Olga Grădinaru

Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

olgagradinaru@gmail.com

 

 

Myth and Rationality in Russian Popular Fairy Tales

 

 

Abstract: Being a combination of mythological and everyday life details of the Slavic people, the Russian fairy tales surprise the reader with complex characters built on the archaic structures of their society and interesting malefic figures. The mythological background and the historical details that contributed to shaping a malefic character – Baba Yaga – with different functions and states are analyzed by V. I. Propp, opening the perspective upon the relation between mythology and folklore and establishing the basis of structural folklore. Fairy tales motifs related to this malefic character, as well as mythological representations in regard with Slavic traditions and rituals, are one of the major concerns of this essay. There are some possible etymologies mentioned and the main opinions regarding the origin of this malefic figure. One of the most important variant of its origin is analyzed, bringing arguments for its Slavic origin and historical and mythological elements that concern the death cult and pre-Christian customs and rituals. This colorful figure may be seen in its fullness due to various perspectives and historical, ethnographic and anthropological research proposed by Propp, pointing out the ambivalent nature of this underground creature and its various functions in fairy tales with a multitude of states, apparently opposed to each other.

Keywords: Slavic Traditions; Russian folklore; Fairy Tales; Baba Yaga; V. I Propp.

 

 

Chronologically preceded by byliny and myths, Russian popular fairy tales combine both epical and mythological elements, oscillating between myth and rationality. As a result of their continuous evolution, fairy tales succeeded in assimilating various aspects from everyday life and Slavic practices together with mythological aspects, giving birth to peculiar characters, built on the archaic structures of their society (thus, not at random, the main character is the youngest son, who is lazy and stupid and the woman is the one to help him change this status, being superior and possessing magical powers) and to malefic characters with a mythological background, difficult to trace historically, as in the case of Baba Yaga, or with bookish roots, as in the case of Kascei Bessmertnyj.

The problem of mythology correlated with folklore constituted the main preoccupation of some Russian scholars, whose interest was focused on using the fairy tale as means of rebuilding the first myths. They studied myths from a semantic and poetic perspective, considering that folklore has an intermediate role between mythology and art through transformation and development of the semantic paradigms, as it was pointed out by I. M. Tronski, I. G. Frank-Kamenski.

V. I. Propp among those who, oscillating between diachronic and synchronic elements, formulated a new type of research that combined both perspectives, establishing accordingly the basis of the structural folklore. Applied to Russian popular fairy tales, this new paradigm was claimed as suitable for all folk tales. The historical perspective reveals continuity and discontinuity of the fairy tales motifs and of the mythological representations in regard to Slavic customs and rituals. The synchronic perspective was, however, avoided by O. M. Freidenberg, instead highlighting the gnoseologic function of the myth and its social and historical conditioning, similarly to European scholars, as Cassirer and Levy-Bruhl.

The mythological aspects that defined the emergence and formation of a fairy tale character – Baba Yaga – in the Slavic area may be pointed out mainly due to V. I Propp’s ethnographic and anthropological research. Although his perspective is based on overbidding constantly the diachronic and synchronic relation by serving the purpose of explaining a Slavic ancient ritual or tradition as mythological reminiscence, such details complete the picture of Baba Yaga’s course of events, leaving the research field open to other approaches and perspectives.

An outcome of anthropomorphism and powerful reminiscence of the matriarchal conception upon the social world, this colorful character has its origins in the archetype of a totemic animal that brought about prolific hunting for the Slavic pre-Christian society, being the master of the entire woodland and a holdover of the popular demonology. As an underground figure, Baba Yaga becomes, following the process of Christianizing of the Slavic people, a simple fairy tale character with multiple roles, functions and characteristics. Although she is a reminder of the popular demonology before the Slavic Christianization, belonging to the underground deities (aspect that is obvious due to the physical appearance described in fairy tales), this character has many roles, in Propp’s perspective, among which, paradoxically, the unexpected one of helping the main character. This status gives Baba Yaga the wisdom and the necessary information about the other world, possessing the power of initiating the characters for their journey to the other world and gaining a supporting role in the process.

