Watching John Wick, I had to explain to someone why I laughed at him being referred to as Baba Yaga, remembering those illustrations of the old crone in the barrel from my childhood
Imagine if they named him Koschei. Koschei the Deathless, the famous MALE slavic figure who cannot be stopped and is almost impossible to kill. And he's also famous for his fast horse. But that would require even the tiniest bit of research. They just wanted to name him boogeyman but that would be too generic, so they named him Baba Yaga because "that just means boogeyman in russian, right".
my first exposure to Baba Yaga was in my university Russian classes, and for my husband it was with John Wick, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why they nicknamed him that, lol, I mean they interpreted Baba Yaga as the boogie man, and that makes sense for John Wick, but I never thought of Baba Yaga as the boogie man, lol
9:26 In russian language addressing an old woman as "mother" is a normal thing. It doesn't mean she is your mother. It's like saying ma'am but in a less polite way. It doesn't really mean anything
In southern Europe we do the same, but by addressing to unrelated elders as aunt or uncle. I think it’s common practice in several other countries (for example: Japan) as well. But it’s interesting that Russians use “mother”, which to me suggests that you pay respect to that person as if they were your mother; would you also use “father” to refer to an old man?
@@lore_nza Yes, an elderly man would also be addressed as father. I feel like it's kind of acknowledgment of old people's social status and their authority over you (a czar used to be adressed as czar-father because it kind of gives him an extra authority. The same goes for tsaritsa-mother). I also think it implies their responsibilities, do you know what I mean? It used to be viewed as more formal and respectful way of addressing elderly. As time passed it became something that "simple folk" says (I am not sure how to describe it in english, sorry).
@@user-ol5uc8nx1z Oh I see what you mean! Thank you for this insight, I like discovering stuff about other cultures and languages. Russia is so fascinating
Not sure if anyone has commented this yet or whether you have previously talked about it, but this is a version about baba Yaga we were told in school about: Firstly, the chicken legs. Because of the similarity of words they became “chicken legs” later on, but they were actually “charred legs”. A house on charred legs with its entrance facing away from the village (and towards the forrest) is one of the ways people were buried. So baba Yaga basically lives in a grave. This is also supported by the fact that one of her legs is a bone and her nose has grown into the ceiling (so the ceiling may just be very close to the nose, not her nose being long). She is a medium between lives of the living and the dead, and she may well have been “a relative” that died, but still holds a connection to the living.
Yeah, I love seeing Slavic myths getting a little attention! When I was a kid we lived in a very rural area, and as such, I spent quite a lot of time playing in the woods. My Polish grandma would warn me of Baba Yaga, telling me if I strayed too far into the woods and away from the house she might show up and snatch me. I...mostly didn't listen to that advice. But I did keep it in the back of my mind to not wander too far into areas of the woods I hadn't explored yet just in case I got lost and couldn't find my way back. So, I guess in a way the scare tactics worked.
Fascinating look at Baba Yaga. I remember when I was a pre-teen (now 77) there was a monthly magazine which included tales of Baba Yaga. Thank you for this lesson.
I'm Polish and it's interesting to me how Baba Yaga is a big part of our folklore as well. For example, in our version of Hansel and Gretel the witch is explicitly stated to be Baba Yaga (which I only realised isn't in the og years later). She's also in our version of "Green light, Red light" game (in Polish it's "one, two, three, Baba Yaga is watching")
You've no idea how much I enjoyed this. The weather outside is a foul damp chill that gets in your bones. A stiff drink and some fire side folklore has made a proper evening of it.
