Recently the Granny series of indie horror games has been very popular. It follows the unnamed protagonist who is captured by a strange, hag-like being called ‘Granny’. The player is locked in Granny’s house and has to solve many puzzles to escape in 5 days without being caught by Granny. The sequels introduce new characters, Grandpa and Slendrina, Granny’s granddaughter.
While not directly inspired by this tale, Granny bears a lot of similarity to the old Slavic myth of Baba Yaga. Linguists have reconstructed the name ‘Baba Yaga’ to mean ‘hag’ or ‘witch’. There are many stories and tales about Baba Yaga, in some of which she sets tasks for the protagonists to do (if they fail, she kills them; otherwise she will help them) and in some where she is a straight-up villain. Her role in Slavic folklore and mythology is ambiguous.
Baba Yaga uses a large magical mortar and pestle to fly through the woods, looking for children. Her house is sentient and moves on chicken legs, and she has a fence made of mounted skulls that have magical eyes that if one looks at them, they will turn into ash. This is all featured in a Russian fairy tale, ‘Vasilisa the Beautiful’.
This is very similar to Cinderella, but with some differences. A merchant’s first wife dies, giving her daughter Vasilisa a magical doll that will help her if she feeds it. The merchant remarries a woman with two daughters. They are all cruel and make Vasilisa do chores (a la Cinderella). Many suitors come to ask her hand in marriage, but her stepmother refuses, claiming that it is improper for the younger siblings to get married before the elder siblings do. Vasilisa’s father leaves for a trip, and her stepmother moves everyone to a small house in the woods where it is rumored Baba Yaga lives. One night, Vasilisa’s stepmother and stepsisters put out all the lights and force Vasilisa to bring light from Baba Yaga’s house.
Vasilisa uses the doll to get to Baba Yaga’s house, where Baba Yaga makes her do chores to get the fire. Baba Yaga goes out, and when Vasilisa is tired, her doll finishes the chores. Baba Yaga comes in and gives Vasilisa a skull with glowing eyesockets as her reward. She warns Vasilisa not to look at it in the eyes till she gets home. Vasilisa gets home and it is revealed that until Vasilisa came back, the stepmother and stepsisters couldn’t light a fire in the house as all lights and fires magically went out as soon as they crossed the threshold. However, they look the skull in the eyes and are reduced to ash. Vasilisa’s father comes back, and she buries the skull.
In the end, she starts working as a clothmaker in Moscow, where she is so skilled that the Tsar himself notices her and marries her.
While Vasilisa’s story has a good ending, we have to notice that Baba Yaga is not a purely evil person. Something that we have to note is that the first clear reference to Baba Yaga is from 1755; In Mikhail Lomonosov’s Russian Grammar, where she appears in a list of Slavic gods where they are compared to their Roman equivalents. However, Baba Yaga is listed without an equivalent, making her unique and mysterious.
Today, Baba Yaga’s legacy has passed down in popular culture, from appearing as a boss in the RPG Dungeons & Dragons to having movies about her to being a nickname for John Wick. And with that, stay tuned for our ‘C’ monster.
Anay Ganesh 