Monstropedia > Mythical Monsters
Monsters of the Slavic Mythology
blow_fly:
Exactly, but to return to the main topic of this thread, I'll be re-posting some of the previous material that both you and leshy contributed.
blow_fly:
Zodiac
Watchers
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Quote from: Zak Roy Yoballa on November 20, 2006, 05:24:07 PM
Baba Yaga:
AKA Jezi Baba:
Baba Yaga is from the Slavic regions and is sometimes viewed as an evil witch or a female demon. She is supposed to travel around flying in a black cauldron or on a freaky animated house that traveled on chicken legs! She would prey upon travelers and other unsuspecting folk with her huge mouth that was reported to stretch to the corners of the earth. Her form was that of an elderly wicked looking woman. As a side note the word 'baba' in Russian is short for grandma.
However, if you happened to catch her while she was in a good mood she would sometimes help travelers find their way home.
Regina Terra
Realized Monster
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The animated house pops up in a lot of legends, it is even pretty popular in modern day fiction. Just look at Howl's Moving Castle.
blow_fly
Moderator
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Some anthropologists have speculated that the Baba Yaga is the demoted version of a once powerful and widely worshipped underworld godess. That would probably explain the ''grand mother'' prefix attached to her name.
leshy
Young Beast
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Well, I just wanted to add to this. Everything said is true. Baba Yaga is from the Slavic regions and is also a very common source of stories throughout Russia. Baba Yaga is usually viewed as evil old witch, although not always. She also takes the form of a youthful woman.
She is known to be helpful to those who are pure of heart and seek her guidance and wisdom, although it is equally true that she is just as likely to make a meal out of you and has even been known to kidnap and eat children.
She flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder. She has a broom made of silver birch which she uses to wipe away her tracks. That the broom itself is made of birch is significant to me as the birch tree symbolizes both mystery and healing, among other things.
She does indeed reside in a cabin which is perched upon chicken legs. Her cabin gets up and moves about at will until a specific incantation is spoken to quiet it down. The keyhole to her front door is actually a mouth that is filled with very sharp teeth and her house is surrounded by a fence made of human bones. Some stories say that a part of the fence is left open for true “heroes” to pass, in other stories her door is invisible unless magical words are spoken to it.
Baba Yaga has three faithful servants:
The White Horseman - The Day
The Red Horseman - The Sun
The Black Horseman - The Night
Of course there are differences from region to region. In the Polish, her cabin stands on only one chicken leg. In the Russian Baba Yaga’s teeth are made from iron, but universally throughout the regions where stories of her are prevalent, she is completely unpredictable and one should always be wary of her!
Regina Terra
Realized Monster
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Are these all tall tales that come from a real person? Or is she just a completely "made up" myth?
leshy
Young Beast
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Traditionally she is portrayed as or perceived to be a goddess of death and regeneration. She is one of the most prevalent figures in Russian fairy tales where she is usually a witch. In the Polish, many of the stories very closely resemble the classic story of Hansel and Gretel.
blow_fly
Moderator
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Do you think that some of the more malovelant and grisly details that surround her are the result of the negative Christian propaganda that would have undoubtedly been unleashed against existing deities during the conversion of the Slavic peoples? Or has she always been a dangerously unpredictable being?
blow_fly:
Mr.Kreepy
Moderator
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Christianity definitely had something to do with it.
Of course, there have always been powerful, unpredictable female figures in the traditional spiritualities of European pagan peoples...So she might not have been a particularly nice figure, but by no means was she a baby-eating witch before Christianity raped the "primitive" tribes with "civilization".
blow_fly
Moderator
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That would make sense. An enigmatic underworld goddess with a wrath that was easily aroused would have fitted nicely into the convetional Christian paradigm pitting God against the Devil and his gruesome minions. A bit of exaggeration here and there and you have the perfect monster to intimidate ''unsaved'' souls with.
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leshy
Young Beast
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Absolutely, I think that the introduction of Christianity had a lot to do with the way that not only Baba Yaga, but all of the Slavic deities were perceived after its introduction. Even Perun, who was a major Slavic god; god of thunder, justice and war, was twisted into the personification of the prophet Elijah of the Bible.
All of the information that I’ve read on the subject thus far has indeed pointed to Baba Yaga being not only wise and helpful, but also cannibalistic, and indeed having iron teeth, or sometimes and iron nose, and still other times a nose that reaches up to the ceiling of her cabin. There are so many different stories about her and many of them do conflict. It is true that the true, original, pagan Baba Yaga was very close to nature, and controlled the elements as well. It is also true, of course and very unfortunately, that when Christianity was introduced throughout the region, Baba Yaga’s persona was twisted to make her nothing but an evil old witch or a demoness.
In the old, pre-Christian stories, she is not all bad. She is known to be not just Death but Renewal, and sometimes she is known as the Water of Life and Death.
When Christianity was introduced as early as the 7th century, many Slavs looked at it as an “addition” to their beliefs, not something to replace it, so on the positive side, all of the old stories pertaining to Baba Yaga still survive to this day.
blow_fly:
leshy
Young Beast
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This thread was started to include Nordic, Germanic and Slavic "Monsters", but there really isn't anything in the way of the Slavic, so I thought I'd start adding them.
Rusalka
The Rusalka are described as being the spirits of either unbaptized children, young women who commit suicide because they’ve been discarded by their lovers, unmarried women pregnant out of wedlock, or virgins who found their death through drowning. Sometimes they are described as being female ghosts, water nymphs, succubi, or mermaid-like demons. In all cases, the Rusalka reside in water.
The Rusalka are usually perceived as being evil, although in some of the cases were they take the form of female ghosts, it stems from young women who die in or near the water before their time and who haunt that particular waterway. They are allowed to die peacefully, but only if their deaths are avenged.
blow_fly:
leshy
Young Beast
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Mora
The Mora is, in ancient Slavic mythology, a malicious spirit and bringer of nightmares. Mora is depicted as being a beautiful woman who visits men in dreams in order to torture them with desire, just to suck the life from them. Men were not the only targets of this evil spirit. The Mora has the ability to send all humans to sleep, and with that sleep, nightmares. She is known to suffocate them and suck their blood, even that of children.
Other forms that the Mora is able to take are a white horse, a white shadow, straw, a leather bag, a white mouse, cat, and a snake.
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