In the original version of the Brothers' Grimm Hansel and Gretel, it was the children's biological mother who sent them off to die in the woods, rather than a stepmother. It is not clear to me whether their later change to make that character a stepmother reflected or was modifying previously existing folklore.
interesting that you brought this up because I recently learned from my professor that the Brothers’ Grimm where mostly just translators and linguists rather than writers. In the mid 19th century in Europe there was a huge spread of nationalism (but not in the way it is characterized now) that mainly focused on people in Europe from similar places that had a shared culture and language as well as a large emphasis on folklore. The Brothers’ Grimm would often accumulate a large amount of folklore from women in all different regions of Europe (mostly from what was the German Confederation and the Austrian Empire but I could be mistaken) a lot of which were never granted the privilege of being literate and therefore could not record their stories. After hearing and writing down all the folklore from different people I’m pretty sure they heard several different variations of the same folklore story (Hansel and Gretel for example) and made decisions to write what they did based on what may have been a more common way the story was told when they asked people. Sorry for the long response but to your point the stories that the Brothers’ Grimm get often get credited for are folklore tales they heard and documented while traveling around Europe so any modifications to their tales are most likely due to the variations of that story they heard :)
As a short answer: the brothers were people of their time (early 19th century) and many of the fairy tales they gathered in their books (they were not the authors, merely the collectors) were changed. They left out Rapunzel no longer fitting into her clothes (because she was pregnant) which tipped the witch off and they also turned 'evil' mothers into stepmothers, because to them it was impossible to have a birth mother act like that towards her children. The first edition of their collection didn't have the changes, but they made those later.
You are the most amazing storyteller! The many voices you used for the different characters were so good you could do this professionally! I loved it!!!
Way long back ago, I was part of school band that did a few parts of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. One of the movements we played was The Hut on Chicken's Legs, music based on the stories of Baba Yaga. It was an odd, jittery, and constantly moving piece. I think it's due to the unusual feel of that music that, since then, I've had a curiosity of the folk character that inspired it.
My mother worked in this souvenir shop and they had this humongous statue of Baba Yaga, like, at least a meter tall. I was petrified when I first saw it and had nightmares for 2 weeks.
After reading "Hamlet's Mill" by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend I saw clearly the evidence of Baba Yaga being a godess of old, the mistress of the northern star, where the whole sky circles. The clues to this was her vehicle, a pestle and morter, where the morter is the vaulted night sky and the pestle is the north pole, the slanted pole which pointed to the north star. Also in one version of Vasilissa meeting Baba Yaga she meet three riders on the way, a red, a black and a white, as representatives of night, morning and day. Baba Yaga also has twelve skulls on sticks around her house on one chicken leg - another clue to the north pole pointing to the still point in the night sky, where the godess of the world sits. The book is very worth reading, especially if you're interested in myths of the cosmos in legends. Thank you so much for this video, I love tales, legends and myths!!
Your voice is so entrancing. Like butter, and cinnamon and a little dark chocolate. An old, leather bound book on an oak table. Moss growing on an ancient stone. If you made a 16 hour video of you reading a dictionary, I would listen to the entire thing
I remember a story like that from my Great Uncles who was from Croatia and as you stated it had a Stepmother who did not like the two children, a Brother and sister. But I do remember the house and the tree with the tree being pleased with a ribbon. I wish I could remember more. I have not remembered Baba Yaga for decades. Thanks.
"You can look at the screen now". I seriously felt that you knew that I wasn't looking at my screen because I was listening to your videos while I was cross-stitching. I just love how you narrate. BTW, I have that book of Russian tales translated to Spanish.
I love the baba yaga stories and how they vary depending on who is reflected in them So another example of "kids in the oven " is literal baby lambs and goats that get lost out in the cold put into a lowly warm oven would sometimes revive them and "bring them back to life "
What an incredible storyteller you are! It feels absolutely greedy because that was such an exceptional telling on top of a fascinating lecture but I only wish you told more! Or at least more summaries of the details of the other stories, because a. I could listen to you tell stories for hours, and b. so I felt like I had a better sense of what you were talking about when you talked about the greater trends and themes of them. I have only the vaguest sense of her, I would love a part 2 someday with more examples!
As a kid in the late 60s and early 70s, I got a magazine that had a continuing series of different Baba Yaga stories. They were more funny than scary, surely altered for younger readers, but I loved her as a character.
