Chapter 33

It is remarkable that in Beow. 348 seq. the devil is called gâstbona, soul-killer, and 3485 bona, shooting with fiery bow; as indeed we find in Mod. German 'the murderer from the first' (Sieben ehen p. 394), 'the cruel hangman of souls' (in Erasm. Francisci); conf. the Serv. stari krvnik (p. 21). To him, as well as to Death, are ascribed bands, ropes, bridle and steed: 'diufeles gi-benti,' O. i. 10, 22. 'mit des tievels bande geseilet,' tied, Karl 33a. 'der tievel hât mich gestricket,' snared, 17a. 'in des tivels zoumheften (bridle-fastenings) sitzen,' Tod. gehugde 782. 'an des tiuvels sîln,' cords, Renner 21232; 'bridles and saddles the devil's horse' 14429. 'tiuvels seil,' MsH. 3, 218.

To deepen the impression of something horrible, we still say, the very Devil would shudder and shrink at it, used as he is to horrors. As early as the 12^th cent., it is said (Diut. 3, 59) of monsters with flashing teeth: 'swenne si si lâzent plecchen, sô mahten sie ioch (eke) den tiufel screcchen.' And MsH. 3, 293a: 'sô luog ich hervür, ich möht den tiuvel ûz der helle erschrecken, swenne ich den mînen kolben ûf enbür' (see Suppl.).

Our common folk, when the disagreeable is suddenly brought forward, or is bound to befall them, are apt, in outcry or curse, to bring the devil or some baneful being that does duty for him: 'has the devil brought you here again?' Platers leben p. 77. 'whence brings him the devil?' 'hât dich der tiuvel har getragen!' Meyer and Mooyer 48a; 'hât dich der tiuvel alsô balde (so soon) getragen har?' 27b. 'der tiuvel hât in der getragen,' Reinh. 1544. 'der tiuvel brâht in hiure her,' Gute frau 783. So in M. Nethl.: 'galghenere, die lede duvel bracht u here,' Ferg. 4735; 'die lede duvel droech u hier' 520. 'deable li ont amené,' Ren. 5051. 8171. 'dise hât der tiuvel gesendet in mîn lant,' Bit. 10b. 'der tievel sande mich an die stat,' Reinh. 311. 551. 'sus (so) kam er her gerüeret, als den der tiuvel füeret,' Trist. 6855. 'quis te maleficus hic adduxit?' Vita Joh. Gorziensis, before 984, in Mabillon's Ann. Bened. sec. 5, p. 401. 'does the ritt (pestis) bring you here now?' H. Sachs iv. 3, 5b; equivalent to the Westphalian 'wo förd di de süke her?' for diseases were looked upon as demonic beings. But what means that in Schmid's Schwäb. wtb. 544, 'has the zauch brought you back already?' I suppose, the hellish hound (tyke, OHG. zôha, bitch). Westph. 'fört juw de kiwitt (peewit) nu weer her?' instead of the more usual cuckoo, vulture, which, like the peewit, are magical birds. 'hât mich der guckguck hergebracht,' Grobianus 97a. And curses go through the same variations: 'daz dich der tiuvel hin füere!' Sîfrit 74, 2. 'var du dem tiuvel in die hant!' Reinh. 952. 'le diable t'emporte!' 'the geier (vulture) take you!' Gryphius 746. 'the cuckoo and his clerk fetch him!' Dan. 'var satan i vold!' 'die leide ride (mala pestis) müeze in vellen!' Karlmeinet, Meusebach 162. In the same way are to be judged the formulas about becoming and being the devil's, i.e. falling due to him, where again cuckoo, vulture and the rest can be substituted. A devil's carl, devil's child, des tuvelis kint, Rol. 2, 31 mean those taken possession of by him: curiously Lamprecht makes Porus exclaim 4452: dirre tubilis Alexander stellet michel 'wunder,' this hero is bold as the devil.