Most of the researchers try to establish the possible etymologies for the term “Yaga”, along with the origins of such a complex character with older roots than in the case of the masculine malefic figure of the Russian fairy tales, Kascei Bessmertnyj (the Immortal). There are many assumptions that try to present the character’s origin, but the majority highlights the classic Slavic origin of Baba Yaga. Among the multitude of possible etymologies we mention the following: Yama – God of death for some people; ahi from Sanskrit – “snake”; Baba – “the main woman in many cultures, the mother of the living people”; jaga from Arian – “fire” (in Slavic there was a verb jagat` that meant the shout in which all the energy of the hunters and women that were giving birth was concentrated); yagya in the old Indian – “sacrifice”; aga in Asian countries is the reverent calling for the elders and akka in Finnish means “old”.

Baba Yaga has correspondents in popular fairy tales of other nations, being the same mistress of the woods, flora and fauna, mistress of female crafts (this is to be mentioned in some Russian fairy tales, as Baba Yaga has the needle, scissors or spindle after which the step daughter or daughter in law is sent to find death), holder of fire (the girl is sent away by step sisters or step mother to bring fire into the hearth), she holds and offers magical objects to help the main character find and rescue his beloved one, Baba Yaga is the mistress of three riders and their horses (representing the morning, day and night) and the mistress of wonder horses for Kascei and Ivan Tsarevich (aspect that is to be found in the Romanian fairy tales as well).

The ambivalent nature of Baba Yaga combines the image of the mistress of the woods and the figure of the malefic being with a zoomorphic home (izba – on hen clutches), preparing its prisoners in the hot oven – an image with obvious echoes of her function as initiator of adolescents in the adult life. The ambivalent character may be explained through other Slavic myths and customs, such is the case of kidnapping children by Baba Yaga’s helpers – geese or swans, and what follows may be interpreted as a cannibalistic act or a healing ritual of sick children, a Slavic custom. The oven was warmed up (probably by an old woman with the fame of healer), the child was covered in leaven, put on the shovel and then in the oven, got out of the oven and uncovered, the leaven being thrown away to the dogs. It was believed that this healing custom contributed to regaining the health of the child. Seen from this point of view, Baba Yaga’s role is one of a healer, role that was forgotten, as the custom was itself forgotten or replaced by another one. These actions told in fairy tales remain with no initial meaning, a fact that contributed to the transformation of this fairy tale character into a malefic one.

Another version of Baba Yaga’s origin features the idea of the direct Siberian character influence from the tales told by Russian soldiers that spent some time there. The argument for this hypothesis is the mention of the character in texts from 1588[1] and the fact that “yaga” has a morphologic explanation, as a coat with a big collar with fur[2], also known in the diminutive “yagushka” (a coat for women with a narrow collar, serving for walking and traveling)[3].

Adepts of the Slavic origin of Baba Yaga invoke legends about travelling to world beyond, or into the “thirtieth kingdom” (tridesjatoe tsarstvo), legends in which Baba Yaga, positioned at the border between the two worlds, the living and dead, serves as initiator of the main character, allowing him/her to enter the world of the dead by fulfilling some specific rituals. Another version of the “old woman” prototype from the fairy tales may be considered the tradition of elevating some special dolls (kukly-ittarmy) dressed in fur coats on the cult izba or alongside the deceased with the same protecting role. An important aspect of the Slavic origin of the character is its belonging to both worlds at the same time – the dead and the living ones, so that the izba on the hen clutches is situated either at the centre of the forest, or at its border, facing the woods, the dead world.

This particularity of wooden izba on hen clutches seems to possess a series of explanations, among which the historical one that elucidates the syntagm kur`ih nojkakh through the transformation from kurnye, meaning “pole” or “stock of burned trees” on which Slavic men set the “death izba” with a vase in it, containing the ashes of the dead person (such a custom was specific in the VI-IX centuries) for a period of time, until the moment the deceased found his or her way to the other world. Some izbas contained products of any type in order to serve the dead for the journey, aspect that seems to be present in fairy tales due to the abundance of food in Baba Yaga’s izba, she herself being a sort of “living dead”, without moving in izba, without seeing anyone from the living world and knowing about a specific presence due to her sense of smell – “it smells like Russian spirit”. Izba could be surrounded by a fence, with human skulls adorned with torches, and a horrifying gate[4] that pointed out the entrance into a realm at the border of life.