Yes. My sister got those in Jack & Jill magazine. They were really funny (to a child) & had BY as a wise old wood witch rather than a cannibalistic nightmare.
I would say that the seeming good or evilness of Baba Yaga has to do with a combination of factors that are specific to protagonist's social, emotional, and gender expectations of their current cultures in relation to nature. In this version of Vasalissa, Vasealissa is intuitively drawn to nurturing those around her and thus she is displaying an insightful, caring and selfless character where Baba Yaga serves as the neglectful, aggressive, and demeaning owner. In a version I was told as a child, the story is continued and expanded to include Vasalissa's child and his adventures. In it his is not specifically given a name but referred to by epithets that tie him to Vasalissa. For short reference here I'll call him Vasa. As a child Vasa, though raised by his good and gentle mother, is quite a churlish and spoiled child. He beats his cat, maid, horse and curses all around him when they don't do what he wants. As a teen he is sent by his father as an embassador to a neighboring kingdom and rather than bringing peace he beats the messenger and threatens the king. Knowing her son, Vasealissa sends a message to Baba Yaga asking for help. On his return to his kingdom Vasa encounters a golden feathered serpent. Thinking that its lair must be filled with treasure he chases it to the doorstep of Baba Yaga's house. Once inside Vasa discovers that the serpent is Baba Yaga herself. She cages him, telling him that only when he has learned kindness, gentleness like his mother and has the heart of a true leader will he be free. She feeds him gruel and dried bread. As he sits there for days on end he notices that in the house there is a nest of ants, a gount cat and nest of tiny hummingbirds. Time passes and he befriends the animals, the ants and cat with his bread and the hummingbirds with fruits that the ants bring to him. As his strength grows and he learns his friends talents he learns their speech. Together they plan to break free of Baba Yaga and her house. When she comes in carrying a large bussel of groceries intending to sit and eat a lavish meal in front of him, he springs from his cage with a host of ants running into the corners of the house, the cat hops on her head, making her kick the hearth puting out the fire(the heart of the home),the birds now able to fly chase her out of the house. Vasa now free can only think of returning to his home and apologize to his family, kingdom in hopes of preventing war. Vasalissa and her husband are thrilled to see him, his father fearing him killed by the other kingdom or lost and dead in the wilderness no matter how Vasalissa tried to assure him things would work out. For, the truth is, that while it appeared to Vasa that the animals were harming Baba Yaga and her house, the ants tickled the house making it run around, the hummingbirds tickled Baba Yaga making her howl in laughter and the cat made her sneeze. The last thing mentioned is that Vasalissa in thanks, brings a bussel of food and a giant jug of milk to the door of Baba Yaga's house looking up into the sky sees a Golden feathered serpent flying overhead and smiles. As can be seen, Baba Yaga is a means to right the balance of good and evil. Her neutrality just like the natural world around her interacts with the civilized world but is not a part of it, hence her wandering status in the stories. She also embodies a sense of fear and mystic because of her otherness, she is neither young or old, human or animal, friend or foe, neighbor or foreigner. She is in and apart of the limbo space. Because of this she can be an agent of change in its purest form. Baba Yaga is one of my favorite fable characters, thank u for talking about her!
This was such a good story! I love anything about the Baba Yaga ever since seeing a orchestra production of Pictures at an Exhibition as a child. It was accompanied but art and a brief explanation of each songs meaning.
I was told that my grandfather or one of his siblings (unclear- I was told the story ages ago ) was born early and to keep them warm they put the baby in the oven on low. His parents were from Germany. My grandfather was born in 1926.
