ATU 822* The Mythical Creditor (previously The Devil Lends Money to the Man)
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The tale in brief
The Devil, or another supernatural lender, lends a poor man money for a set time. In the East Slavic form the man tricks his way out of paying it back; in the Estonian form he comes on the day to pay and finds the lender gone, so the money stays with him. In two of the Estonian legends the lender has been struck down by thunder.
Summary written for RunoVerse and checked against the Finnic texts linked on this page.
Estonian treasure legends
Types of Estonian treasure legends that RunoVerse links to this tale type. A canonical reference rests on a catalogue number in the legend type’s name; strong parallels and experimental matches rest on a shared plot or shared motifs.
- P 335: Raha võib laenata, tagasimaksmisel selgub, et laenuandjat pole enam (AT 822*) · 12 records · canonical reference
- P 334: Raha võib laenata · 26 records · experimental match
Finnic sources cited in the catalogue
The entries of the catalogue’s list of literature and variants that concern Finnic tradition.
Finnish Rausmaa 1982ff. II, No. 66
Estonian Aarne 1918, Loorits 1959, No. 157
Livonian Kecskeméti/Paunonen 1974
Full references:
- Rausmaa 1982ff.: Rausmaa, Pirkko-Liisa (ed.): Suomalaiset kansansadut 1–6. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1982–2000.
- Aarne 1918: Aarne, Antti: Estnische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten. Verzeichnis der zu den Hurt'schen Handschriftensammlungen gehörenden Aufzeichnungen. FF Communications 25. Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918.
- Loorits 1959: Loorits, Oskar: Estnische Volkserzählungen. Fabula, Supplement-Serie A: Texte 1. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1959.
- Kecskeméti/Paunonen 1974: Kecskeméti, István; Paunonen, Heikki: Die Märchentypen in den Publikationen der Finnisch-ugrischen Gesellschaft. Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 73 (1974), 205–265.
Motifs and related tale types
Motifs: Payment of Money to the Devil Impossible, Since Debtor Learns That the Devil Is Dead K231.4
Combines with: ATU 1182 The Level Bushel
Related types: ATU 812 The Devil's Riddle
Sources
Tale-type number, title, classification, related types and the Finnic sources: Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales (FF Communications 284–286, Helsinki 2004). · Uther 2004, part I (FF Communications 284), free online ↗
Treasure-legend links: RunoVerse’s matching of the Estonian treasure-legend types with the tale types.
Motifs and combinations with other tale types: the Trilogy dataset, from Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and the ATU catalogue.
The plot summary, the notes and the arrangement of this page are RunoVerse’s own.