These quotations will not appear superfluous, if we will observe that they fit themselves to the Devil chiefly in those respects in which he is a product of heathen god-notions. As we hear it said just as much: 'what (ill) weather sends you here? what tempest (or thunderstorm) has brought you this way? what, has the hail beaten you here too? where does the hail beat you from?' in Simplic. 5, 2, "I'll be the weather's if.....,' 'I'll be thunder's first!' (45) and even 'where does the Lord send you here again from?'; can anything be plainer, than that such phrases properly refer to the heathen Donar, lord of the weather, consequently that by the Devil afterwards put in his place we are to understand him? Or we may, if we please, summon up some storm-breeding giant, a Bläster, Väder or Fasolt (pp. 549. 630). We know that thunderbolts are also devil's fingers (p. 179). --- And here some other points can be made good. Donar had a red beard, and our proverb runs: red of beard, devil's weird, 'rode baert duivels aert (= kind).' We good-naturedly pity in the words poor devil; in the 17^th cent. they still said poor thunder, Weise's Drei erzn. pp. 14. 335; and thunder's child is synonymous with devil's child, ibid. 285. 425. The author of Simplicissimus writes both teufelsgeld p. 480, and donnersgeld p. 481, in the sense of accursed pelf. The curse 'zum donner' still means exactly the same as 'zum teufel'; and our 'fahr zum teufel!' answers in effect to the ON. 'far til Oðins! Oðinn eigi þic!' as well as to 'þik hafi gramir, iötnar,' p. 991, and to 'dat die de Hamer! Hamer sla!' p. 181. To the benediction 'Gott walt's (God guide it)!' corresponds in the mouth of the vulgar the curse 'des walte der teufel! der donner!' Nor be it forgotten, that in exclamations and curses, of no matter what language, names of old gods get hardened and fixed; conf. p. 783-4, and Gramm. 3, 297 (see Suppl.).

Again, the Devil stands connected, not only with the gods of heathenism, but with its dæmons, its spirits; and a good deal of what was ascertained in ch. XVII. will apply to him. Thus he is called wicht, the bösewicht, the hellewicht (p. 441) in the harshest sense; the alp, whose spell binds men, may stand for him. Like elves he has the power of appearing, disappearing and transforming himself, only the more sportful mischief of these sprites becomes grim earnest when applied to him. Like the alp, the Devil or vâlant is said to ride men, p. 464: in a poem of Heinr. von Müglein (Mus. 2, 196) God destines him to ride a wicked woman 'over hill and dale.' It is a remarkable thing, that the notions of wind, wight, thing and no less those of devil and vâlant, are used to strengthen a negative, Gramm. 3, 734-6 (see Suppl.). (46) Now, as the word tropf (drop, ibid. 730) was used in the same sense, it explains how the expressions 'armer tropf (poor wretch, fool), armer wicht, armer teufel' all came to have one meaning. We either attribute to spirits and the Devil the swiftness of wind, of the Wild Host rushing in storm, or we imagine the wind itself a spirit and devil (p. 999); hence the following are synonymous turns of speech: 'sam sie der tievel vuorte,' as though the d. carried her, Rab. 749. Dietr. 8854, and 'as if the wind drove her,' 'she rushed past me like the zauch (tyke, p. 1013),' Schmid's Schwäb. wtb. 544.

That morbid imbecile condition of one whom the elves are said to have touched (p. 461) is undoubtedly analogous to possession by devils. The difference lies in this, that the Heathen view makes the spirits operate purely from without, while in Jewish, Oriental and Christian doctrine the devils take up their abode in a man's body, and for the abnormal condition to cease, they must be formally cast out. An actual incarnation took place (p. 338), and we speak of devils incarnate. Saul is possessed by the evil spirit. When Nalas had defiled himself, the demon Kalis entered into him, but retired at length, and passed into a tree (Bopp's Nalas pp. 234. 267. 196-8). Even our early Mid. Ages furnish examples: Carl, son of king Ludwig, was a demoniac (Pertz 1, 495). (47) For elves to steal men's children, and put their own changelings in their place, is heathenish (p. 468); for the Devil to lie hid in the changeling, is not (Zeno 58 seq.). Again, the devil-possessed are like those houses and tenements where racketing sprites have made themselves fixtures (pp. 514. 892). (48) An early instance of this is that Grendel in Beowulf, who disturbs the royal hall by his nightly visits. For 'possessed' (arreptitius, daemoniacus), having the devil in one's body, the OHG. has the following terms: firnoman, taken up, O. iii. 14, 107 (MHG. 'vil gar vernomen ich dô lac,' I lay insensible, Fragm. 46b); 'ther diufal ist iru inne,' O. iii. 10, 12; 'gramon in-giwitun,' p. 991 (O. Fr. 'maus esperis li est el cors entrés,' Garin p. 280); tiuvolwinnîc, tiuvolwinnanti, Gl. mons. 337. 391. Doc. 239, as well as tiuvolsioh, AS. deofolseoc (-sick); in O. iii. 14, 63 'thie mit diufele wunnun,' who had to contend with the devil; and that is the meaning of H. Sachs's 'wütig und winnig' 1, 481b. iv. 3, 16a. In the 13^th cent. our 'possessed' was already a current phrase: 'besaz sie der vâlant,' Uolrich 1510. 'nu var hin, daz hiute der tievel ûz dir kal!' holla out of thee, Ben. 440. 'der tiuvel var im in den munt!' pop into his mouth, Reinh. 1642. 'var du dem tievel in die hant!' 852. 'der tiuvel var dir in den balc!' into thy skin, Morolt 1210. 'der tufil muez im durch daz herze varn!' Grundr. 314. 'tûsent tiuvel ûz dir bellen!' bark, MsH. 3, 259b (we still say, 'an evil spirit spoke out of him'). 'ich wæn der tiuvel ûz beiden lüge,' Reinh. 309. 520 (see Suppl.).

