I was raised by Polish speaking parents who told me a lot of Polish folktales but the only one I can remember clearly right now is the story about an old ugly witch called Baba Jaga. I remember being threatened with a visit from Baba Jaga whenever I was misbehaving. Baba Jaga lives deep in the woods in a small cabin with a big oven and when children behave badly she flies out on her broomstick brings the children back to her cabin and cooks them in the oven before she eats them. She appeared as the villain in a lot of Polish children’s books my mom used to read to me.
Baba Jaga sounds a lot like the evil witch in Hansel and Gretel, a folktale collected by the 19th-century German folklorists the Brothers Grimm. Hansel and Gretel’s evil witch also wants to trap children in her oven and then cook and eat them. The “Hansel and Gretel” folktale is now the basis for a ridiculous 3-D movie that is currently being advertised all over NYC — I’m sure you’ve seen the posters.
Oral storytelling traditions tends to spread and migrate. Stories about Baba Yaga are told not only in Poland but throughout the Eastern Slavic world, including Russia and the Ukraine. A folklorist named Andreas Johns has recently published a book about the Baba Yaga legend.