Baba Yaga. Goddess, snake woman, fairy witch. Who is Baba Yaga and where did she come from?
There is probably not a single Russian-spirited person who has not heard fairy tales about Baba Yozhka with a bone leg. She flew in a mortar with a broom and collected children for lunch. And she was a scary and ugly old woman. This is how Russian folk tales portray it to us. As they say, we heard the ringing but don’t know where it is! But it is worth remembering that a fairy tale is just a processed tale, and in most cases, fairy tales have undergone strict censorship over the past hundreds of years.
What was it really like?
A long time ago, or maybe even recently, our ancestors called Baba Yaga Baba Yoga or Yogini-Mother. She was an ever-beautiful, loving, kind-hearted patron goddess of orphans and children in general. She wandered around Midgard-Earth, either on the fiery Heavenly chariot (whiteman), or on horseback throughout all the lands where the Clans of the Great Race and the descendants of the Heavenly Clans lived, collecting homeless orphans in towns and villages.
In every Slavic-Aryan village, even in every populous city or settlement, the patron goddess was recognized by her radiating kindness, tenderness, meekness, love and elegant boots decorated with gold patterns, and they showed her where orphans lived.
Ordinary people called the goddess differently, but always with tenderness, some as Grandmother Yoga of the Golden Leg, and some simply as Yogini-Mother.
The Yogini delivered the orphans to her foothill monastery, which was located in the thicket of the forest, at the foot of the Iriysky Mountains (Altai). She did all this in order to save these last representatives of the most ancient Slavic and Aryan Clans from imminent death.
In the foothill monastery, where Yogini-Mother led orphans through the fiery rite of dedication to the ancient high gods, there was a clan temple carved inside the mountain.
Next to the mountain temple of the clan, there was a special depression in the rock, which the priests of the clan called the Cave of Ra. A stone platform extended from it, divided by a ledge into two equal recesses, called a lapata. In one recess, which was closer to the Cave of Ra, Yogini-Mother laid sleeping orphans in white clothes. Dry brushwood was placed in the second cavity, after which the lapata moved back into the Cave of Ra, and the Yogini set fire to the brushwood.
For everyone present at the Fire Rite, this meant that the orphans were dedicated to the ancient high gods, and no one would see them again in the worldly life of childbirth. Foreigners who were sometimes present at the Fire Rites very colorfully told in their lands that they watched with their eyes how small children were sacrificed to the ancient gods, throwing them alive into the fire furnace, and Baba Yoga did this. The strangers did not know that when the platform moved into the Cave of Ra, special mechanism lowered the stone slab onto the ledge of the lapata, and separated the recess with the children from the fire.
When the fire lit in the Cave of Ra, the priests carried the orphans from the recess on the lapata to the premises of the clan's temple. Subsequently, priests and priestesses were raised from orphans, and when they became adults, the boys and girls created families and continued their lineage. But the foreigners knew none of this, and continued to spread tales that the wild priests of the Slavic and Aryan peoples, and especially the bloodthirsty Baba Yoga, sacrifice orphans to the boagmas.
These stupid foreign tales influenced the image of Yogini Mother, especially after the Christianization of Rus', when the image of a beautiful young goddess was replaced by the image of an ancient evil and hunchbacked old woman with matted hair, who steals small children, roasts them in an oven in a forest hut and then eats them. Even the name of the Goddess of Yoga was distorted, they began to call her Baba Yaga bone leg and began to scare all children with the goddess.
Who is Baba Yaga?
Research project for schoolchildren. Theme: Baba Yaga
methodologist of MUDO Children's and Youth Children's Youth City Cheremkhovo Olga Nikolaevna Pilipey.Description of material: this material will be useful to teachers and students educational institutions, teachers of additional education.
Slide 1 (title)
Research
Topic of my research: Baba Yaga - mythical character or real woman.(slide 2) Purpose of the study: Study and analyze the image of Baba Yaga.
(slide 3) Research objectives:
- Get acquainted with the features of the image of Baba Yaga.
- Study the history of the name.
- To know historical background image of Baba Yaga.
(slide 4) Hypothesis:
Let's assume that Baba Yaga is a real woman. Then why is she the representative dark forces in Russian folk tales, lives alone in a dense forest and everyone is afraid of her. Let's try to figure this out!
