Baba Yaga

[Fata Morgana]

Never trust a toothless old woman with chicken feet.

 

[lovetoread]

The nom nom nom gets tiresome after a while

 

[Fata Morgana]

Actually I read a cracking book about Baba Yaga recently. Rosa and the Veil of Gold. Got Baba Yaga Lays An Egg on my to read pile. Russian folklore is lovely.

 

[pink]

You've found me out.

 

[Equinoxe]

Of the spate of parody threads this morning, this is by far my favourite.

Russian folklore is lovely; it has a unique feel about it (though, really, I suppose other Slavic folklore feels similarly).

 

[gravyrug]

A sweet little old lady who's misunderstood.

 

[Fata Morgana]

Of the spate of parody threads this morning, this is by far my favourite.

Russian folklore is lovely; it has a unique feel about it (though, really, I suppose other Slavic folklore feels similarly).

I agree. Have you read Deathless by Cathryne Valente? It's beautiful. I'm sure ole Chicken Feet crops up in there somewhere too.

 

[Equinoxe]

I agree. Have you read Deathless by Cathryne Valente? It's beautiful. I'm sure ole Chicken Feet crops up in there somewhere too.

I have not read it, though I have heard of it before and seem to recall thinking it might be interesting; I shall have to remember to read it sometime.


This has nothing to do with Baba Yaga, but it's Russian and I was thinking about it for some reason, so I am going to recommend this short animated film to everyone.

 

[Fata Morgana]

I have not read it, though I have heard of it before and seem to recall thinking it might be interesting; I shall have to remember to read it sometime.


This has nothing to do with Baba Yaga, but it's Russian and I was thinking about it for some reason, so I am going to recommend this short animated film to everyone.

Oh yes I love that. Watched it many times. I love the white horse in it. Truly magical.

 

[spacekowboy]

I know nothing of what is going on in this thread. I'm just here for the pretty mouth.


Now squeal like a pig!

 

[cjh]

I thought her hut had chicken feet.

When I was little, an aunt gave me a subscription to a children's magazine that regularly featured Baba Yaga stories. Creeped me the fuck out.

 

[Fata Morgana]

I thought her hut had chicken feet.

When I was little, an aunt gave me a subscription to a children's magazine that regularly featured Baba Yaga stories. Creeped me the fuck out.

Her hut definitely had chicken feet. I thought she did too but I've probably got that wrong. Did she fly around in a pestle & mortar too?

 

[Fata Morgana]

I know nothing of what is going on in this thread. I'm just here for the pretty mouth.


Now squeal like a pig!

You're an animal.

 

[cjh]

Her hut definitely had chicken feet. I thought she did too but I've probably got that wrong. Did she fly around in a pestle & mortar too?

Been too long ago for me to recall.

I do remember, though, that the nothing I read in the bowlderized Brothers Grimm unnerved me the way that chicken-legged hut did.

 

[spacekowboy]

You're an animal.

It's part of my charm.

 

[Fata Morgana]

A quote from Baba in Catherynne Valente's Deathless.

That’s how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you’d have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.

 

[parodyluvr75]

I like chicken feet.

 

[Vikingstone]

A quote from Baba in Catherynne Valente's Deathless.

That’s how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you’d have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.

Yikes. That's a little scary but certainly real. Lay down the story enough times and it will become a fact. Truth is irrelevant.

 

[Fata Morgana]

Here's a great one of the old trout by Arthur Rackham.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/foxkitsune/89d9cc48-b34e-4a95-b7a5-e2a8993f7461_zps7143feef.jpg

 

[Fata Morgana]

One for CJH.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/foxkitsune/674b9b9d-4412-41de-ab43-5bf8f9e89b1a_zps94a8fadf.jpg

 

[Fata Morgana]

These are gorgeous

Baba Yaga Duet



Baba Yaga

My daughter when you were small

How I wanted to eat you.

Cast off flesh of my flesh

I wanted to keep you in me,

Digest my fear of losing you as I swallowed

You whole, plumped and roasted.

Can you forgive the way I fretted over the oven

And took the measure of your

Wrists with my worried fingers?



Skillful, you eluded me.

Growing stalk thin and green.

The lilac scent of your skin brings tears.

Candle stubs in your pockets, I know

You are anxiously waiting

For your life to begin.

For the man on whose shoulder you will drip tallow,

For the journey you are willing to make

To free yourself and him

From those like me, brutal in our bodies.



We walk out together and I grown old

No longer hide my yellowed tusks.

Men stare at you as we pass and

I smell the familiar hunger.

Their glances wicked knives

Slicing the perfumed curves of your body.

Their eyes slide off your shoulder and catch

Mine staring back, razor–edged and spiteful.

My grizzled chin lifts, claws unfurling.

Lips ashen, they step away.



They let us pass knowing

They are not the ones to take you


--- Midori Snyder






Baba Yaga's Daughter

Are you hungry, Old Woman?

Let me make you something tender

While you sit in your little cottage.

You stay here and I'll take your silver

and your wrinkled advice

to market.



I will walk through thicket and thorn

And bleed the trail from my mortal feet.

I will capture the fox and

steal his trickery.

No doubt he will capture me back,

but I'll negotiate him, Old Woman,

and we'll fix ourselves an understanding.



I will sing to myself the comfort

you taught me how to procure.

I will forget the words and decide to

sing another language.

When I reach the market,

the foreigners will find

my new tongue attractive.

They will certainly give me a

good deal then, Old Woman!

They will rush to bandage my feet

and inspect other scars.

I will want to ask them

to help carry home your meal,

But I will be too wise.



Are you still hungry, Old Woman?

Are you rocking on your chicken claws

and picking at your iron teeth?

Well, you will have to wait some more.

You see, I want to make for you the

sweetest tastes (of course)

and beyond the market, Old Woman,

on blue sand that meets milk white water,

I see strange, handsome fish.

I am going just a little farther from your cottage.

After all, you have the bones to nibble

while I am away.

Suck on them hard and inventory

the flavors that linger.

Spin your fingers around a femur

stuffed with marrow

and quench your idol, rusting fetish

while I am away.

It should still be savory in my absence.



Old Woman! You are wasting away!

Those eyes that once crackled bright

in your little cottage

seem opal cold through aged, pursed lids.

I will warm you with a dinner and

spiced herbal cider.

Won't you be stunned to see,

in your weakened state, Old Woman,

that I have brought more than fish!

I will teach you, now that you have

burned your old recipes,

the new ones I remedied.

And I will uncover the hidden plants

I've stashed in my hair,

the worlds I have in my mouth,

the tattoos woven in my skin

and the sky I discovered in my breast.



Old Woman, this will surely be your

finest meal.



---Taiko Haessler

 

[cjh]

One for CJH.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a97/foxkitsune/674b9b9d-4412-41de-ab43-5bf8f9e89b1a_zps94a8fadf.jpg

It's still creepy!

 

[zipman]

I thought her hut had chicken feet.

When I was little, an aunt gave me a subscription to a children's magazine that regularly featured Baba Yaga stories. Creeped me the fuck out.

Yup - just her hut had the chicken feet.

 

[CandiCame]

If you're into comics, I heartily suggest Fables, because Baba Yaga is hardcore as hell

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/7926/fables088004005.jpg

 

[pointless]

i can never quite get her hut in sims 2. it makes me sad.