My journeys through the Norn folklore had left me wanting something more. Something that had several connecting visual keys I could tap.
The Bone Mother
I first came across Yaga Baba as an unnamed witch reading through the old Brothers Grimm stories as a child. (Think Hanzel and Grettle for you unfamiliar with her)
But, my re-awakening to the idea came while contemplating this whole witch ‘problem’ one night, with the kids finding Miyazaki’s Spirited Away on the TV somewhere. Sure, I had seen it before, but never in that mindset. And, it was followed by Howl’s Moving Castle. I knew then and there, these were the kinds of witches I wanted. Not “evil”, per se. Back to the OLDE way of looking at this things. Not Evil, just…DANGEROUS.
Going back to my favorite musical, Into the Woods, as the Witch says. “I’m not good, I’m not nice, I’m just RIGHT. I’m the witch”
And, a little research into Miyazaki’s inspirations led me to Yaga Baba.
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| From Halloween buildup 09 |
HERE was a Witch I could get behind. The further I dug, the more I enjoyed her.
Also known as the BONE MOTHER. She lived in a moving house in the deep forest. A fence made from human bones surrounded the house, and was lit by human skulls. Stories had her eating children. Cooking them in her giant oven (hmm, hanzel and grettle?). Others had her meeting with her 2 sisters, also named Yaga Baba so as to confuse you when more intense assistance was required in a story. (Hmm, here we see the Norn/fates being depicted…)
Assisted by disembodied hands, a couple of spirit riders, and various creatures, there were MORE than enough visual cues to make this into a haunt.
I had it all worked into a story for the yard. All witch stories were just one or more of these sisters. There being three, they wandered, perhaps for that one night, one of them settled here in my yard…
I had gone so far as to making some tests of a concept for the human skull lighting. Basing my design on some of the drawings of them…
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| From Halloween buildup 09 |
I had a test set up of these skulls in the dark…
The problem became, I REALLY wanted this to be the PRIMARY source of lighting, these skulls to stay as true as possible to the mythos. But, it’s much too dim, even when I put bright bulbs in the skulls. I was stumped.
Then, I had a revolutionary idea. These stories were OLD. VERY OLD. And, the written accounts don’t really specify HOW these skulls lit up…
Perhaps this witch was merely using them as candle holders…
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| From Halloween buildup 09 |
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| From Halloween buildup 09 |
A CLASSIC visual of bad things, it certainly fits.
But, there was no way I was going to be able to complete THIS whole idea in time. Moving castles and disembodied servants were going to take some time. Plus, there was this OTHER idea I REALLY wanted to give a go, so I had more or less shelved the concept.
Little did I know, there was a witch left untapped. One with the power to tie this all together with my other idea, AND the existing yard all at once…