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 controversial images in fairy tales. Where did Baba Yaga come from?
This is a mythological creature, which later turned into folklore. It unites the world of the dead and the living. According to one version, the prototype of this creature are healers, witches, who treated sick people. Who is Baba Yaga? Most often, these were unsociable women who lived in the forest more often, far from settlements. Many researchers believe that a word like "Yaga" came from the old Russian "ide" ("ide"), which meant "disease."
The love of Baba Yaga to fry young children in a Russian stove 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 stuck in a heating furnace. Then the infant was deployed, and the dough was thrown to the dogs for eaten. According to another version, the dog was pushed 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 with her roots in matriarchy. According to other sources, this creature is an initially dead mother. Also in fairy tales, the ritual of funeral is traced - Baba Yaga meets any hero like this: drowns a bath (ablution) and feeds (trisen). In addition, her hut is located on the forest edge (the kingdom of the dead), while back to the fairy-tale hero (kingdom of the living).
Of course, Baba Yaga was in all nationalities. With the advent of Christianity, these creatures fell into disgrace, fled into the woods, 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 and not an unclean force, 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 is most likely true, these "witches" lived in the villages, but how they began to burn and drive them, so they fled to the dense wilderness from their executioners.