To note the fluidity of myth, the version I heard as a child had the girl seeing the tree so forelorn and decorated it before entering the house emphasising her selfless nature
I'm in love with your storytelling! I was all ears and completely mesmerized even though I've heard various tales about Baba Yaga numerous times a kid. One time when I was little I was so scared by a movie scene involving Yaga (I believe she was cooking someone in a pot) that my gran found me in tears under the bed :)
Thank you so much, this was wonderful! Baba Yaga is one of my favorite folk figures and this was really fascinating. And your reading of the Vasilisa story was delightful, I was riveted the entire time. It reminded me of read-alouds with my kids when they were young (and not so young, we’re a read aloud family!), and of listening to Selected Shorts on NPR every week at work or while doing chores. Also want to share: my all-time favorite song about Baba Yaga is from the folk album Three Sheilas (from 1997, can be a little hard to find) by Judy Small, Kavisha Mazzella and Bronwyn Calcutt. The song is titled, naturally, Baba Yaga, and is a remarkable combination of spooky and exhilarating, with a sharp feminist edge. Highly recommend giving it a listen if you can find it!
I was introduced to Baba Yaga in an article, an adventure, in Dragon magazine. A magazine dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons. It presented her Dancing Hut as a tesseract, a fourth dimensional hyper-cube. It was marvelous.
This was very interesting, thank you. This video made me realize that most, if not all, fairy tales have an evil stepmother. The father is always a benign figure. Have you ever made a video as to why evil stepmothers abound in Western folklore? I find it interesting that these aren't vilifying all women, but only certain women? How does vilifying stepmothers help the patriarchy?
Love this whole video, but I especially enjoyed the way you told the story and acted the roles! I'd love to listen to/watch folktales just by themselves if you were to ever do that.
Tell me why I read the title as “Tales of Baba Yoga”? I went into this expecting to hear interesting historical tales about stretching and face palmed 🤦🏼♀️when I started hearing about the Russian witch. It’s been a long week folks lol 😅
Are you forgetting “Pictures at an Exhibition “ by Mussorgsky where he does tribute to his friend Hartmann’s paintings which include parts of the Baba Yaga tales.
@@CinziaDuBois I was actually introduced to that story through that music and especially the version by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. That progressed even further into more true classical music
It's not ment to interpret to a real mother or relativ, but to an older woman. A lot of the old folk/fairytales in Sweden the main character always addressed older female human/troll/witch/fairy/guardan as mother/deer mother/auntie. This is ment like a compliment and a show of a more informal respect for someone older or in charge. We have the word/title 'husmor' and 'husfru' that translates to housemother and housewife/mistress aka the women with the tite and/or position fo ruling the house. Exept when the tale specifically says it a relativ, but this is used in the same way anyway. Hope this clearl some of the confusion 😊 And it's a nice listen whilst sewing, thank you
Excellent storytelling, of course. And being addressed by your avatar (whom, I notice, does not wear your glasses), while your flesh-and-blood person toils silently in the background is delightfully eerie, in keeping with the topic. Nicely done. Take your "like"; you've earned it.
Hearing you tell the Vasillisa story reminds me so much of another story I read in Neil Phillip's Celtic fairy tales. I can't remember which one it is, but a boy goes to win the hand of a young girl from, I think, an ogre. When they escape the ogre, the girl hands her sweetheart first a comb that turns into a forest to stop the ogre from following them. Then she hands him a mirror, and finally she hands him one last thing, but I can't remember what it was. Great story! I'm hoping to buy a book of russian fairytales to add to my repertoire of fairytales.
I'm afraid I'm keeping that content purely for my patreons going forward because RU-vid algorithms are too brutal to shift up content like that anymore sadly xx
My personal take is that she's an interpretation of the experience of 'crossing the Abyss', one seen from the perspective of the cold and the oppressed.
Fantastic video, I am glad to have become one of your regulars, this video is being watched as part of my "Master to do list" That includes "Watch one educational video or film a day" , My throat is messed up and I am so unwell I could not go to my works Christmas dinner however I get to spend the little time before I go to bed watching this fantastic video so silver linings and all that I suppose.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to both the explanation of Baba Yaga mythology as well as your engaging storytelling of the specific story! The latter was a particular surprise and pleasure! 😄 I love listening to your videos when at work or doing other tasks.
