The Boy Taken Away from the Devil
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 36' 31.52" N, 10° 2' 34.87" E |
In Spanbeck, there was a widow who lived in the most destitute poverty together with her many children. One day, when she wept and wailed loudly about her misfortune, the Devil approached her and asked her about the reason for her sorrow. She replied that her husband had died, and that she had no bread to feed to her children. Then the Devil offered to the woman that he would support her and her children until their deaths, if she would give him her youngest son once he had reached an age of fourteen years. In her desperation, the woman accepted this offer, and lived without having to worry about food from now on.
But the designated year came closer and closer, and the thought that she would have to hand over her child to the Devil made the woman more and more sorrowful. In her utmost fear, she went to the priest and beseeched him to do everything within his power to protect her son (who was ignorant of all this) from eternal damnation.
On the day when the Devil was supposed to arrive, the priest took the boy to the churchyard. There, he drew a circle in which he put a table and a chair, and commanded the boy to sit inside and read in the Bible. At midnight, the Devil made a terrible noise from the outside of the circle, but he was unable to get hold of the boy. In the following night, the boy once again sat down within the circle, where he composed the song “Wach auf, mein Herz und singe” (“Wake up, my heart, and sing”) while he was surrounded by the terrible apparitions conjured by the Devil. In this manner, he was saved again. On the third night, he went into the church after being advised to do so by the priest. There, he recited the song which he had composed. Even here, the Devil did not leave him in peace. The organ collapsed, and the church burst apart from the top to the bottom. But in the next morning, everything was restored to its usual condition, and the boy had now been taken away from the Devil.
Source: Schambach - Niedersächsische Sagen und Märchen, p. 155f