The newcomer received initiation in the other world by means of bathing, feeding with special food (spiritless and used to this kind of food) and then counseled for his long journey. Another rite of passage of the main character was being eaten by Baba Yaga. The character would be introduced in the stove, on a shovel, consequently gaining special capacities and getting ready to face dangers and troubles in order to win back his fiancé, wife or to become tsar.

By virtue of folk tales we can reconstruct the meaning of Slavic rituals and traditions, and Baba Yaga proves a great source of discovering Slavic practices and the sense of some actions of the main hero. Propp, who researched into Baba Yaga’s image, interested in the underlying ethnographic and mythological material, supports the idea that every fairy tale or motif has a myth at its origin. He mentions the fact that the entire ritual for the main hero is for entering the other world[5] – the bath, taking off the soul through bathing, hitting with the special broom, washing away the “Russian spirit”, the essence of humanity, dispiriting thus the hero and then serving him the food not allowed to the living ones. All these steps are followed by a discussion with Baba Yaga, using her specific language in order to gain all the necessary information to rescue his beloved woman. The incapacity of communication between this guardian at the border of the two worlds and the main character is due to the ontological barrier and continued through the linguistic one. Baba Yaga recognizes human presence through the olfactory sense and the hero doesn’t talk to her until the entire initiating process is finished and he is asked about his trouble. The fact that Baba Yaga starts the conversation makes possible the entire acquainting with the “trouble”. There is another aspect that is worth being mentioned – Baba Yaga is not the one to take care of the hero’s coming back to the living ones with his beloved woman and this is an aspect that is not necessarily mentioned in fairy tales, as it is not relevant in the economy of the narrative structures[6].

A Slavic Goddess of Death, Baba Yaga belongs to the single-footed deities, given the case, a golden, silver or bone one (foot of a dead or of a skeleton – attribute of death) that hides the origin of the goddess. The anthropomorphic process[7] consists in the initial image of a snake, then a humanoid being with a snake tail (the image of death), slithering on the ground (transformation resembling the Scythian deities half woman, half snake or Chinese deities, as Fusi and Njiuva), deity with a single foot in the pre-Christian era as Slavic deity of death, hobbling (as the Slavic God of storm, Perun, whose image was initially a snake, resembling the storm; the Indian God Indra that was drawn sometimes as a hobbling goat[8] or a goat with a single foot. In the same range we can categorize the devils from the Byelorussian mythology that are hobbling), then the flawed one-legged deity and the final stage, the deity with two legs presenting explicit mythological details regarding its origin as a snake. Thus, from the zoomorphic period, the Slavic deity underwent some changes that are present in various images and in illustrations of the fairy tales: moving in the walk mill on the ground (walk mill as a reminiscence of the coffin, being actually half of a coffin), sweeping away the traces, and finally, flying in the walk mill and keeping the broom as a decorative object. The last transformation marks the liberation of the supernatural forces associated with the mythological past of the Goddess of death and investing her with new characteristics specific to fairy tales.

It is significant to underline Propp’s[9] noting the different manners in which the historic reality presents itself (customs and rituals as religious expressions), reality which lays behind gestures or actions undertook in fairy tales; there are different types of interactions or correspondences – direct, approximate, by deformation of the historic reality (the re-use of the ritual in the fairytale with a likewise role, though on a different background, makes it difficult to distinguish the origin)[10], the transformation of the essence, of the purpose of the ritual (from a sacred one at the beginning – like the sacrifice of a young girl in order to assure a productive year – to the denial of the ritual through the rescue of the young girl by the main character as an effect of the non-usage of the ritual). In some cases, the details of certain activities in fairytales have been the main source for establishing customs and rituals unknown to ethnographers and folklorists. Even the detail of covering the traces of Baba Yaga has its origins in the practices of Slavic people, when they were accompanying the dead on his last journey by covering or cancelling the traces of slides or carts. The purpose of this practice was to hide the way linking the world of the dead with the living one so that the deceased could not find his way back and could not disturb his relatives or friends. In this sense, we could conclude that, independently from the real origin of the character in the fairytales, all his attributes and characteristics, underline the character’s link with the after-world, with the space “over thirty seas and thirty countries”, from the “thirtieth reign”, where Ivan’s fiancé or the runway wife was kidnapped or lost.

