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Author
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Comment
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artsfan
Unregistered User
(2/26/03 10:19:15 am)
| Baba Yaga
Does anyone know the original tale of BABA YAGA?
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Helen
Registered User
(2/26/03 11:07:44 am)
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Specifically?
Well, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a *specific* original tale of Baba Yaga ... her origins are wreathed in mystery. Russian fairy tales were first collected in the late 18th and 19th centuries, after percolating for however long in the collective unconscious of the oral tradition. Most of the characters that are thought of as belonging to Russian tradition - Baba Yaga, Koschie the Deathless, etc. - were already fully formed individuals associated with certain tale types and characteristics. There are a number of tales in which Baba Yaga plays a key role (either as a helper or as a villain, but always as part of another characters quest - never, insofar as I know, is there a tale in which she is the primary figure). Did you have one of those in mind? There are a few really good works/collections out there on the topic of Russian myth that reference Baba Yaga that I would highly recommend:
Guterman, Norman. Russian Fairy Tales, Collected by Alexander Afanasyev, Pantheon Books, New York, 1973.
Haney, Jack. An Introduction to the Russian Folktale, M.E. Sharpe, London, 1999.
Haney, Jack. Russian Wondertales II: Tales of Magic and the Supernatural. M.E. Sharpe, New York, 2001.
Ivanits, Linda J.. Russian Folk Belief. M.E. Sharpe, New York, 1992
Nikolajeva, Maria. "Afanasyev, Alexander." The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes, Oxford Unioversity Press, Oxford, 2000.
Propp, Vladimir. Morphology of the Folktale, trans. Laurence Scott, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1994.
... I have some others floating around here: I'll poke around to find them, or, if you run a search, I believe that there was a previous thread on Baba Yaga that might be helpful. Good luck!
Best,
Helen
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artsfan
Unregistered User
(2/27/03 10:44:12 am)
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BABA>>>>
Actually, I believe that Baba Yaga is in the story called"
Boney Legs" in which she lives in a hut on chicken legs. I
was referring to that story.
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(2/27/03 10:48:32 am)
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Many not one
The story "Boney Legs" is a modern retelling of one of the many Baba Yaga tales. You can find some of them in the big collection put together by Guterman cited above.
I have two original Baba Yaga stories--one a short story called "Boris Chernevsky's Hands" and the other, coming out this fall, a children's picture book called "The Flying Witch."
Jane Yolen
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