Where does Baba Yaga live: a fairy tale, a myth and a reality

Where does Baba Yaga live - an original and versatile character of many folk tales? Both children and adults will immediately answer - in the hut at the notorious "chicken legs". And what else do we know about this image in general?

This old sorcerer storytellers describe in different ways. She is a hunchbacked old woman with a long hooked nose, shaggy long hair and addictions to human meat. That just a good sorceress, helping Ivanushka out of the woods, advising how to fight evil, and all of her "Fu, fu, Russian spirit smells" - nothing more than an attempt to frighten a brave man. But, like in any fairy tale, this character has its own prehistory. And its root is in mythology.

What kind of names did not the old woman have in Slavic mythology! She was called Baba Yagya, Yagabiha, Yagishna, Yagaya Baba ... But she was not always a witch living in a dense forest. Once Baba Yaga was considered a true deity among the Slavic peoples. According to legends, she was the keeper of the hearth, cared for the welfare of the whole family, protected children from evil eye and misfortunes, continued and carefully preserved traditions. True, there was also the reverse side of the legend: the old woman was attributed power over all the vortices and snow storms. It was said that she was half woman, half-snake, and guarded the door to the realm of the dead, escorting her to the immortal souls of the deceased. People believed and knew: Baba Yaga is able to successfully pretend to be the most ordinary woman, to live among people in the village, to keep housekeeping, to look after cattle. Often a mistress was considered a witch, who was doing things very well - they said that without evil forces there could not have been.

The place where Baba Yaga lives in children's fairy tales is a dense forest, which always engendered an unconscious fear in people, as it also reminded a peculiar border between the worlds - now living people and the kingdom of the dead. Even the hut of a fairy-tale old woman, as a rule, does not stand in the most often, but on the edge: it does not seem to apply to either one or the other.

The origin of the phrase "on chicken legs" is interesting. In cartoons they are often painted with chicken. But, most likely, kuryi - means "fumigated with smoke." In ancient times, the Slavs had a funeral rite, when they put the hut in which the body of the deceased was placed on the carved posts. And these pillars by tradition were fumigated with smoke.

Another attribute of Baba Yaga is a bone leg. That's why there are suggestions that the old woman is one-legged. After all, in all fairy tales about Baba Yaga, this part of the body is always mentioned only in the only one (the bone leg is one). This attribute of death, again, can be compared to the foot of a skeleton, that is, an inanimate being.

But let's move from myths to reality. Did you know that today there is a direct and concrete answer to the question "Where does Baba Yaga live?" Recently, this famous character has his own homeland. In Pervomaisky district of the Yaroslavl region there is a small village of Kukoboy, and in it an official museum of Baba Yaga and other fairy-tale heroes is opened . There is a famous hut on chicken legs, a tea room where you can taste delicious pies from the hands of a fairy old woman, many different entertainments for adults and children. Few people leave here without buying fairy-tale souvenirs and not being photographed for memory with Yaga herself.

Not only children, but also adults sometimes want to plunge into a fairy tale. And they ask themselves: where does Baba Yaga live? You can boast of your erudition, because now you can give an exhaustive answer to it!