5 Fascinating Tales of Baba Yaga, the Slavic Witch

Baba Yaga is a famous Slavic witch who appears in many Russian folk stories. These fairytales are similar to well-known Western fairy tales like Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel but with a distinctive Russian twist. It is from these fairytales that modern students of Slavic mythology garner most of what they know about Baba Yaga.

Baba Yaga was a witch who lived in a remote forest in a house made from bones and elevated on chicken legs. She liked to eat people. When people came to her for help, she would often set them challenges, in the hope that they would fail so that she could eat them!

The story of Vasilisa the Beautiful is a Russian version of Cinderella. Vasilisa lives with her parents on the edge of the forest of Baba Yaga, a cunning witch who gobbles up people. One day, her mother fell gravely ill. Before she died, she gave Vasilisa a doll and told her to care for it and keep it secret. She also said that whenever her daughter had problems, Vasilisa should give food to the doll and tell it about her troubles.

The father remarried an evil stepmother with two spoiled daughters. They were all jealous of Vasilisa and worked her extremely hard in the hope that it would diminish her beauty, but she only increased in her loveliness. This was because when Vasilisa fed the doll, it would come to life and do the work for her.

Soon, the father had to leave on a long trip. The stepmother and sisters used this as an excuse to send Vasilisa to the house of Baba Yaga to ask for fire to maintain their hearth. The terrified Vasilisa set out on her journey, but the doll assured her that everything would be fine.

When she reached the home of Baba Yaga, Vasilisa saw that the house was made from human bones and crowned with human skulls with eyes of fire that burned brightly. Soon, Baba Yaga appeared, flying in a mortar and swinging her pestle. When she arrived, Baba Yaga said that she could smell Vasilisa’s Russian blood and told Vasilisa that her stepmother was her kinsman. Baba Yaga told Vasilisa to stay with her and work for a while — she would either help her or eat her.

As Vasilisa followed her into the home, she was attacked by the witch’s dog and cat, and other magical objects in the home. Each was stopped by a word from Baba Yaga, and the witch assured Vasilisa that she could not escape.

Each day, Baba Yaga would eat huge amounts of food and give Vasilisa only a piece of bread, and every night she would give Vasilisa impossible tasks. But Vasilisa would complete each with the help of her doll. This angered Baba Yaga, who wanted to eat the girl.

Finally, Baba Yaga told her to spend the evening building a fire, because tomorrow she would roast and eat Vasilisa. The terrified girl consulted the doll, and it told her exactly what to do. Rather than make a fire, she made her escape, giving food to the dog and the cat to let her pass. As she left, Vasilisa stole one of the skulls with burning eyes off the roof of Baba Yaga’s home to light her way.

When Baba Yaga awoke, she was furious and asked her dog and cat why they did not prevent the girl from escaping. They said that Vasilisa had been more generous with them in one night than Baba Yaga had ever been. Baba Yaga flew into a violent rage — which was bad for the inhabitants of her home, but she forgot all about Vasilisa.

When Vasilisa got home, her stepmother and stepsisters started yelling at her for taking so long. But the burning eyes of the skull attacked the three other women and burned them to ashes.

Vasilisa left her family home and started to live with an old woman in the village. With the help of the doll, Vasilisa made extremely fine fabrics that she gave to the old woman to sell. Eventually, this brought Vasilisa to the attention of the local ruling family. Vasilisa married the family’s son and went to live in their mansion, taking her doll and the old woman with her. When her father eventually returned from his travels, he also lived in happiness with Vasilisa.

Ivan Tsarevitch meets and marries a beautiful warrior princess called Marya Morevna. One day, she tells him that she is going off to war, and not to open the dungeon in their castle while she is gone. The curiosity quickly overcomes Ivan, and he opens the dungeon and funds Koshchei, an evil immortal wizard, sick and emaciated.

Koshchei asks Ivan to bring him water, which Ivan does, not knowing that this is what Koshchei needs to recharge his magical abilities. Koshchei uses his magic to disappear and go after Marya Morevna. The evil man catches the warrior princess, so Ivan must go after him. He is no match for Koshchei, and the wizard kills Ivan, puts his body in a barrel, and throws it into the sea.

Ivan’s three sisters were all married to wizards, who managed to save Ivan from the sea and restore him to life. They also tell Ivan that Koshchei has a magic horse and that Ivan should go and see the witch Baba Yaga, who has magical horses that are even faster.

Ivan wanders into the wilderness to seek out Baba Yaga. He befriends many animals along the way that help him during his treacherous journey. After he crosses a flaming river, he finally reaches the hut of Baba Yaga, which is elevated and walks on chicken legs and is decorated with human skulls mounted on sticks.

He asks Baba Yaga to give him a horse so that he can save his wife. She says that she will give him one of her steeds if he looks after her mares for three days. But if he loses one of them, she will kill him. Ivan struggled with the task as the mares were always trying to flee but was successful with the help of the animals he met on his journey.

