This book chronicles the journey of the feared Russian folklore character Baba Yaga. The vividly described characters stoke the reader’s imagination as the writer brings to life cold and oppressed creatures struggling for freedom.
Beyond the thrice-nine lands, in the thrice-ten kingdom their lives Baba-Yaga, a witch. Her house stands in a forest beyond the Flaming River.
According the Russian lore, Baba Yaga is an ugly, old woman, who lives in a hut that stands on chicken’s feet in the middle of the forest, and who flies around the skies by means of a pestle and mortar. She captures small children, tricks young maidens, and kills just about anyone who crosses her path. This witch of Russian fairy stories is familiar to every person in the land, and her fame has spread to Europe and now to America.
Traveling through Yugoslavia I wanted to understand the people and the culture I was surrounded by. How better than to read the fairy tales that parents tell their children. In America we have the boogey man that parents tell their children will kidnap them if they are not good, in the Russian country side, Baba Yaga is the feared demon Russian parents use as a way of frightening small children who are misbehaving.