1. A fairy tale is a beautiful creation of art. (slide 5) Scientists interpret the fairy tale differently. Some of them strive to characterize fairy-tale fiction as independent of reality, while others want to understand how the attitude of folk storytellers to the surrounding reality was refracted in the fantasy of fairy tales. (slide 6 photo of B.Ya. with a bear)
We are accustomed to considering a fairy tale as something implausible. Remember Pushkin: “A fairy tale is a lie...”? (slide 7) However, our ancestors took fairy tales more seriously. There was no talk of any “fairy-tale never-before-seen thing.” In ancient times, the world of Russian people was divided into two equal parts - good world, reality, and evil, otherworldly, but also absolutely real. These worlds were constantly in contact with each other. (slide 8 photo by B.Ya.) We all remember how difficult and full of dangers the road to the Far Away Kingdom is, that the entrance to mysterious world is located somewhere on the border of earth and sky, in a dense impenetrable forest, where no human has ever set foot. This is how the image of Baba Yaga appeared in fairy tales. Who can you ask for directions to an unprecedented land, who can you find out the truth about magic spells and unheard-of weapons? Only at Baba Yaga's.
Who is Baba Yaga - one of the most famous figures Russian folk tales or unknown ones? (slide 9 survey who is Baba Yaga?)
I asked this question to the children from my children's association and offered 3 possible answers: most of guys (73%) believe that this is an old witch living in a dense forest. In the minds of other guys (27%) she is a witch and a sorceress.
(slide 10) Baba Yaga is the most complex and controversial image in fairy tale world. According to the most general ideas, this is a terrible Old Woman, with long nose and a bone leg, which basically lies on the stove in his hut on chicken legs, (slide 11 photo by B.Ya.) or rushes over Russia on his mortar, and has a very bad character. Although, if you talk to her politely, she may become compassionate and even show you the way and give you the treasured ball that will take you to your destination.
2. Many scientists and researchers tried to guess what was hidden behind the terrible shell of this Old Woman. (slide 12 survey Why is B.Ya. called Yaga?) Why is Baba Yaga called Yaga? I asked the guys from my association about this. Of the proposed answers, 44% chose the option: because she is lame and hunchbacked; 39% of the class consider Baba Yaga Yaga because she flies in a mortar; and only 17% of the guys chose the option: they live alone and dress differently from everyone else.
As the encyclopedic dictionary tells us:
“YAGA,” Baba Yaga, a fairy-tale character who lives in a dense forest; witch".
Vladimir Dal in his “ Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language" writes that Yaga is "a kind of witch or evil spirit under the guise of an ugly old woman."
The image of Baba Yaga in fairy tales is made up of various details. (slide 13) According to V.Ya. Proppa, “a fairy tale knows three different shapes yagi." This is, firstly, the giver yaga to whom the hero comes. She questions the hero, presents him with a horse and rich gifts. (slide 14) The second type is a kidnapper yaga who carries away children. (slide 15) The third type is the warrior yaga.
(slide 16) Baba - the first part of the name shows that our heroine is very old age. After all, our words “baba - grandmother” are intended to refer to people of the older generation who have grandchildren. Therefore, the first part of the name not only marks that she is a woman, but also indicates her childbearing infirmity and a certain life experience.
Yaga - the second part of the name cannot be interpreted unambiguously. Some believe that our ancestors called a forest woman “yaga,” noting her quarrelsome character or special clothing.
(slide 17 photo of Yagi in a mortar) Baba Yaga usually moves like a witch or an unclean spirit. So, in fairy tales she rides in an iron mortar, pushing it with a pestle and covering her tracks with a broom.
In fairy tales, Baba Yaga most often lives in a dense and impenetrable forest, in a hut on chicken legs; Moreover, not only its appearance, but also its very way of life is unnatural for humans.
(slide 18 photos of huts)
The fence around her hut is made of human bones, and on the fence instead of pots hang skulls. In the oven, Baba Yaga roasts (or at least tries to roast) the kidnapped children.
Baba Yaga's appearance is hardly described anywhere. She is always in action - flying on a mortar, shouting at her servants, catching up with heroes. And judging by her actions, she is not weak and infirm old woman, but quite energetic, strong and strong-willed.
(slide 19) After analyzing the literature, I came to the conclusion that Baba Yaga is:
- old woman, endowed magical power, witch, old forest sorceress, warriors and kidnappers;
- female evil spirit, child thief, evil spirit;
- in most beliefs, Baba Yaga was very reminiscent of a witch, as well as forest and elemental spirits (goblin, mermaid) and spirits living in the hut and associated with spinning.
