Baba-yaga: The baba-yaga (pronounced BAH-bah yah-GAH) is not a witch. And as you will see in this story, it is not one specific character, but rather a category. She may have sisters (as it happens in this tale), nieces, or other relatives (no children, though). In tales with a male hero, she is not an evil character, but she is very dangerous, unless one knows how to speak with her (as the hero always does). She does not have magic powers, unless one counts knowledge, or the use of magical objects, as magic. She always appears as the provider, willingly or not, of knowledge and of magical objects.

She plays a very different role in the tales with female hero, where she is a threatening magical entity, ready to destroy (eat, kill) the girl if she doesn't accomplish certain tasks (or even if she does). The "bony leg" nickname is common, is but never explained or commented on. As always in tales, this is just what Baba Yaga is. Some scholars speculate that her "bony leg" and "long nose" (another common attribute) refer to her corpse-like appearance and make her a denizen of the underworld.

Maybe. It doesn't really matter for the tales themselves. What matters is that she's a dangerous, magical character who can provide, one way or another, magical knowledge or objects to the hero of the story.

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