The detail of the overflowing hair of Baba Yaga might have its correspondence in the fact that Slavic women had their hair loose when they were buried. The long untidy would not allow her to see the living ones and that is why she is guided by the smell (reminiscence from the zoomorphic stage necessary to determine the presence of living in her universe). The curved nose of the character seems to be just a funny detail with no symbolic or historic correspondence, explained only by the tight space of the izba which contributed to its formation.

Baba Yaga is seen in fairy tales lied down in izba occupying the entire space, yet not due to her dimensions, but to the reduced dimensions of the izba: „in front, the head, in a corner a leg, and in the other corner, the other leg”; „on the oven lies Baba Yaga with a bone leg and the nose out of the ceiling”; these are details which strengthen the hypothesis according to which Baba Yaga is a corpse with animal reminiscence[11], representative of the after-world[12].

Propp’s model of the fairy tale subject syntax emphasises the importance of the character’s activity under the aspect of its functions, by reducing the fairy tale as a genre to the designation of the myth or ritual which lays at the basis of the fairy tale by pleading for its schematic, explicative role, contributing, nevertheless, to the revelation of some important mythical and ritualistic aspects.

In the next lines we will illustrate the functions and the states of Baba Yaga from the structural folkloristic point of view, also by bringing examples from folk tales. Propp mentions that the most difficult character to be analyzed is, indeed, Baba Yaga, given the fact that the details from many fairy tales do not create a unit, but they are presenting different aspects, mainly due to different functions covered by the character in fairy tales: „the giver” (yaga-daritel’nitsa) to whom the main hero comes on his wonder horse or other aids on his way; „the one who abducts children” by trying to put them into the oven (yaga-pohititel’nitsa) and „the one who acts”, by injuring the hero (yaga-voitel’nitsa). Davydov[13] mentions several types of Baba Yaga characters: the adviser (yaga-sovetchitsa) (usually she sends the ones in need of advice to her older sister[14]), „the one who gives orders” (yaga-povelitel’nitsa) by holding the power over the nature and the animals; the hero’s protector (yaga-pokrovitel’nitsa), by following his moves and helping him with the owl, the plate or other charmed objects. Yaga has a large number of daughters or nieces (yaga-praroditel’nitsa). It is important to underline the fact that in the fairytales where both Baba Yaga and Kascei the Immortal[15] appear, Baba Yaga has the role of protector and helps through the gifts she offers, while Kascei is the one who kidnaps the fiancé or the mother and fights with the hero.

Sometimes Baba Yaga is replaced by other characters who take over her functions: Jagishna, the witch, the old lady, the good old lady, and sometimes she is even replaced by analogue-masculine characters like: the witch man, Leshyi, Morozko, Idolisce or „the old man small like a nail, with ell beard”.

As a „helper” or „giver”, Baba Yaga receives her hero in the izba; she finds him due to the smell of the living, although her exclamation seems to be related to the nationality: „Fu, fu, I smell Russian spirit”, she washes him of the human smell by beating and bathing him, according to the Russian custom, with special bath brooms, taking away his soul, dispiriting him, making him alike with the dead, making him impossible to be identified by his enemies, especially by Kascei who kidnapped his fiancé. Baba Yaga feeds the hero with special food from the other world. In this way, he becomes co-substantial with her, like her. She is taking him to sleep with her, covering him like a dead man and after that, talking to him and offering him advice and magic aids for Ivan’s journey. These are usually the actions of Baba Yaga in her capacity as „adviser” and „giver”, but in the great majority of cases the teller omits certain details, like the bath, the food and other aspects, by passing directly to the discussion between the two – the hero talks about his problem and the old lady offers her help and advice; the tone in which the old lady speaks, gives the impression of a kind being, the correspondent of a fairy.

