Russian fairytales have their wicked witches and handsome princes, but also houses that walk around on chicken legs and magic talking fish. So throw on your cloak and venture into the snowy forest to find out more about the wonderful tales of Grandfather Frost and Baba Yaga

“Once upon a time…” These words are a gateway into a different world, a magical realm of wicked witches, fairy godmothers, talking animals and handsome princes. Yet this distant world is familiar to all of us. We’ve all been there, through the fairy tales of Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, the Ugly Duckling and countless others.

But, for most of us, traditional fairy tales from around the world are not so familiar. Each country has its own stories, heroes and villains. Russia’s wealth of fairy tales contain characters that are in some ways similar to our beloved characters, but in other ways very different. The Tsarevich is the handsome prince, and Grandfather Frost is Russian folklore’s answer to both Father Christmas and Jack Frost. Instead of our wicked witch, many Russian fairy tales tell of Baba Yaga, an old witch who flies around in a pestle and mortar and lives in a house that walks around on chicken legs. Some stories cross over between cultures, like The Golden Slipper, which is a wonderful version of the Cinderella story, but with one key difference - there is no Fairy Godmother. But who needs one when you can enlist the help of a magic talking fish?



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Russia often conjures up images of a glittering land of ice and snow, and many Russian fairy tales have a distinctly festive feel. Morozko is a story of Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost, who comes to the aid of a young girl who is left in the snowy forest by her wicked stepmother. Another snowy classic is Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden. In this tale, an elderly couple are unhappy because they have never had any children, and one winter, they build themselves a daughter out of snow, and she brings them a great deal of joy. But, as we learn in our modern fairy tale The Snowman, Snegurochka can only survive in winter as spring warmth will cause her to melt.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anna Morgunova has illustrated Anthea Bell’s reimagining of Vasilisa the Beautiful.

Anthea Bell’s reimagining of the traditional Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful is a real Christmas treat thanks to Anna Morgunova’s exquisite illustrations. The images, which have hints of the artists Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, and the Russian artist Marc Chagall, are so richly detailed that each time you look at them you discover something new.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vasilisa the Beautiful with her magic doll as she faces the terrors of the dark forest, in Anthea Bell’s reimagining of the tale, illustrated by Anna Morgunova. Photograph: PR

The book tells the story of the beautiful young girl Vasilisa, who is given a magical doll by her dying mother. When her father remarries, her stepmother and stepdaughter are jealous of Vasilisa’s beauty, and they force her to cook and clean all day and night (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). When the wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters send Vasilisa into the dark forest to Baba Yaga, a terrifying witch with a taste for human flesh, Vasilisa has no weapon to take with her but her magical doll.

Baba Yaga appears in many other Russian fairy tales. In The Magic Swan Geese, Baba Yaga sends her magic birds to steal a boy away from his sister. The proud sister scoffs at the river and the trees when they offer to help her find him, but when she finds out the evil fate that Baba Yaga plans for her brother, she might just change her mind…



But Baba Yaga is not always the villain in Russian folklore. In Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What, a wonderfully weird tale involving a bird princess, a magic ring, merchants, servants and quick trip to the Underworld, she transforms from Wicked Witch to Wise Woman, lending the hero a helping hand.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jan Pienkowski sketching Meg and Mog. Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

I first encountered Baba Yaga when I was about six. I picked up a book of fairy tales illustrated by the Polish-born British illustrator Jan Pienkowski. Pienkowski is best known for the Meg and Mog books (watch this audio slideshow of Pienkowski drawing and talking abut his creations), another staple of my childhood, but it was his intricately detailed silhouette of Baba Yaga, flying across the sky in her pestle and mortar, or of her fence made of human bones, that inspired my love of fairy tales. So it is strangely heart-warming and nostalgic to see Anna Morgunova’s take on the witch’s human-bone fence.

Maybe that is the wonder of fairy tales; told over and over again, from generation to generation, country to country, everybody knows a slightly different version and imagines a slightly different image.

