ATU 831 Clergyman in Disguise as the Devil (previously The Dishonest Priest)
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The tale in brief
A priest who covets a treasure that a poor man has found dresses up as the Devil, in a goatskin with horns, and frightens the man into giving it up; afterwards the skin grows fast to the priest and can never be taken off. In most of the Estonian legends the money is found while a poor man digs a grave for his child or his father, whom the priest would not bury without a fee.
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 831: Kiriku- või mõisahärra hirmutab loomanahka riietunult rahaaugu leidnud talupoega/vaest inimest. H... · 15 records · canonical reference
Finnic and Finland-Swedish 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. 71
Finnish-Swedish Hackman 1917ff. I, No. 162
Estonian Aarne 1918, No. 831*, Loorits 1959, No. 163
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.
Motifs and related tale types
Motifs: Punishment: Animal Skin Grows on Man's Back Q551.2
Combines with: ATU 1590 The Tresspasser's Defense·ATU 1730 The Entrapped Suitors·ATU 1740 Candles on the Crayfish·ATU 460B The Journey in Search of Fortune·ATU 834 The Poor Brother's Treasure·ATU 910 The Clever Precepts (previously Precepts Bought or Given Prove Correct)
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.