Uncle is busy terrifying the wee ones who come looking for their treats, yanking open the door and screaming like Howard Dean, heYAAAAaaa! I, infinitely more literary ( and boring) am delving into.....no, not Poe, Baba Yaga!!
Do y'all know Baba Yaga ? Not sure when I became a fan of this Russian fairy tale character, but by 10 Years ole, poor Aunty be smitten and frightened. Natcherly, Granny fostered this by buying any reference to her. There was even a time when I realized that she would be a stupendous thesis subject- the Crone who earned her power. Heh.
"Baba Yaga is interesting because, although she is described as a terrifying old witch, she is still wise and powerful; wild, cruel but sometimes also kind. Baba Yaga makes a link between the wise women of early myths and the witches of the folk or fairytales.
"In Slavic myths, Baba Yaga is the wild woman or dark lady of magic and in Russian folklore there are many stories about her.
"These stories may come from people who lived in the forests of northern Russia and Finland many years ago. They had stone statues named Yaga. Russian soldiers who came to the area called them Golden Babas.
Often the statues had their own little huts, built on tree stumps, full of gifts. They were statues of a local goddess that people asked for advice. She also had the power to decide what happened to people, a bit like Baba-Yaga.
The word Baba can mean any woman old enough to marry. In the stories, however, Baba-Yaga is often described as a frightening, wild, old witch with a terrible appetite for eating people. The story of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair is one of the well-known tales and has things in common with other folk tales, such as Cinderella."
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Anyhoo, Baba Yaga lived in a clearing in the forest, in a hut that whirled around on its chicken laigs when she left the premises, flyin' out in her mortar, using the pestle to steer. The fence around the yard be skulls and bones.
Now y'all, the illustrations of Baba Yaga ( some pronounce her name BaBA YaGA) is worth a quick look.
6 comments:
Uh, can I jes' say that the blogger app fer corePad ain't Doin' it for me. I will redo this post on the real computer tomorry.
Might be me next year .. :-)
Hmm, don't have FB. I'll browse other places... sort of curious. I have heard Baba Yaga, but have no memory. I usually research monsters, witches, and such, being a bit of niche of mine. There is something to myth, folktales, and such. I have a belief that such are often, if not always, based on general human evils or specific people, like Dracula/Vlad (if I still believe that was his enemies trashing his legacy on the back of the freedom he gave them in which to do it).
Handing out candy is fun. I had hoped to dress up this year but didn't quite make it. We have so few kids do door to door that I was able to be the king of candy, and let them be picky. I'll have to figure out how to give away the rest of the horde of candy I have.
Foamy!
Definitely next year...ahahaha!!
doom!
ah, yes, Vlad t'weren't ALL bad. BTW, he was a porphyriac, which, suggests where the bloodsucking charge comes from. Youse not something' when ya say thar's usually something' to a myth. Seems to Aunty thar' is too.
(Okay, since you have some ken to my notions, I'll let you know one of my favorites, for many reasons... The tale of Athena. Hammer meet head. No offense, mind you, just a tickle of so many of my funny bones I can't quite get a full picture every time I go there, something new, or a new combination, every time. Intellectually reminds me of eating one of those fantastically horrible sweet and sour candies, the ones that make you drool and your cheeks tickle? A whole mouthful at a time, that. Here is one form of the tale, there are many. I used to collect them.)
Good afternoon Aunty Belle,
"Screaming like Howard Dean" that's enough to traumatize anyone. Unfortunately I can't see the pictures and my firewall doesn't like the link. So let me just wish you and Uncle a Happy Halloween. (belated)
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