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Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales. Translated and edited by
Sibelan Forrester. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013. 256 pp. Illus. $45.00 (hbk). ISBN
978-1-61703-596-8

This lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced volume contains over two dozen examples of
Russian folktales featuring Baba Yaga, one of the most recognizable figures in Russian folklore.
The translations by Sibelan Forrester have been selected from two nineteenth-century
collections of Russian folklore: Alexander Afanas’ev and Ivan Khudiakov. The translations, in
contemporary prose, avoid sounding falsely antique, and the extensive endnotes provide
contextual details that reveal both a rich and vibrant oral tradition and the extensive modern
reworking of this popular figure. The appealing range of images for this volume was selected by
Martin Skoro, with annotations by Helena Goscilo. The more than seventy illustrations reflect the
different ways that Baba Yaga has inspired artists, illustrators, filmmakers, and advertisers. The
material is impressive, with examples from the familiar folk art that inspired the illustrations of
Russian artists such as Ivan Bilibin and Viktor Vasnetsov; scenes from the Russian fairy-tale films,
both animated and acted, of the 1960s; the striking icon-like paintings on lacquered Russian
boxes; and naive renditions of Baba Yaga from eighteenth-century lubok woodcuts. There are also
more modern realizations from, for example, the Hellboy series of graphic novels, theatre and
puppet productions, steam-punk baba yagas for fantasy role-play games, a set of nesting dolls
which tell the story of Baba Yaga and the Beautiful Vassilisa, and even a pair of sneakers adorned
with her image.

The book has the feel of those Golden Era fairy-tale volumes given as precious gifts for
birthdays and holidays and cherished by their owners. Unfortunately, in the opinion of the
present reviewer, it is a great pity that the authors did not stop there, since the volume is
somewhat let down by its introduction. This is based on a course on Russian fairy tales given by
the author. Fairy tale-based courses are immensely popular, drawing large numbers of students,
and Baba Yaga has attracted audiences since the nineteenth century when the tales about her
first appeared in print. However, although the introduction offers a number of interesting facts
and cultural connections associated with Baba Yaga, it also adopts a surprisingly old-fashioned
approach to folklore and cultural studies; one which assumes that ancient figures must lie behind
legendary characters. The source scholarship is very eclectic. In its use of Russian sources not
available to English speakers and the work of Vladimir Propp, it presents new information and
new perspectives on the figure of Baba Yaga—for example, the discussion of Baba Yaga as a
‘tester’ figure in folktales (xxxiv–xxxvi). However, in its reliance on the type of witchcraft
scholarship popular a few years ago, it sounds, frankly, rather dated. For example, Forrester’s
analysis draws heavily on Gustav Henningsen’s work (1990) which links witchcraft, shamanism,
and the witches’ Sabbath with female figures such as Baba Yaga. Another prominent influence in
the introduction is Maria Gimbutas’s theory about ancient goddesses, introduced here through
the work of the anthropologist Joanna Hubbs (1988). Added to this is the more popular
mythologizing of Joseph Campbell, and the even more populist Jungian approach of Robert Bly
(1998) and Clarissa Pinkola Estes (1992). Interesting though some of this work was, many of the
fundamental assumptions have been criticized, and attitudes to shamans, goddesses, sabbats, and
the like need to be updated if the book is to be of real use to contemporary readers.
Vladimir Propp, and for that matter Henningsen, considered a very real, and immensely
complex, question about the possible relationships between figures that appear in nineteenthcentury
folklore and the oldest stratum of a culture. However, the bibliography cited in the book
is rather limited and certainly does not cover any significant contemporary reassessments of the
possible, or untenable, connections between witchcraft and shamanism. In addition, many of the
works in Forrester’s bibliography are a little too ready to link Slavic figures such as the Kievan
goddess Mokosh and the Russian saint Paraskeva, with an ancient triune goddess on the one hand
and Baba Yaga on the other (xxxii, xli and xlvi). Surely one would wish to present students, for
whom this may be their only contact with folklore studies, with a balanced and up-to-date
approach. The core of the book, and its real strength, is the tales themselves. Despite the
reservations about the introduction and its supporting scholarship, this book provides modern
accessible translations to tales about Baba Yaga.

Juliette Wood, Cardiff University, Wales