M. Fasmer raises the name of Yaga to praslav. *(j)A food whose reflexes are Serbo-Croatian. The phrase "horror", the phrase "dangerous", is Slovene. jeza "anger", jeziti "to anger", etc.-chesh. jeze "lamia", Czech. jezinka "forest witch, evil woman", Polish. jędza "witch, baba yaga, evil woman", jędzić się "to get angry", etc. However, in Russian there is a cognate to all the listed examples from Slavic languages: ulcer. Which calls into question the existence of a connection between the name Yaga and the examples given from the Slavic languages. An etymology is also possible, in which the ancient borrowed name was reinterpreted by the Slavs and brought closer to derivatives of the Proto-Slavic *(j)food (folk etymology), which explains the fluctuation expressed in the presence of variants c-z- and -z- in Western Slavic languages (the name is reinterpreted) and the presence of the variant c-g- in Russian (not reinterpreted). Fasmer brings the word closer, in addition to Slavic languages, also with Baltic, English, and Icelandic. Rejecting the connection with the Turkic, Indian, Albanian, Latin languages.

Etymologists bring the Proto-Slavic yaga (*yga) closer to the designation of snakes, reptiles, which indicates the chthonic origins of the image. The written mention of Baba Yaga was made in 1588 by the English traveler Gils Fletcher in the book "About the Russian state". He read about the worship of the idol "golden or yaga baba", arriving in the Perm region to the Samoyeds, he found that this was an "empty fable".

There is also an assumption that Yaga is the goddess of death. This is indicated by her appearance (bone leg) and place of residence (previously, the dead were buried on poles in huts). And in the West, they believe that Yaga is a female ogre.

Appearance

Baba Yaga is usually depicted as a large hunchbacked old woman with a large, long, humpbacked and hooked nose. Sometimes they say about her, "her nose has grown into the ceiling." Her bony leg is also not infrequently mentioned. But what this means is not entirely clear, but it may indicate her connection with the underworld. In the splint picture, she is dressed in a green dress, a lilac cap, bast shoes and trousers. In another painting, Baba Yaga is dressed in a red skirt and boots. In fairy tales, there is no emphasis on Baba Yaga's clothes, but she usually dresses in the Russian style.

Role in the plot

Most often, she plays the role of an adviser and assistant to the hero. However, there are fairy tales ("Vasilisa the Beautiful") where she is an unambiguous villain.

Abilities

Baba Yaga does magic well - she flies in a mortar, lives in a hut on chicken legs. Commands the goblins and kikimores (or just befriends). It is capable of turning people into different things and animals. Yaga also understands potions.