Devil Spotting: The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli

The Wager is a reworking of the Sicilian folktale "Don Giovanni de la Fortuna," a variant of the more commonly known "Bearskin" tale. The story (and reworking) certainly involves making a deal with the devil but there is, once again, no connection with the devil at the crossroads motif.

The devil. This vision was a nightmare in disguise. Now came the part where Don Giovanni had to trade his soul.
"No, no, no. You're at once more dramatic and more ignorant than I anticipated. And after all the books you read under Don Alfinu's tutelage." He tsked again. "Not your soul. It would be crude to demand your soul right off. Crude and easy and uninteresting. No, no. Let's do something to banish the ridiculous boredom of ordinary things. Let's start with a test trade. Something much more rare than a soul. Your beauty."
(Napoli, Donna Jo. 2010. The Wager, Henry Holt, 67-8)




[Go to http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0361.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bearskin/index.html for more information about this tale.]

Devil spotting: "A Reversal of Fortune" by Holly Black

Again, not an example of the meeting with the devil at the crossroads but instead one of a pact with the devil involving a contest. In The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black, Easthampton, MA: Big Mouth House, 2010, 29-47.


"How about this--I will wager my services against something of yours. If you beat me at any contest of your choosing, your dog will be well and you'll owe me nothing."
"Really? Any contest?" she asked.
He held out his hand. "Shake on it and we've got a deal." 

His skin was warm and dry in her grip.
"So, what is it going to be?" he asked. "You play the fiddle? Or maybe you'd like to try your hand at jump rope?" (page 40-41)

Also available in Sympathy for the Devil: Stories of the Devil edited by Tim Pratt. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2010, 51-61.

Originally published in The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling. New York: Viking, 2007, 418-436.

In the author's note, Holly Black writes: "In folklore, the devil's attempts to steal souls often involves humorous and impossible contests....I wondered how the devil would cheat at such a contest and wound up writing "A Reversal of Fortune." (436)

And no, I am not revealing the nature of this particular contest -- I highly recommend you seek out any of the three collections (or all of them) and find out for yourself.

Devil Spotting: The Prince of Mist

Although the motif of the meeting with the devil at the crossroads is not present in Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Prince of Mist, the impact (pardon the pun) of making a pact with the devil is a major theme of this young adult novel. Also present in all its disturbing "glory" is the motif of the clown statue.

"The day Jacob Fleischman drowned I knew that the Prince of Mist had never left. He had remained in the shadows, waiting patiently for something powerful to return him to the world of the living. And nothing is as powerful as a promise..." (122)


From Bill Sheehan's review in Subterranean Press:

"On its most fundamental level, Zafon's novel is a lively, thoroughly modern retelling of one of the essential narratives of Western Civilization: The Faustian Compact, which can be summed up in a single sentence: Take what you want--and pay for it." (http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2010/review-the-prince-of-mist-by-carlos-ruiz-zafon/)

For more information on the book and its author: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/princeofmist/index.html

Ballad Spotting: Book Review

I have not read this novel as of yet but it certainly sounds intriguing and part of the Stories from Songs canon:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7936795/Charles-Jessold-Considered-as-a-Murderer-by-Wesley-Stace-review.html

Ballad Spotting: Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

Several direct mentions of ballads and songs within the text of this novel, published in 2010, offer the aware reader delightful foreshadowing of action and consequences:

Thomas the Rhymer (page 196) and the passing of time in the world of the Fae: "I underlined Thomas the Rhymer's name because it was history and Rip was a story by Irving that might or might not have been based on various legends--including Thomas's."

Tam Lin (page 305). While this ballad is not named, those who are familiar with the Faery Queen's final challenge to Janette would recognize it immediately: " A different bargain, then. You hold something of my choosing while it changes." Briggs satisfactorily presents the challenge for this reader.

Not a ballad but a song relevant to my present research: The Devil Went Down to Georgia (page 284) "Bargaining? Like in the song 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' but with a fairy?" I asked. It seemed to me that I'd heard a similar tale with fairies in it.
"Right," Samuel agreed. "It can be a contest--usually musical, because fairy queens tend to be musically talented. But there are stories of footraces or swimming contests. My father has a wonderful old song about a young man who challenged a fairy to an eating contest and won."

The Boneshaker at Chasing Ray

A lovely review and interview with author Kate Milford with crossroad references:

http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2010/05/you_come_to_know_the_road_that.html

More about my experience with the book soon.

THE BONESHAKER @ THE CROSSROADS

Enjoying Kate Milford's The Boneshaker and her playing with "the devil and the crossroads" legend. More when I finish it.