3. (slide 20, 6 photos) All fairy tales about Baba Yaga begin with the fact that main character leaves home, and fate brings him to a strange strange world.
The fact is that ancient peoples had an initiation rite - the initiation of young men into men. The young man had to prove that he was already old enough, that he could be relied upon, that he had learned the wisdom of his elders, that he was a worthy warrior and hunter. The initiation rite was always accompanied by various tests of strength, dexterity and ingenuity. Who carried out such tests and where?
This had to be a special person, wise with life experience, and the ritual had to take place in a special place - where, according to the beliefs of the ancients, young people could receive Wisdom and Knowledge from their ancestors. It may very well be that Baba Yaga in reality is a female priestess, the head of a clan, who tested applicants for adulthood in a secluded and sacred place in the forest. She is wise and can teach anyone - from Ivan the Tsarevich to Ivan the Fool.
Scientists have become very interested in the fact that in some fairy tales, not only young men, but also fair-haired maidens come to Baba Yaga. Moreover, they live a long time and do hard work. It may very well be that in ancient times, beautiful and intelligent girls (Vasilisa the Beautiful and Vasilisa the Wise) were given a special role in the tribe, and they also underwent a certain rite of passage. By the way, there is another interpretation of the word “Yaga” - it means “decisive”.
Another prototype of Baba Yaga in real life healers and witches who settled far from people, often in the forest, could serve. There they collected medicinal herbs and, if necessary, treated sick people from surrounding villages. Many considered them to be related to evil spirits and were afraid. Therefore, in people’s imaginations they could well be embodied in the terrible and mysterious image of Baba Yaga.
(slide 21 survey Do you like B.Ya.?)
CONCLUSION
During my research, I found answers to many questions. Based on fairy tales and additional literature, I drew a conclusion about the essence of the image of Baba Yaga. Conducting a survey among the students of my association in conclusion, I asked, do you like Baba Yaga? Half of the guys said: “not very much” (50%), 45% of the class don’t like Baba Yaga. And only 5% of guys find Yaga an interesting character.
(slide 22 during the research...)
Many more generations of children will grow up reading Russian fairy tales, where Baba Yaga is evil and insidious, but at the same time funny and amusing. Lately Baba Yaga is finding more and more positive traits and they even call her the keeper of the hearth.
(slide 23 photo of Yagi) The study showed that the image of Baba Yaga carries a great meaning. I found out that fairy tales about Baba Yaga are in many ways a reflection folk myths and beliefs, and those, in turn, are half-forgotten facts from real life. In Baba Yaga, who modern people they just think fairy-tale character, once believed not only by children, but also by adults. Tales of Baba Yaga - a repository of information about ancient life people, oh real events, happening a very, very long time ago.
(slide 24 literature)
Thus, we can say that I have accomplished the goals and objectives set in this work. This concludes my work. Thank you for your attention!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Dal V.I. Encyclopedia of the Russian word. - M., 2002.
2. Russian fairy tales. LLC Publishing House "Rodnichok" M., 2011.
3. Propp V.Ya. Historical roots fairy tale. - M., 1989.
4. Oral folk art // Russian literature: Encyclopedia for children. - M., 1998.
5. Etymological dictionary/ Semenov A.V. - Moscow 2003.
Presentation for research work.
slide 1
Baba Yaga - mysterious creature, which is described in many Russian fairy tales. To this day, scientists are concerned about the still unsolved mysteries surrounding this mysterious creature.
1:835 1:840Who is Baba Yaga?
1:889
Scientists translate the strange name of this old woman in different ways. Some are convinced that “yaga” corresponds in some Indo-European languages to the meanings of “annoyance, illness, mourn.” But from the Komi language “yag” is translated as “ Pine forest" or "bor", and the word "baba" means woman. Hence, Baba Yaga is a forest woman.
2:19832:4
Baba Yaga lives in the forest, she flies in a mortar. Practices witchcraft. She is helped by geese-swans, red, white and black riders, and also “three pairs of hands.”
3:779 3:784
Researchers distinguish three subspecies of Baba Yaga:
4:1380- warrior (in battle with her the hero switches to new level personal maturity),
- giver (she gives magical objects to her guests),
- and also a child abductor.
It is worth noting that she is not a uniquely negative character.
4:152 4:157
They describe her as a scary old woman with a hump. At the same time, she is also blind and only senses a person who has entered her hut.
