Many have heard about Baba Yaga since childhood, but did not know where it came from. This is a very unpleasant character from fairy tales associated with evil spirits. This old woman is one of the complex and contradictory images in fairy tales. Where did Baba Yaga come from?
This is a mythological creature that later passed into folklore. It unites the world of the dead and the living. According to one version, the prototype of this creature is healers, sorceresses who healed sick people. Who is Baba Yaga? Most often, these were unsociable women who lived in the forest more often, far from the settlements. Many researchers believe that such a word as "Yaga" comes from the Old Russian "yaz" ("yaza"), which meant "disease".
Baba Yaga's love of roasting small children in a Russian oven on a shovel resembles the rite of “baking” babies who were sick with rickets. So, the child was wrapped in a dough in the form of a diaper, then put on a bread shovel and several times thrust into a heating oven. Then the baby was unfolded, and the dough itself was thrown to the dogs to be eaten. According to another version, the dog was put into the oven at the same time as the baby, so that the disease would go away from the child.
In addition, Yaga herself is a woman rooted in matriarchy. According to other sources, this creature is originally a deceased mother. Also, in fairy tales, the ritual of the funeral can be traced - Baba Yaga meets any hero like this: he drowns the bath (ablution) and feeds (funeral). In addition, her hut is located on the edge of the forest (the kingdom of the dead), with her back to the fairytale hero (the kingdom of the living).
Of course, Baba Yaga was in all nationalities. With the advent of Christianity, these creatures fell into disgrace, fled to the forests, and therefore became fairy-tale heroes, instead of real ones. Unfortunately, this is not surprising …
Now, knowing the origin of Baba Yaga, we can say that this is a simple witch, she is not a Goddess or an evil spirit, but just a woman who has certain abilities. She is subject to the elements, she understands the language of nature. The fact that she lives in the forest, most likely, is true, these "witches" lived in the villages, but how they began to burn and drive them away, so they fled into the deep wilderness from their executioners.
