Good evening, Kibitzers! I have been hearing so much about Russian witch hunts, I thought we might conduct one. It’s not very difficult, because the most famous Russian witch, Baba Yaga, is pretty well known. There’s her picture at right, by the marvelous Ivan Bilibin, a Russian illustrator and stage designer of the early 20th century. He has many lovely Art Nouveau-style paintings from Russian folklore — a number of them are shown at his Wikipedia page, and I’m using a few in this diary since, as it happens, Bilibin has been gone just long enough to put his work into the public domain.
You can see a larger version of her portrait here, and you might need to, to understand her favored mode of transportation. She rides crouched in the top of a giant flying mortar, using the matching pestle to steer. As you can see, she carries in her left hand a broom made of silver birch twigs, which she uses to sweep away any trace of her passage. Honestly, I can think of worse ways to get to work.
Baba Yaga lives in a hut named Izbushka (this is said to just mean “little hut”), which stands on giant chicken legs. Izbushka turns around and around, and will not stand still and let someone enter unless they say the magic incantation. In some versions, since this is a folk tale with many versions, Izbushka has no door, and Baba Yaga flies in and out through the chimney. The hut’s surrounding fence is generally made of bones, and specifically has posts topped with skulls whose eyes light up. (Here’s a spookier depiction of it.)
Baba Yaga can be an ambiguous figure in the stories about her. She’s pretty terrifying, having iron teeth and a very long nose, and from time to time she does roast people, especially children, in her oven and eat them. But she doesn’t initially pursue people; they go to her, either because they want something of her or because they’re sent.
There’s a story similar to Hansel and Gretel, wherein innocent children are sent to Baba Yaga by their wicked stepmother, who assumes they’ll be eaten. Baba Yaga assigns the children tasks that should be impossible, such as carrying water in a sieve to fill a tub, with the warning that, if they fail in their tasks, she will eat them. However, the pure-hearted children are kind to various small animals, who reward them with tricks for doing the work, and eventually, give them magical items that allow them to escape.
There’s another story, the most well-known one, that leans toward Cinderella and demonstrates Baba Yaga’s ambiguous character. Vasilisa is a beautiful young woman who lives (natch) with her wicked stepmother and two mean stepsisters. The stepmother gives Vasilisa and the stepsisters chores to do, but it’s dark and candles don’t give enough light for them to finish the work. The stepsisters send Vasilisa into the woods to find more light, and she finds herself at Izbushka. Baba Yaga listens to her problem, and then assigns her some impossible tasks in exchange for better light. Vasilisa will get eaten if she fails, but she succeeds with the aid of a magical doll she has carried since childhood.
Keeping her word, Baba Yaga gives her one of the freaky skull lanterns from the fenceposts and sends her home. When she gets there, the skull immediately incinerates all three wicked step-relatives by means of its flamethrower eye-sockets, and Vasilisa ultimately marries the Tsar.
So, the bottom line is, Baba Yaga is all-knowing, and if you ask her questions, she will tell you the true and complete answer, which is really unusual for a fairy-tale witch, and that’s why many of the characters in her stories are directed to her for advice. She will keep her promises, and if she likes you, she will help you with your problem, albeit maybe not the way you had in mind. If you just show up to waste her time, she will mess with you and then eat you.
If you are interested in a discussion of Baba Yaga as aspects of the Earth Mother, the bringer of death, the fire-giver, and so on, the latter part of this article is worth reading.
So now that our hunt is successful, do we get some sort of prize from the “administration”? Or does this mean we are colluding? I get so confused.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by and tell us about your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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John Leguizamo receives a special Tony award. I don’t want to stuff this into the Puerto Rico box, but it is relevant. It’ll start playing almost at the end; go back and hear the rest if you like, but hear this much if you have not.
It is now Day 12 of the new hurricane season.
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The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos.
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