5:866 5:871This is a dwelling that has chicken legs,gave rise to scientists' hypothesis about who Baba Yaga is. The fact is that the ancient Slavs had a custom of erecting special houses for the dead, which were installed on stilts, rising above the ground. They built such huts on the border of the forest and the settlement, and placed them in such a way that the exit was from the side of the forest.
5:15065:4
Version 1. Baba Yaga - a guide to the world of the dead
6:602It is believed that Baba Yaga is a kind of guide to the world of the dead, which in fairy tales is called the Far Away Kingdom.
6:820 6:825
Certain rituals help the old woman in performing this task:
7:1459ritual ablution(bathhouse),
7:1511“dead” treat (feeding the hero at his request).
7:110 7:115
Having visited Baba Yaga's house, a person temporarily finds himself belonging to two worlds at once, and also receives some specific abilities.
8:890
Version 2. Baba Yaga - a woman healer
8:971
In ancient times, unsociable women who settled in the forest became healers. There they collected plants, fruits and roots, then dried them and prepared a variety of potions from these raw materials.
9:18329:4
People, although they used their services, were at the same time afraid of them, as they considered them witches associated with evil spirits and evil spirits.
10:769 10:774
Version 3. Baba Yaga is an alien
11:1355Not long ago some Russian researchers put forward another very interesting theory. According to her, Baba Yaga was none other than an alien who arrived on our planet for research purposes.
11:173611:4
Legends say that the mysterious The old woman flew in a mortar, while covering her tracks with a fiery broom. This whole description is very resembles a jet engine. The ancient Slavs, of course, could not know about the wonders of technology, and therefore they interpreted in their own way the fire and loud sounds that the alien ship could make.
12:1117 12:1122
This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the arrival of the mysterious Baba Yaga, according to the descriptions of ancient peoples, was accompanied by the fall of trees at the landing site and a storm with very strong strong wind. All this can be explained by the impact of a ballistic wave or the direct effect of a jet stream. The Slavs who lived in those distant times could not know about the existence of such things, and therefore explained it as witchcraft.
13:240213:4
The hut standing on a chicken leg was apparently spaceship. In this case, its small dimensions are quite understandable. And the chicken legs are the stand on which the ship stands.
14:830 14:835
The appearance of Baba Yaga, which seemed so ugly to people, alien creatures could have been quite ordinary. Humanoids, judging by the descriptions of ufologists, do not look any more beautiful.
15:1646 15:4
Legends also claim that the mysterious Baba Yaga was supposedly a cannibal, that is, she ate human flesh. From the same point of view new theory, various experiments on people were carried out on the ship. Later, all this became overgrown with legends and fairy tales that were told to children. This story has come down to us in this form.
16:1099 16:1104
17:4
It is difficult to prove something when so many years have passed, but still the mysterious Baba Yaga left her mark on history, not only fabulous, but also, perhaps, quite material. It just hasn't been found yet.
17:367 17:372B ABA YAGA - initially - a positive character of ancient Russian mythology, the ancestor of the family, its guardian living space, its customs and traditions, way of life, who also looked after the younger generation. One of the most significant beregins. As Christianity was planted in Rus', Baba Yaga, like other gods of the pagan worldview, increasingly began to be attributed negative traits and intentions.
Baba Yaga is an old sorceress endowed with magical powers, a witch, a werewolf. In its properties it is closest to a witch. Most often - a negative character.
Baba Yaga has several stable attributes: she can cast magic, fly in a mortar, lives in the forest, in a hut on chicken legs, surrounded by a fence made of human bones with skulls.
She lures good fellows and small children to her and roasts them in the oven. She pursues her victims in a mortar, chasing them with a pestle and covering the trail with a broom (broom).
There are three types of Baba Yaga: the giver (she gives the hero a fairy-tale horse or a magical object), the kidnapper of children, Baba Yaga the warrior, fighting with whom “to the death”, the hero of the fairy tale moves to a different level of maturity.
The image of Baba Yaga is associated with legends about the hero's transition to other world(Far Far Away kingdom). In these legends, Baba Yaga, standing on the border of the worlds (the bone leg), serves as a guide, allowing the hero to penetrate into the world of the dead, thanks to the performance of certain rituals.
