead were flying on coffins. The dead were buried with their feet towards the exit, and if you looked into the domino, you could only see their feet - hence the expression "Baba Yaga bone leg." People treated their dead ancestors with reverence and fear, never disturbed them over trifles, fearing to bring trouble on themselves, but in difficult situations they still came to ask for help. So, Baba Yaga is a deceased ancestor, a dead man, and children were often scared by her.

And in the mortar - no less wonderful than Baba Yaga's vehicle - they also see connections with the funeral cult. The Indians have a stupa in general - a cult funeral and memorial structure.
(Well, so do the Indians!)

The image of Baba Yaga is associated with legends about the hero's transition to the other world (Far Far Away). In these legends, Baba Yaga, standing on the border of the worlds (a bone leg), serves as a guide that allows the hero to penetrate into the world of the dead, thanks to the performance of certain rituals.

In fairy tales, the hut SPINS. What about the grave houses, of course, can not be said.

In general, it must be said, houses on poles for ancient Russian architecture are a completely ordinary phenomenon. Barns, bell towers, and residential buildings were placed on pillars or stumps. Firstly, it's cold, secondly: spring flooding, thirdly: mice...

But only one type of building on one of these pillars rotated.
This, of course... THE MILL...

Isn't she, a mill typical of the Russian north - a pole, and there is a hut on chicken legs?

What I especially like about this hypothesis is that in this scenario one does not have to invent a funerary explanation for the stupa.
The stupa is a very logical attribute for the mistress of the mill. For the STUPA is a MILL and it is, only manual.

CONCLUSION

I think the resolution of the conflict lies in the validity of the hypothesis that initially in pagan times Baba Yaga was a positive deity, almost the personification of the Mother Goddess. And only with the advent of Christianity did she suffer the fate of all other pagan idols - they turned into demons, demons and witches, old witches, sometimes cannibals, living somewhere in the forest in a hut on chicken legs .... . The Great Mother was simply unlucky: virtue is faceless. No one remembers what this life-giving goddess was. But Baba Yaga, terrible and bloodthirsty, thundered through the ages...

List of used literature

1. Afanasiev Russian fairy tales in 3 volumes. - M., 1957.

2. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language in 4 volumes.- M.: "Russian language", 1991.

3., Toporov Yaga // Slavic mythology. Encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 1995.

4. About Russian fairy tales, songs, proverbs, riddles of the folk language: Essays. - M: Children's literature, 1988.

5. Propp the roots of a fairy tale. - L., 1986.

6.ru. wikipedia. org›wiki/ Woman-Yaga, ru. wikipedia. org›wiki/ Hut _on the _chicken _legs

7. sueveria. *****›Musei/ Jaga.htm

8. *****›Whymuchka›where18.php