Bestiary · Slavic · Witch
Baba Yaga
Also known as: Baba-yaga, Yaga, Yaga-baba, Ježibaba
The witch of Russian tales, who whose hut turns on hen's legs, who flies in an iron mortar and guards the water of healing.
Baba Yaga is the great witch of the Russian tales. Her hut stands and turns on hen's legs; she rushes through the air in an iron mortar, driving it with a pestle and sweeping her tracks away. Like the witches, she boils toads, snakes and lizards in her cauldrons, and in Ukrainian tales she guards the water of healing. Heroes beat her with iron rods and pull her by the tongue with tongs. Afanasyev reads her as the storm-cloud witch: the mortar is the cauldron-cloud, the pestle is the thunder club, and the rods and tongs of the heroes are the lightning.