So I was looking up pictures of chicken, thinking about attempting to sketch some chicken legs, when I suddenly asked myself...why chicken legs? Why is BY's house set up on chicken legs? I started doing some research into this matter, and didn't come up with any particularly solid reasons (the only thing was an indication of her sometimes being portrayed as a bird goddess, at one with nature, and that her house being made of chicken feet supports that), but I did come across some other really interesting things.
I found this interesting article about Baba Yaga's hut being considered an entrance into the underworld, making BY a guardian of the passageway between death and life. The most interesting part of the article was that it mentioned that in some versions the hut is not only propped up by chicken legs, but also sits upon a spinning wheel which allows Baba Yaga to spin the thread of life from the bones and entrails of the dead.
I really like that Eva mentioned the word organic, and this whole idea of fungi and decomposition being a natural part of her world...it really fits with this whole idea of her being a guardian of the natural balance to our world.
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The passage of death aspect is pretty interesting. It definitely makes her more powerful. And all the stuff about coming of age in relation to death?
ReplyDeleteAs for why chicken legs, I came across a couple articles that said when the russians first came into contact with the slavs, the slavs were using these houses in winter with no doors and no windows, set up on cut off tree trunks to store grain and stuff in. they could only get in through a trap door in the bottom, which bears couldn't access.
yeah yeah I've read about about the house being an animal and you go into its tummy and come out a man
ReplyDeleteI really like that she DOES something with the bodies, when fooling around with design ideas I've never imagined Baba being decked out in bones or anything or being dirty or bloody, I can see her being practical about the waste of her activities.