"The Tale About Baba-Yaga" () is a Russian fairy tale published in a late 18th-century compilation of fairy tales. Variants from oral tradition have been collected in the 19th and 20th centuries from Russian-language and Finno-Ugric speaking tellers. The tale features the witch Baba Yaga as the antagonist of the tale, as she assumes the role of a mother-in-law that viciously hounds her daughter-in-law, the heroine.
Source According to literary researcher B. I. Chernyshev, the tale was part of a late 18th century book of tales compiled by P. A. Efremov.
Summary In a distant kingdom, a wise woman named Baba Yaga, bony-legged, has an only son of virtuous character. He marries a human girl. She begins to despise her daughter-in-law and plots to kill her someway or another.
While her son is away, Baba Yaga begs with false kindness for the girl to go to the woods and milk her cows. The girl walks toward the cow pen, but her husband intercepts her in time, and reveals that the "cows" are, in fact, bears that will kill her. Baba Yaga's son then suggests she milks some mares and gives it to Baba Yaga.
The next day, Baba Yaga asks the girl to shear her sheep in the woods. Her husband appears again and tells her that the "sheep" are wolves that will tear her to pieces, so he teaches her a magic command. The girl climbs up a tree, chants the magical command and the wolves shear themselves.
Seeing the girl's newfound success, Baba Yaga then sends her to Baba Yaga's sister with a request for a reed for weaving. The girl meets her husband, who gives her oil, lard, needles and pins, as well as a comb, a tablecloth, a brush and a ring. The girl begins her journey: she oils the hinges of a door; gives pieces of ham to two dogs; gives lard to a cat and needles and pins to a group of girls. The human girl asks Baba Yaga's sister for the reed. Baba Yaga's sister lets her have the reed, while she goes to prepare the bathhouse.
The group of girls warn the human that the witch is planning to devour her, so she must take the reed and escape. The human takes the reed and flees from the house. Baba Yaga's sister enters the house and, noticing the girl's absence, complains that the female servants, the cat, the dogs and door have not stopped her, and flies away on her mortar behind her.
Realizing that she is being pursued by the witch, the human girl throws behind herself the comb, the tablecloth, the brush and the ring to create magic obstacles to hinder the pursuit: the comb becomes a dense forest, the tablecloth a river, the brush a steep mountain and the ring a brickwall. Baba-Yaga's sister manages to traverse the first three obstacles, but is finally deterred by the last barrier, and leaves the girl be. The human girl returns home and delivers the reed to Baba Yaga, who warms up to her daughter-in-law."Старая погудка на новый лад: Русская сказка в изданиях конца XVIII века". Б-ка Рос. акад. наук. Saint Petersburg: Тропа Троянова, 2003. pp. 124-127. Полное собрание русских сказок; Т. 8. Ранние собрания.
Analysis Tale type Russian scholarship classifies the tale as type SUS 428, "Девушка на службе у ведьмы" ("The Girl in the Witch's Service"Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc. 2010. p. 212. . or "A girl serving a Witch"),"Русские сказки Сибири и Дальнего Востока: Волшебные. О животных". Сост. Р.П. Матвеева, Т.Г. Леонова. Новосибирск: ВО «Наука». Сибирская издательская фирма, 1993. p. 344. . of the East Slavic Folktale Classification ()."Старая погудка на новый лад: Русская сказка в изданиях конца XVIII века". Б-ка Рос. акад. наук. Saint Petersburg: Тропа Троянова, 2003. p. 354. Полное собрание русских сказок; Т. 8. Ранние собрания. According to scholar Andreas John and Russian folklorist , in the East Slavic type, the heroine's mother-in-law (sometimes identified as witch Baba Yaga) sends her on dangerous tasks in order to get rid of her, but, with her husband's advice, she prevails: with the witch's son's advice, she milks cows (bears), shears sheep (devils), and pays a visit to a second witch in the other world by treating the objects with kindness.Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc. 2010. pp. 130, 214. .
Variants The East Slavic Folktale Catalogue, last updated by Russian folklorist in 1979, registers 12 variants.Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 133. Karelian and Russian scholarship agree that the paucity of registers indicates the "rarity" of this tale type."Русские сказки Сибири и Дальнего Востока: Волшебные. О животных". Сост. Р.П. Матвеева, Т.Г. Леонова. Новосибирск: ВО «Наука». Сибирская издательская фирма, 1993. p. 291. .
Russia The Daughter-in-Law Russian folklorist published a Russian tale titled "Сноха" ("The Daughter-in-Law"). In this tale, a couple have a son. Their son marries a girl and the youth's mother sends the daughter-in-law to shear the sheep (actually, bears), then to milk the cows (who are wolves), and finally to her own sister to get a reed for weaving. After the girl goes to her mother-in-law's sister's house, she spits at the four corners of the room, while the witch is sharpening her teeth. She seizes the opportunity to give the cat a piece of butter and the dog a piece of meat, guide a deer into the pen, and sprinkle water on a door and close it. The girl takes the reed and flees - the tale ends.Khudi︠a︡kov, Ivan Aleksandrovich. "Великорусскія сказки" [Tales of Great Russia]. Vol. 2. Saint Petersburg: 1861. pp. 80-81. Accessed 31 Aug. 2024.
