The Black Gentleman: Manifestations of the Devil in Estonian Folk Religion. - book review

By Ulo Valk. Folklore Fellows Communications, vol. 127, no. 276. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2001. 217 pp. Price unspecified (pbk). ISSN 0014-5815. ISBN 951-41-0885-X

Professor Valk has examined some seventeen hundred texts of local legends and memorates from Estonian folklore archives, to analyse the motifs they contain relating to the visual appearance of the Devil. Many of these are familiar throughout Europe and are duly listed in the Stith-Thompson index (Devil as black man, as seductive woman, as horned monster, as black dog, and so on), but naturally they are far more vivid and impressive when embedded in a narrative context, as they are here. Other motifs and tale types are rare in Western Europe, so it is intriguing to discover how popular they are in Estonia. Take the story of the boy who played at hanging himself, relying on his friends to cut him down at the last minute, but died because they ran off chasing a three-legged hare that was in fact the Devil. This occurs only once in England, at Melton Ross in Lincolnshire; in Estonia there are thirty-nine versions; in Finland one hundred and forty-four, although featuring a fox more often than a hare. Professor Valk's commentary on this legend includes the points that other supernatural beings may appear as three-legged animals, both in Estonia and elsewhere; that the concept probably reached Estonia from medieval Europe; but that the tendency for underworld beings to be imagined as lame is widespread. This discussion is typical of Valk's method, establishing an oikotype from firm textual and statistical evidence, and then broadening the discussion to include comparative material, but only from periods and places that are culturally relevant.

The analysis of social factors is equally illuminating. There is a striking chapter on the reasons why the Devil often appears in Estonian legends in the guise of a fine gentleman, more specifically a landlord and/or an owner of serfs, and even more specifically a German one. The basic assumption is the deep-rooted religious idea that poverty is holy and Christ-like, whereas wealth and power are likely to be Satan's gifts to those who adore him (Matthew 4:9); to this is added the rural peasant's mistrust of the sophisticated gentry; and to this, a hatred of landlords and of German nobility so intense that in folk poetry they were routinely identified with devils, and the manor-house with Hell. After that, it is hardly surprising to learn that in the Estonian version of the Phantom Coach motif the driver is the Devil and the coal-black fiery horses are often the tormented souls of dead landlords.

The Devil is so dominant in Estonian folk-belief that in some legends he has taken over traits that elsewhere are attributed to different supernatural beings; he kidnaps humans, as fairies do; he fears thunder, like a troll; he even has a wife who requires a human midwife. Such motifs can legitimately be called pre-Christian. But there are far more where the most significant factor is Christianity, interpreted very literally, as is often the case with folk religion. This supplies not just the overall idea of the Devil, but many details too. For instance, Valk links the status of frogs and toads as demonic animals to a passage in Revelation about "three unclean spirits like frogs" ... [which] are the spirits of devils, working miracles" (Revelation 16:13-4); he notes that the Devil is frequently encountered out on a road, and links this to Job 2:2, where Satan says he has been "going to and fro on the earth." These points, and many others, would be equally valid in considering British or West European belief. Professor Valk's study is a model of its kind, and deserves to be widely read.

Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore Society

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