A Candle for the Devil
A Candle for the Devil
A tradition of Polish historiography sees the Polish devil as a comical figure of fun, in strong contrast to the terrifying Satan of western Christianity. While overdrawn, this tradition has a basis both in early modern literature and in later folklore: often by the word ‘devil’ Poles have meant beings such as house-elves, treasure-hauling demons, or the spirits of unbaptized infants. This is true in the witch-trials as well: the devils there described bear a resemblance to the familiars of English tradition. The chapter argues against too strong a causal role for the ‘mild’ Polish devil in ‘mild’ witch-trials, but also suggests that early modern Polish women could have dealings with ‘devils’ while remaining Christian, to their own satisfaction.
Keywords: comical devil, Satan, house-elf, treasure-hauling demons, unbaptized infants, familiars
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