The two aspects of Baba Yaga cannot be unified – the one who kidnaps and fights Ivan, and the one who initiates the hero and gives him advice – we can thus only conclude that the two states bear the same name as a consequence of a probable confusion and concentration of functions taken from the shaman history of initiating rituals and from mythological Christian reminiscence. Nevertheless, Propp[16] calls attention to the fact that the circulation of motifs, like those in the fairytales, which developed to the present day, seem to date from the period of the replacement of certain conceptions, customs and rituals (which had at their center the forest and the shamanic rituals with an agricultural background which tended to demonize the forest, the matriarchal order, the shamanic practices). This is an aspect which unifies somehow the disparate roles, comical-grotesques and apparently opposed, attributed to Baba Yaga.

Even if both Baba Yaga and Kascei the Immortal are malevolent characters, they do not share functions in the same narrative. Only one of them appears in the fairy tale as the negative character who launches the action, who unbalances the state of things, usually by kidnapping the fiancé, the mother, the children, the little brothers, in Baba Yaga’s case. However, there are complex fairy tales, such as Oron, the faithful[17], in which Baba Yaga and Kascei seem to share the same malefic functions. In this fairy tale the role of helper, adviser, defender is played by the loyal friend; the two – Ivan and Oron – are invincible in the conflict with Kascei and Baba Yaga, saving themselves from death. Anyway, such complicated fairy tales are rather limited. The schemes and the complicated functions attributed to more than one negative character are the result of a fusion between two older fairy tales where the role of the loyal friend is of secondary importance, amplified only as a result of the dimension of the malefic and the impotence of the hero to face the danger without the „adviser” or the „giver”. We can observe the presence of more aspects specific to Baba Yaga, like yaga-praroditel’nitsa, mother of two daughters, yaga-voitel’nitsa, struggling to kill the hero and yaga-povelitel’nitsa who rules over the vegetal and animal world, having as servants snakes, but also rules over the human world through the terrific menaces to transform whomever would dare to prevent or to protect Ivan regarding the peril in her Reign.

Regarding the role of „giver” mentioned by Propp as an important function in the scheme of the development of Russian fairy tales, this role is played not only by Baba Yaga in her sympathetic position, but also by other helpers or donors, like the deceased mother or father, the animals, the released prisoners, the debtors or those condemned to death and saved by the hero. Not only the characters having different functions are important (these can be easily replaced by others in the scheme of fairy tale conception), but the function in se is crucial because the fairy tale is not complete without it and it is deprived of its beauty and wholeness. This fact sustains the idea that we will not meet divergent functions attributed to the same character in the same fairy tale, be that the case of Baba Yaga with her multiple states, or of another character of malefic origin.

The mythological elements, combined with elements of the daily Slavic life, contribute to the coming full circle of the trajectory, adding the element of matriarchal resonance of a matriarchal society, highlighting the apparent contradictions in the constitution and the diversity of the attributes of the Baba Yaga character. The linguistic aspects of the character help analyze its ontological status, and also the functions the character plays in Russian popular fairy tales. Even outbidding Propp’s perspective on the character’s evolution, our analysis is meant to reveal the relation mythos-logos in Russian fairy tales regarding the cultural substratum and the fairy attributes of the Baba Yaga character.

 

 

Works Cited

Abrudan, Elena, Mit şi semnificaţie în proza rusă, Cluj-Napoca, Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, 2004

Afanasiev, A. N., Russkie narodnye skazki în 3 volume, Moskva, Nauka, 1984-1985

Dal’, V. I., Tolkovyj slovar’, tom 4, pag. 672, Moskva, Russkij iazyk, 1982

Danilov, Ilie, Dicţionar de mitologie slavă, pag. 185- 187, Iaşi, Polirom, 2007

Davydov, I. P., Banja u Baby Yagi, Vestnik Moskovsogo Universiteta, Filosofija, 2001, N6

Ivanov, V. I., Toporov, V. N., Slovar’ slavjanskoi mifologii în 2 volume, Moskva, 1982

Lauşnin, K. D., Fol’klor i etnografia, Institut etnografii im. N. N. Mikluho-Maklaja; Nauka, Leningradskoe otdelenie, SSSR, 1970

Propp, V. I., Istoriceskie korni volshebnoj skazki, Moskva, Labirint, 1998

Propp, V. I., Morfologia skazki, Leningrad, Academia, 1928

 

 

Notes