Morsels on the Tongue: Evidence of a Pre-Christian Matriarchy in Russian Fairy Tales

Abstract

The Russian fairy tale has endured centuries of evolution. It was part of an oral tradition and as such, none of its details were static. A single story was told by generations of storytellers over a period of centuries. In this way, the tale is layered with beliefs and customs from many periods reaching far back to the pre-Christian, matriarchal times. While weakness and submissiveness are the preferred qualities of Russian folk heroines, many tales portray women of strength. The introduction of Christianity to 10th-century Russia extinguished there a strong matriarchal tradition. Matriarchal cultures are traditionally linked with mysti-cism and magic. Given the hypothesis of an early Russian matriarchy, the paper traces magi-cal figures like Baba Yaga and her sisters back to a time when there was no need to portray them as evil. It is only after the priests come that she was cast out and labeled evil. The Rus-sian fairy tale may appear to be vague, repetitious and hard on women, yet when these quali-ties are added together a magical transformation occurs that brings out lively and simplisti-cally beautiful images that give the tales that special Russian flavour.