Thanks to the texts of fairy tales, it is possible to reconstruct the ritual, sacred meaning of the actions of the hero who ends up with Baba Yaga. In particular, V. Ya. Propp, who studied the image of Baba Yaga on the basis of a mass of ethnographic and mythological material, draws attention to very important detail. After recognizing the hero by smell (Yaga is blind) and clarifying his needs, she always heats the bathhouse and evaporates the hero, thus performing a ritual ablution. Then he feeds the newcomer, which is also a ritual, “mortuary” treat, inadmissible to the living, so that they do not accidentally enter the world of the dead. This food “opens the mouth of the dead.” And, although the hero does not seem to have died, he will be forced to temporarily “die to the living” in order to get to the “thirtieth kingdom” (another world). There, in the “thirtieth kingdom” (the underworld), where the hero is heading, many dangers always await him, which he has to anticipate and overcome.
M. Zabylin writes: “Under this name the Slavs revered the infernal goddess, depicted as a monster in an iron mortar with an iron staff. They offered her a bloody sacrifice, thinking that she was feeding it on her two granddaughters, whom they attributed to her, and at the same time enjoying the shedding of blood. Under the influence of Christianity, the people forgot their main gods, remembering only the secondary ones, and especially those myths that have personified phenomena and forces of nature, or symbols of everyday needs. Thus, Baba Yaga from an evil hellish goddess turned into an evil old witch, sometimes an cannibal, who always lives somewhere in the forest, alone, in a hut on chicken legs.<...>In general, traces of Baba Yaga remain only in folk tales, and her myth merges with the myth of witches.”
In contact with
Baba Yaga lives in the forest, she flies in a mortar. Practices witchcraft. She is helped by geese-swans, red, white and black riders, and also “three pairs of hands.” Researchers distinguish three subtypes of Baba Yaga: a warrior (in the battle with her the hero moves to a new level of personal maturity), a giver (she gives magical objects to her guests), and a child abductor. It is worth noting that she is not a uniquely negative character.
They describe her as a scary old woman with a hump. At the same time, she is also blind and only senses a person who has entered her hut. This dwelling, which has chicken legs, gave rise to scientists’ hypothesis about who Baba Yaga is. The fact is that the ancient Slavs had a custom of erecting special houses for the dead, which were installed on stilts, rising above the ground. They built such huts on the border of the forest and the settlement, and placed them in such a way that the exit was from the side of the forest.
It is believed that Baba Yaga is a kind of guide to the world of the dead, which in fairy tales is called the Far Away Kingdom. In carrying out this task, the old woman is helped by certain rituals: ritual ablution (bathhouse), “dead” food (feeding the hero at his request). Having visited Baba Yaga's house, a person temporarily finds himself belonging to two worlds at once, and also receives some specific abilities.
According to another hypothesis, Baba Yaga is a female healer. In ancient times, unsociable women who settled in the forest became healers. There they collected plants, fruits and roots, then dried them and prepared a variety of potions from these raw materials. People, although they used their services, were at the same time afraid of them, as they considered them witches associated with evil spirits and evil spirits.
Not long ago, some Russian researchers put forward another very interesting theory. According to her, Baba Yaga was none other than an alien who arrived on our planet for research purposes.
Legends say that a mysterious old woman flew in a mortar, while covering her tracks with a fiery broom. This whole description is very reminiscent of a jet engine. The ancient Slavs, of course, could not know about the wonders of technology, and therefore they interpreted in their own way the fire and loud sounds that the alien ship could make.
This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the arrival of the mysterious Baba Yaga, according to the descriptions of ancient peoples, was accompanied by the fall of trees at the landing site and a storm with a very strong wind. All this can be explained by the impact of a ballistic wave or the direct effect of a jet stream. The Slavs who lived in those distant times could not know about the existence of such things, and therefore explained it as witchcraft.
The hut, standing on a chicken leg, apparently was a spaceship. In this case, its small dimensions are quite understandable. And the chicken legs are the stand on which the ship stands.
The appearance of Baba Yaga, which seemed so ugly to people, could have been quite ordinary for alien creatures. Humanoids, judging by the descriptions of ufologists, do not look any more beautiful.
Legends also claim that the mysterious Baba Yaga was supposedly a cannibal, that is, she ate human flesh. From the point of view of the new theory, various experiments on people were carried out on the ship. Later, all this became overgrown with legends and fairy tales that were told to children. This story has come down to us in this form. It is difficult to prove something when so many years have passed, but still the mysterious Baba Yaga left her mark on history, not only fabulous, but also, perhaps, quite material. It just hasn't been found yet.