Girls, Goddesses and Giants: Tales of Heroines from Around the World by Don Lari

Author:Don, Lari [Don, Lari]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

Visiting Baba Yaga

Russian folktale

Once upon a time a little girl lived happily with her father, in a cottage on the edge of the forest. But when her father remarried and a new stepmother arrived, the little girl became less happy and more scared.

In real life stepmothers are usually lovely, but this little girl had a good reason to be afraid of her stepmother.

Her stepmother was the sister of Baba Yaga, and Baba Yaga was the most famous, the most feared, the most ferocious witch in the whole Russian forest.

Baba Yaga had iron teeth, sharp and glittering and strong.

Baba Yaga lived in a hut built on a pair of hen’s legs, always bending and shifting and scratching the ground.

Baba Yaga travelled in a mortar and pestle, sitting in the giant bowl and using the long pestle to bounce herself along the ground.

And Baba Yaga ate children for supper.

So the little girl was afraid of her stepmother, because she thought that her stepmother would try to feed her to Baba Yaga.

The little girl was right.

One day, the stepmother said, “I want to do some sewing. Fetch me some pins from my sister in the forest.”

The little girl broke the back off the brooch which held her red shawl together and gave the metal spike to her stepmother. “You can use this as a pin, so I don’t need to go into the forest.”

The stepmother sniffed. “I still need thread. Fetch me some thread from my sister in the forest.”

The little girl found a loose thread on the fringe of her shawl, pulled it out carefully and gave the red thread to her stepmother. “You can sew with this, so I don’t need to go into the forest.”

The stepmother sniffed, then smiled. She bent the pin and dropped the thread on the fire. “Now do as I say. Fetch me pins and thread from my sister in the forest.”

The little girl sighed. She couldn’t keep finding ways to avoid Baba Yaga, she had to go and face her. So the little girl tidied her hair out of her eyes with her polished wooden comb, and put a slice of sausage and a slice of bread in a blue napkin, then walked into the forest.

She walked along the grey gritty path, comb in her hair and picnic in her hand, until she stubbed her toe on a smooth white pebble. She looked at the pebble on the grey path, then looked around. There were no other white pebbles and no white rocks nearby. She smiled. “You look out of place in this forest, just like me.” She put the pebble in her pocket.

She kept walking through the forest, comb in her hair, picnic on her arm, pebble in her pocket.

After a long hungry walk, the little girl saw a wooden hut on two scaly orange legs, scritching and scratching in the dirt. She had reached Baba Yaga’s house.

The little girl clambered up and tried to get in the door. But a dog barked and growled at her.

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