Cow-Bears, Wolf-Sheep, and Baba Yaga Ethnographer Dmitry Zelenin collected a tale from Vyatka Governorate which he titled "Коровы-медвѣди, волки-овцы и баба Яга" ("Cow-Bears, Wolf-Sheep, and Baba Yaga"). In this tale, after a maiden marries, her mother-in-law orders her to milk her cows, but she cannot seem to find the herd. An old woman appears to warn the maiden the cows are bears, and advises her to climb an oak tree, throw them bread and let them milk themselves. Next, the mother-in-law orders her to shear their sheep. The same old woman warns the sheep are in fact wolves, and advises her again. The third task is to fetch clay from the seashore: advised by the same old woman, the maiden asks the help of a nest of ravens and magpies. Lastly, the maiden is to go to her aunt-in-law, Baba Yaga's house and ask for weaving supplies. On the way there, the maiden ties a ribbon around a birch tree, feeds geese and chickens with peas, smears the hinge of a door with butter and gives bread to a dog and a cat. Baba Yaga welcomes her, goes to another room to sharpen her teeth, and invites the maiden to spend the night, because the witch plans to eat her. However, on three consecutive nights, the maiden trades places with a daughter of Baba Yaga, and avoids being devoured, instead letting one of her daughters being eaten in her place. After the three nights, the cat gives her the weaving supplies and tricks its mistress Baba Yaga, allowing the girl to escape. The maiden returns home and finds that her husband is marrying another woman. At the end of the tale, the maiden is carrying a pot of hot water, and the second bride asks her about it. The maiden's husband shoves the second bride through a window and remains with his first wife.
Velvet Prince In a Russian tale from White Sea teller with the title "Бархат чаревич" ("Velvet Prince"), a rich merchant has three daughters. One day, when the man goes to buy goods, the elder daughters ask for clothes or scarves, and the youngest, named Vasilista requests a bed with four doves. The first time, the merchant cannot find the bed and returns home empty-handed. The next time, his youngest daughter repeats her request and the man goes to another city on another trip. After he buys presents for his elder daughters, he goes to look for the bed with four doves, and reaches a hut outside a city. The merchant asks its occupants, an old man and an old woman, where he can find such a bed, and the old man says it is his bed. He sells the bed for two thousand, and tells the man to feed the doves at all times. The merchant returns home and gives his daughter, Vasilista, the bed. She enjoys her gift for nearly a year, and, one such time, forgets to feed two of the doves. The birds then tell her that, if they are not fed, they will fly and take her to Barkhat Tsarevich (Velvet Prince), but the other two doves refuse to do so. The next time, Vasilista does not feed any of the birds, and they take flight, carrying the girl to the Velvet Prince. The Velvet Prince falls in love with her, but she make a vow of silence for three years. The story then explains the Velvet Prince's mother is a terrible witch, Yaga-Baba. She despises her daughter-in-law, since she does not utter a word, and decides to get rid of her by setting deadly tasks. One day, she sends for her and tells her to shear their sheep and bring their wool. After she leaves the house, Velvet Prince intercepts her and warns her to go to the woods, leave the shears on the ground, climb on a stump and utter a spell for the stump to rise out of the ground; soon, forty wolves will come, and she is to command them to shear themselves on the shears and scissors; after the task is done, she can utter another spell to lower the stump back to the forest floor. It happens thus, and Vasilista fulfills the task. Next time, Yaga-Baba orders her to go milk their cows. Once again, the Velvet Prince advises his wife: the cows are not cows, but bears that will kill her, so she is to let the sieve on the floor, summon the cows with a spell, then climb on the stump and chant the same spell as before for the stump to rise and leave her out of danger. It happens thus: as soon as the bears appear, Vasilista rises the stump with a spell and waits until the task is done for her. She then delivers the milk to her mother-in-law, who asks how the girl managed to do it, but gets no answer. On the third year, the woman orders Vasilista to go to a cabin in the woods to check on a pot of cabbage soup, and to turn down the fire. However, this is a trap, since the soup will scald her, some dogs will tear her to pieces, and the gates will creak and smash her. Velvet Prince intercepts his wife before she leaves and warns her: he gives her some lard, some bread and some salt, and tells her to give the bread to the dogs, cross the gates, give some lard to a cat by the stove, and sprinkle some salt on the cabbage soup, minding the drops of the boiling broth. Vasilista follows his instructions to the letter: gives the bread to pacify the dogs, smears the gates with some lard, gives the lard to the cat and seasons the soup with the salt, then makes the way back in safety. When the girl arrives, her mother-in-law is furious with her success and makes the same path she did, this time to admonish the guardians, but the dogs, the gates, the cat and the soup reply the girl was nice to them, unlike their mistress, who mistreated them. On saying this, the soup boils up and burns the witch's eyes, the cat attacks her, she tries to make a run for the gates, but they crush her, and the dogs finish the job. Velvet Prince comments that the witch is dead, and now everything belongs to them. Thus, Vasilista and the Velvet Prince live to old age and with the witch's spells and properties."Сказки Карельского Беломорья". Тom 1. Кн. 2. Сказки М.М. Коргуева. 1939. pp. 248-252 (text for tale nr. 43), 597 (summary), 617 (classification).
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