The words last quoted bring us to his mendacity. The Scripture calls him a 'father of lies'; 'tievellîchen gelogen,' lied like a devil, says Nib. 2167, 3. What if the corrupt Dan. 'Locke löjemand, lovmand' p. 246 had an allusion to lyve (mentiri) pret. löi, or if a kinship could even be established between lüge (mendacium) and logi (blaze, blast)? Wind means to us a false allegation, windbag a humbug, liar. A Dan. proverb says: 'lögn er et skadeligt uveir' (mendacium est tempestas nociva), Saxo Gram., ed. Müll. p. 200. A liar is also a mocker, hence 'des tievels spot,' Nib. 2182, 2. 'daz sînen spot der tuvel mit den sînen habe,' Gr. Rud. 1, 9. In Mod. Nethl. 'de vyand heeft my beet gehad,' hostis me ludibrio habuit (see Suppl.).

Grendel's diabolic nature resembles that of bloodthirsty watersprites (p. 494); he lives too in moors and fens, and comes up at night to haunt sleeping mortals: 'com of môre gangan,' Beow. 1413; he flies 'under fen-hleoðu' 1632. He drinks men's blood out of their veins 1478, like vampires whose lips are moist with fresh blood. An ON. saga has a similar demon, called Grîmr œgir because he can walk in water as on land, he spits fire and poison, sucks the blood out of man and beast (Fornald. sög. 3, 241-2).

About when in the Mid. Ages did the idea spring up of formal covenants and treaties which the Devil concludes with men? To the unfortunate, the desperate, he promises temporal blessings for a number of years, but bargains for their souls at the expiration of the term, and insists on a written bond usually signed with the men's blood. This sounds not heathen, but rather as if invented after the Roman mode of writing had become general in Europe. The Norse devil (49) tries to strike profitable bargains too, but never in writing. The most famous and variously told (50) tale is that of the vicedominus Theophilus. It is known that Gerbert, afterwards pope Silvester 2 (d. 1003), was said to have sold himself to the devil (Anon. Leobiens. in Pez 1, 763). In the Annolied str. 46-7 is the story of one Volprecht, who gives himself to the devil; another in Ottocar cap. 335. In most legends of this kind the Devil misses his prey after all, and is made to give up the damning document. The man may have denied God, but has never renounced the heavenly Virgin, so she lends a helping hand. In a Swiss folktale the devil bargains that the contracting party shall never say the gospel of John any more (de Hänseler uf der lälle ummedrüllen), but he comes to grief nevertheless, for the poor shepherd lad whistles it from beginning to end. Another time the Evil one is promised payment of the sum advanced, at the falling of the leaf; but when at fall-time he presents himself, and presses the bargain, he is shown trees in the church, that were cut with the leaves on (Kinderm. no. 148), or else firs and pines (Woycicki's Klechdy 1, 149). On the whole there are ways more than one, to cheat the poor devil of his legal due. One who has bound himself to him, but who for seven years long neither washes nor combs, is rid of him again; or he need only have demanded that the devil shall make a sapling grow, a thing beyond his power (Superst. I, no. 626). The former is the story of Bearskin (Simplic. 3, 896. Kinderm. no. 101), and of Brother Sooty (KM. no. 100): Bearskin has to remain seven years in the devil's service, wrapt in a bear's hide by way of cloak, i.e. leading a lazy inactive life (conf. p. 1010, the bearskin offered to the devil). Almost every case contains this stipulation of seven years to be spent in his service and lore. (51)




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