Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/18/the-origins-of-baba-yaga.html
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flipping through my news feed really fast this morning, this article comes up and my mind reads ‘the origins of baby yoda’ and then I saw the video thumbnail and about had a heart attack.
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I really hope the chicken-legged hut makes an appearance in John Wick 4.
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I read folk tales of Baba Yaga when I was a kid, but they didn’t scare me as much as Dr. Seuss’ “Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them” story.
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My first association with Baba Yaga will always be the Quest for Glory games (although it was technically called Hero’s Quest the first time I saw her). They kick started my love of Eastern European folklore. I just love seeing her turn up in the shows my daughter watches these days.
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Wow, one of the books in the video is beautifully illustrated! So much so, I immediately went looking for it and found it here:
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I can’t speak for any other Slavic languages, but in Russian her name is not pronounced “Baba YAga”. The emphasis is on the second syllable, which means that Я changes from “YA” to (very approximately) “ee”. She’s “Baba iGA”.
(I learned this the hard way, talking about Mussorgsky’s “Pictures At An Exhibition” with my better half’s parents. At first they didn’t know what I was saying, then they dissolved in gales of laughter.)
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In Polish it’s pronounced as “Baba YAga”, so your pronounciation would be correct here 
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