The legend of devil's bridge!

/*The theme of the Devil offering himself to build a bridge in one night in exchange for the soul of the victim is a present theme in the Catalan linguistic and cultural area, since there are at least twenty-seven versions of it in the oral tradition. It is important to say that it also has a remarkable presence in folk narrative and is widespread internationally. The analysis of the versions allow us to classify the stories in four groups: satanic legend, explanatory tradition, swindler’s novella and religious tale. Now, we are going to explain a version for each of them: Satanic legend We are going to describe “El pont major de Girona” (in Catalan) translated as “The oldest bridge of Girona” in English. The legend explains that in Girona, the north of Catalonia, there was a poor girl who worked as a house maid, exhausted of crossing the river “Ter” every day to give food to the workers. She said one day that she would give her soul in exchange if the devil would build her a bridge. Then the devil appeared and told her that he will build to her a bridge but she never will cross it. The poor girl was afraid. There were three cockerels in the house. One of them was black and bad, on the dark side. Before midnight the mistress wet the cockerels with lukewarm and the black one crowed. The demons couldn’t take the girl away, but she died of fright. The credibility of that tale is considered to be a characteristic feature of legend, which indicates that the story should be classified as a legend. It is also important the numinous nature of the story, since Satan and the devils personify the negative forces of numinous power, and they exercise this power against humans. The tale warns us about the danger of having deals with the Devil. The explanatory tradition On Sallent, a village near to Santa Pau, on the middle of a “pla” there is a very hight rock. People say the devil wanted to do a bridge before 12:00 of the night, before the cocks sang, because in by this way he will obtain the soul of a man who made a deal with him. But the cocks sang before the midnight, so, the devil had to stop the working, only a rock was missing for the bridge’s construction. And that’s why this rock is called “the devil’s rock”. The story is told in a descriptive style, without the active intervention of the characters and contains no other contextual data to interpret its meaning. The swindler’s novella The plot in most of the tales of this groups consists on the Devil undertaking to build a bridge in one night with the request of a mortal in exchange for the mortal’s soul, and the mortal managing to avoid fulfilling his or her part of the bargain. The story of “El pont del diable” (Abrera, Baix Llobregat) tells that a long time ago, Martorell’s people and the other’s way wanted to build a bridge in the river because they wanted to cross it. So, one day the devil showed himself saying that he will build it in return of the first soul that passed it. People agreed, and the demons in only one night built it. The next day the people took along a cat a cat, and the poor animal passed, so the demons had to get the cat’s soul. In this version there is no external information concerning the credibility factor. The narrative is humorous and has a positive ending for the human. The Devil is tricked. The fact that the human represent the intelligence and the Devil the stupidity allows the story to fit in the groups of “Tales of the Stupid Ogre (giant, Devil)”. The religious (pious) tale One time there was girl very devoted to th Virgin Mary, who took care of some lilies to take them to a figure of Our Lady. One evening, someone called at the door, it was a gentleman who asked for accommodation. They had dinner and when they finished the girl’s father started to pray, but when the man listened that, asked about his bedroom because he wanted to sleep. Then at 12:00 of night, the girl realized about a hairy black hand that was coming down on her window, so, the girl jumped and she couldn’t sleep on that night because of thinking about that hand. The next day she wanted to cross the river to see her fiancée, who had to go off to the war next day. The gentleman said that if she gave him her soul, he would build her a bridge over the river before twelve so that she could say goodbye to her fiancée. She agreed but afterwards regretted her decision, so she begged to the Virgin forgiveness for having given her soul and begging that the bridge not be finished by twelve. The demons started to build the bridge but there was still one stone left to lay by twelve. Then the Virgin Mary appeared, took the girl and carried her to the other side of the river and stopped the fiancé from having to go to war. They got married and lived happily ever after. This story combines characteristics of legends and folktales. It appears the satanic fear and the holy devotion. Finally, the holy power wins. We could consider it as a holy legend. The most important it is its educational function, so we can conclude that it is a religious folk tale. CONCLUSION We can say that the Devil is seen more as a character of folk tales that can be beaten by humans rather than an evil character to be feared.*/

I have downloaded a scientific article about the legend of Devil Bridge at: Google Scholar.

You can read the article by Dr. Carme Oriol from the University Rovria I Virgilí here.

There are twenty seven versions in Catalonia of the topic of the Devil building a bridge in one night in exchange for a soul of a victim.

Inside Europe and outside Europe, this theme is widespreed in the tradition of many countries around the world

Here's how you can make bold and italic text.

Here's how you can see images from Devil's Bridge legends from different countries: