On gutenberg.org: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11027/11027.txt
MOTHER HOLLE
There was once a widow who had two daughters--one of whom was pretty and industrious, while the other was ugly and idle. [...] At last she came to a little house, out of which an old woman peeped; but she had such large teeth that the girl was frightened, and was about to run away.
But the old woman called out to her, "What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do all the work in the house properly, you shall be the better for it. Only you must take care to make my bed well, and to shake it thoroughly till the feathers fly--for then there is snow on the earth. I am Mother Holle." [etc.]
Mother Holle apparently is closely related with nature. The good girl is rewarded, the lazy girl punished.
In "Vassilisa Prekrasnaja", Baba-Jaga receives as visitors a number of knights, these are identified with the red sun, the black night and so on. She helps her visitor to defeat the evil stepmother.
But in "Baba-Jaga and the brave youth" she steals a child and tries to have it baked in the oven. It's not exactly Hansel und Gretel, but the similarities are striking.
Propp tries to reconcile these differences in the chapter "The little hut in the Forest" of "Historical Origins of Fairytales" by considering the hut as a place of initiation, Baba-Jaga as a priestess/shamaness and the children as the initiands who are submitted to severe trials before they are considered members of the tribe.
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MOTHER HOLLE
There was once a widow who had two daughters--one of whom was pretty and
industrious, while the other was ugly and idle.
[...]
At last she came to a little house, out of which an old woman peeped;
but she had such large teeth that the girl was frightened, and was about
to run away.
But the old woman called out to her, "What are you afraid of, dear
child? Stay with me; if you will do all the work in the house properly,
you shall be the better for it. Only you must take care to make my bed
well, and to shake it thoroughly till the feathers fly--for then there
is snow on the earth. I am Mother Holle."
[etc.]
Mother Holle apparently is closely related with nature. The good girl is rewarded, the lazy girl punished.
In "Vassilisa Prekrasnaja", Baba-Jaga receives as visitors a number of knights, these are identified with the red sun, the black night and so on. She helps her visitor to defeat the evil stepmother.
But in "Baba-Jaga and the brave youth" she steals a child and tries to have it baked in the oven. It's not exactly Hansel und Gretel, but the similarities are striking.
Propp tries to reconcile these differences in the chapter "The little hut in the Forest" of "Historical Origins of Fairytales" by considering the hut as a place of initiation, Baba-Jaga as a priestess/shamaness and the children as the initiands who are submitted to severe trials before they are considered members of the tribe.