On the third day, Ivan was feeling confident, but one of his animal friends told him that Baba Yaga intended to kill him anyway. They let him know which of the steeds was the fastest so that he could steal it and escape. Baba Yaga pursued him but could not pass the flaming river.

With his new steed, Ivan was able to track down Koshchei and save his wife. He finds his wife and rides away with her, outrunning Koshchei on his new horse. There was eventually a showdown between the two men. Ivan’s horse knocked Koshchei down, and Ivan beat him to death.

Baba Yaga had a virtuous son. She was very upset when he married a human girl and plotted to get rid of her. As in other stories, she starts by giving the girl impossible tasks.

First, she asks the girl to go into the forest and milk her cows. But the girl tells her husband what she is off to do, and he tells her to milk some mares instead because Baba Yaga’s cows are bears, which will kill the girl.

Next, Baba Yaga sends the girl to shear sheep in the woods, but again her husband warns her that the sheep are wolves. He teaches her a magic spell to use to obtain the pelts of the wolves without getting too close.

Frustrated, Baba Yaga decides to send the girl to her sister to deal with. She is to go to the witch’s sister and request a reed for weaving. But again, the girl’s husband prepares her, giving her oil, ham, lard, needles, pins, a comb, a tablecloth, a brush, and a ring. This collection of objects allows the girl to reach the house of Baba Yaga’s sister unharmed. She oils the hinges of the door, gives the ham to two dogs, the lard to a cat, and the pins and needles to a group of girls.

Eventually reaching the house of Baba Yaga’s sister, she agrees to give the girl the reed but tells her to wait while she goes to the bathhouse. While she is away, the group of girls that she befriended with the pins warn her that the old woman intends to kill and eat her. The girl flees with the reed, and when the sister returns and sees her gone, she is furious that her door, dogs, cat, and girls did not stop her. She pursues the girl, but the girl uses the rest of the objects given to her by her husband to create magical obstacles to escape pursuit.

Arriving home with the reed, Baba Yaga is impressed and has a much warmer relationship with her daughter-in-law going forward.

Baba Yaga was sometimes conceived of as three sisters. This explains the similarities between Baba Yaga in some stories and her sisters in others.

Baba Yaga plays an important role in the story of the blind man and the cripple, which is part of a much larger and longer story about the marriage of Prince Ivan and Prince Anna the Fair.

Baba Yaga’s role relates to a blind man and a cripple who met one another in the forest as outcasts. They decided to live together, serving as each other’s eyes and feet. Lonely, they kidnap the daughter of a wealthy merchant and take her to the forest to live with them as a sister. She tends the house for them each day while they hunt in the forest.

After a while, the merchant’s daughter began to lose her beauty. Eventually, under duress, she explains to the men that a woman visits her each day and demands that the girl set her hair while she sucks on her breasts, taking her energy. The men immediately knew that this was Baba Yaga and decided to set a trap for her.

The next day, one man hid under the table and the other outside the window. They told the girl to let Baba Yaga’s hair hang out the window while she was setting it. At the right moment, the blind man secured her by her hair through the window, and the cripple crawled out from under the table and started to strangle Baba Yaga. They decided to kill the witch by burning her, but she pleaded with them to spare her. She said that in exchange, she would take them to a fountain in the forest that could heal all things.

She took them to a fountain, but the men suspected treachery. They threw a piece of wood into the well, and it immediately caught on fire. They threatened to throw Baba Yaga in the water, and she agreed to take them to the proper well. This time when they threw a piece of wood into the water, it immediately started to sprout green and blossom.

The two men were able to heal themselves: the blind man could see, and the cripple could walk. Nevertheless, they still took Baba Yaga back to the flaming font and threw her in, killing her.

The cripple ended up marrying the daughter of the rich merchant and then getting revenge on the woman who had crippled him, Princess Anna the Fair.

Two children, Olga and Sergei, were warned not to play near a group of black geese because they belonged to the witch Baba Yaga. They ignored the warning and Sergei was kidnapped by the geese. Olga chased after them into the deep, dark forest.

While following, a fish on the riverbank called her for help. She stopped to help the fish and in gratitude, it gave her a shell that she could throw over her shoulder if she was ever in trouble. As she continued to follow her brother, she was stopped by a squirrel caught in a trap. She stopped to help the squirrel and it gave her an acorn as a reward. She also stopped to help a mouse get out of a hole, and it gave her a small stone.

Eventually, Olga came to the house of Baba Yaga. She found her brother and they prepared to escape, but the black geese awoke and started to chase them. This caught the attention of Baba Yaga, who also went after the children.

But Olga took out the shell given to her by the fish. She threw it over her shoulder and a mighty lake appeared there, blocking Baba Yaga’s path. But the witch drank all the water and continued to pursue them. Next, Olga threw the acorn, and a forest appeared. Baba Yaga chomped her way through the forest.

Finally, Olga threw the stone over her shoulder, and a mountain appeared. Baba Yaga was so full after drinking the lake and easting the forest that she couldn’t eat the mountain. The children got away and found their way home.