The Devil in folklore.

I saw the movie Devil and was wonder what other folklore tales are there of the Devil. I know about the one where a man name Jack traps the Devil in a tree by carving a cross into it.

Theres the one I posted in another thread about the Blues singer Robert Johnson who is supposed to have met the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi, the Devil took his guitar off of him, tuned it, played a few songs and gave it back, from then on Robert Johnson could play the Blues better then anyone alive.

I like the idea that the devil plays guitar

Originally posted by davespanners
Theres the one I posted in another thread about the Blues singer Robert Johnson who is supposed to have met the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi, the Devil took his guitar off of him, tuned it, played a few songs and gave it back, from then on Robert Johnson could play the Blues better then anyone alive.

I like the idea that the devil plays guitar

You should hear his fiddle.

I also heard about Robert Johnson. He was terrible at guitar and then after 6 months of being away he could play excellent when he went back to his home town.

Theres also one from Devon England that in the 1800's a set of footprints in the shape of hoofs appeared over night in the snow going for hundreds of miles appearing to go straight over the roofs of houses and barns.

There are a few explanations for what they might have been (if not the devil) on the wiki page including hysteria and "Hopping Mice"

There are tons of stories of the devil in southern folklore. One that I was told by my grandfather was that the devil would hide among goat herds in the form of a large billy(male goat). When a prospective sinner would come near, the devil would stand up on it's hind legs and follow him until he came to a crossroads. If the sinner would turn to confront the devil before he reached the crossroads, the devil would take his soul right then and there. If not, then the sinner had best get to church as soon as possible and confess his sins before passing those crossroads again.

reply to post by soontide


I've always wondered how the whole association between goats and the Devil got started, I think that goats are actually really cute, apart from the part where they try to eat your clothes

How did this become evil

Originally posted by davespanners
Theres also one from Devon England that in the 1800's a set of footprints in the shape of hoofs appeared over night in the snow going for hundreds of miles appearing to go straight over the roofs of houses and barns...

that was linked to spring-heeled jack as well, a 'devil-ish' apparition that came out of clapham common in london

A report from Northamptonshire described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia reports of attacks on drivers of mail coaches became common. He was linked with the so-called "Devil's Footprints" that appeared in Devon in February 1855.

en.wikipedia.org...

this is a nice history of spring-heeled jack

www.blackcatpress.co.uk...

I've always wondered how the whole association between goats and the Devil got started, I think that goats are actually really cute, apart from the part where they try to eat your clothes

How did this become evil

When Christians were trying to paint Pagans as devil-worshippers, they incorporated some of the characteristics of Pan with depictions of the Devil to sell it. It worked, and the image has stuck ever since.

Guessing teh story of the devil originated from the bible. I would say there arent too many storys about him,due to the fact that even in the bible they dont say much about him.