Yoma the Forest Witch
Komi · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Komi-Zyrian (and Permyak) folktale witch, an individuated mythic figure (the named Yoma, not a class of witches), rendered here as deity per schema. English 'Yoma the Forest Witch' leads; native Ёма (Joma) in term. SOLITARY: a solitary hag with no individuated kin, spouse or parentage in the tale corpus (Rédei 1978; Komi mythology surveys).
Domains
- witchcraft and sorcery
- wild beasts of the forest
- swamp and deep forest
- devouring and cannibalism
Powers
- command wolves and bears as her herds
- devour those she captures
- compel a marriage-bargain by threat
Epithets
- Ёма the forest hag / witch (Yoma-Baba)K. Rédei, Komi (Zürjén) texts; Komi folklore surveys (secondary)
Sources
- Yoma (Ёма; Yoma-Baba) is the most notorious witch of Komi folklore — a malevolent cannibal hag of the swamp and deep forest who owns wolves as her sheep and bears as her cows; the Komi counterpart of the Russian Baba-Yaga.: Károly Rédei, Zyrian Folklore Texts (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1978) (secondary); V. Ya. Petrukhin, on the yoma of Komi and Samoyed folklore (secondary); Komi mythology, Wikipedia (tertiary)
- In the tale-type ('Girl tall as a spindle', collected from a Komi source in 1935) she captures a girl, sets impossible herding tasks with her wolf-sheep and bear-cows, and is escaped while she sharpens her teeth to eat the captive.: Komi mythology / 'Girl tall as a spindle', Wikipedia (tertiary); Károly Rédei, Zyrian Folklore Texts (Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1978) (secondary)