Baba Yaga the Beautiful.

As the West is so furiously debating whether it is morally acceptable to have Putin as an ally in the fight against terrorism, one lovely blogger declares her love for the wicked witch of Russian fairy tales.

The wicked (but sometimes good, as in this tale, in Russian) witch Baba Yaga is one of the main recurring characters in traditional Russian lore. Another is Vassilissa the Beautiful, who sometimes also appears as Vassilissa the Wise.


This Australian vlogger is talking about her fascination with Baba Yaga, but if you wished to imagine what Vassilissa the Beautiful could look like, that's her, The Raven of Poe.

Read an earlier post about Baba Yaga (The Guardian about a new book of fairy tales) here.

Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga
by Viktor Vasnetsov, o/c, 1917.
One of the better known images in Russia.

The Guardian has a lovely piece about the witch Baba Yaga (Баба Яга, in Russian the stress in the last 'a' - yaGA) in Russian folk tales and a new illustrated edition of folk tales in English.

Here's an excerpt:

"Baba Yaga appears in many other Russian fairy tales. In The Magic Swan Geese, Baba Yaga sends her magic birds to steal a boy away from his sister. The proud sister scoffs at the river and the trees when they offer to help her find him, but when she finds out the evil fate that Baba Yaga plans for her brother, she might just change her mind…

But Baba Yaga is not always the villain in Russian folklore. In Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What, a wonderfully weird tale involving a bird princess, a magic ring, merchants, servants and quick trip to the Underworld, she transforms from Wicked Witch to Wise Woman, lending the hero a helping hand."

Read 'Baba Yaga, and the howlings of Russian pseudo-patriots.' (In Russian, but includes a charming Australian vlogger talking about her fascination with Baba Yaga and Russian folklore.)

Baba Yaga's theme from Mussorgsky's 'Pictures from an Exhibition' suite -