Thank you for including some of my most favorite art of Baba Yaga, and some of my favorite stories. I was always fascinated by her house, I have always wanted a little model of it to own. 🏡🐓
I like your telling the Baba Yaga's story so I should repay with with the link to the 1939 Soviet fairytale movie " Vasilisa the Beautiful". As it is in Russian, English subtitles are provided.
I love how you describe the mythological creatures and personas around different cultures...I'm on a marathon of your vids honestly... want more on the mythological creatures that pop cultures are representing nowadays please please please please. Need myself more knowledge of the old🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
There was a kids' picture book with this story in it that I loved to read when I was in Elementary school, except the main character's name was Sasha. I have a vivid memory of the pictures, especially of Baba Yaga and the gnashing of her iron teeth.
I wish there were more legendary figures like Baba Yaga. Her dialogue so often reads with the subtext "I'm SO OVER being a nice old lady to these stupid humans." She's always too busy with mysterious magical things in these stories, and there are all kinds of hints that it would be nice to know the half of the work she's always bored sick of. I think there's something relatable about an old character being fleshed out so well -- this cynical, wry old women who is in charge of all kinds of elemental magical wisdom and is lightning fast, but also likes to play at the idea that she's a the one everybody comes begging to who needs others to do her housework for her. She usually has her own interests at heart and could care less about visitors, but her malevolence isn't absolute. She often sets up traps and riddles which the smart, brave or moral can find their way out of.
This was well told. The narrator sounds like she has an upper class British accent, which is quite pleasant. She also tells the story of Vasalisa and Baba Yaga with good verbal technique. I enjoyed hearing the folk tale.
I read about Baba Yaga for the first time in my father's book of Ukrainian fairytales. It's so old and tattered but has amazing Eastern European stories.
😅same here, I love to read The older the material the better I like that each of us discern the content Differently And I also love to be read to You give me both Thank you for that I realize your hard work And I am thankful for Your research and study Much of the content is hard To find ....even in our world of web. Keep up the great reads!
the intro was majestic! both as a narration and as an ASMR piece. flawless audio also. kudos! keep it up, I loved this new format, very dreamy and enthralling .
Baba Jaga is an appearence of the Goddess Morena, she is Venus at winter, the ancient Slavs had at least 4 Goddesses asossiacted with the planet Venus, while the Roman and Greek mythology only counts 1 each: Venus and Aphrodite.
Your channels are very interesting. I have enjoyed every video on each of your channels. You have a real gift for storytelling. Your past content was great and I look forward to viewing your future videos.
Leonardo da Vinci said "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions " Plato shared with us wisdom he learnt from Egypt, wisdom that was a death sentence in Greece, Rome (Christianity)..Pythagoras, Socrates and later Hypatia of Alexandria. Plato in his dialogue "The Republic " tells the parable of "The Cave " Plato starts by telling us of prisoners being held in a underground den, let us examine this den via the geometry of Bernhard Riemann and Felix Klein..Klein bottle..3rd and 4th dimensions. Plato tells us that the prisoners are bound up unable to move their heads, let us examine this bondage via the psychology of Erich Fromm..socialisation of consciousness.. aware-unaware. Plato tells us that the prisoners mistake shadows for substance, let us examine this mistake via the philosophy of Thales, Hume and Kant..synthetic a priori judgement..not thing in itself. Plato tells us that one of the prisoners is released, let us examine this release via the wisdom of T Lobsang Rampa..stilling the mind and conscious astral travel..leaving the cave/body. Plato tells us that the prisoners will reject this release, let us examine this rejection via the psychology of Stockholm Syndrome..Plato quotes Homer..forgive them for they know not what they say. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. Mathew 23 13 31.
Super random & fun fact: in the video games Sims 2 in one of the worlds, there is lot (basically meaning a house) that is apart of the lore and known to the sim community as the Baba Yaga hut. Even the design the hut is remarkably similar to the description of her house. The house is situated on two staircase, but there’s distinct shadow marks at the foot of the staircase that resembles claws.
