Lore

Legends 63: Dance With the Devil

September 29, 2025

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • Folklore frequently links the devil to high-stakes gambles, often involving the exchange of one's soul for worldly gain, as exemplified by stories of musicians and gamblers. 
  • Secular music, particularly instruments like the fiddle, has historically been associated with the devil because it encouraged dancing, which the Church deemed sinful. 
  • The concept of selling one's soul to the devil is not always a literal contract signing, but can manifest through actions like extreme gambling (Terrence Wantanabe), embracing forbidden arts (Robert Johnson), or perpetrating great cruelty (William Henry Harrison 'Grancer'). 

Segments

Gambling Addiction Cautionary Tale
Copied to clipboard!
(00:00:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Terrence Wantanabe lost over $200 million due to a severe gambling problem after inheriting Oriental Trading Company.
  • Summary: Terrence Wantanabe inherited vast wealth from Oriental Trading Company but lost over $200 million due to gambling in Vegas. His losses were so significant that by 2017, he needed a GoFundMe for cancer treatment. This serves as a cautionary tale about betting without the capacity to win.
History of Human Gambling
Copied to clipboard!
(00:03:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Gambling dates back to the Paleolithic period, with evidence of dice playing in Mesopotamia by 3000 BCE.
  • Summary: Humans have a long history of seeking thrills through betting, with gambling potentially dating back to the Paleolithic period. Mesopotamians played dice around 3000 BCE, and gambling houses existed in China by the first millennium BCE. The thrill of betting on impossible odds was a primary source of excitement before modern amusements.
Devil’s Pact and Early Escape
Copied to clipboard!
(00:04:04)
  • Key Takeaway: The earliest known story of a satanic bargain, involving a 6th-century cleric, resulted in a happy ending after intervention by the Virgin Mary.
  • Summary: The devil’s primary form of high-stakes gambling involves pacts where the cost is usually the soul. In one 6th-century tale, a cleric who signed a contract for reinstatement regretted it and sought refuge with the Virgin Mary. She provided the deed, allowing him to tear it up, thus escaping the deal.
Music, Sin, and the Devil
Copied to clipboard!
(00:05:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Secular music, especially instrumental music that encouraged dancing, was viewed by the early Church as evil and linked directly to the devil.
  • Summary: The devil’s modern gambits often involve music, which has been folklorically connected to evil since the Middle Ages. Priests warned against secular music because it used instruments and compelled dancing, which was considered sinful. Saint John Chrysostom stated that where dance is found, the devil is present.
The Fiddle Player’s Curse
Copied to clipboard!
(00:07:30)
  • Key Takeaway: The folktale of Tijan Gautier illustrates a devilish bargain where accepting a magical charm for musical skill results in an uncontrollable compulsion to play and dance, leading to damnation.
  • Summary: Tijan Gautier, a terrible fiddle player, accepted a magical charm from a stranger to become the best musician. Once accepted, he could not stop playing, forcing everyone at the dance hall to dance for 12 hours until a priest intervened. Tijan was taken to hell immediately upon stopping his playing.
Robert Johnson’s Crossroads Legend
Copied to clipboard!
(00:08:53)
  • Key Takeaway: The legend claims Robert Johnson gained mastery of the guitar after meeting a shadowy figure at a crossroads at midnight and trading his soul.
  • Summary: Robert Johnson, a black man in the Mississippi Delta, was terrible at guitar until he disappeared for 18 months and returned a master musician. The legend states he met Satan at a crossroads, who tuned his guitar string by string, granting him skill in exchange for his soul. Johnson encouraged this rumor through his song choices.
Debunking Johnson’s Pact
Copied to clipboard!
(00:14:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Historical research indicates Robert Johnson learned guitar from musician Ike Zimmerman, though the graveyard setting of the lessons fueled continued devil rumors.
  • Summary: Researchers discovered that Robert Johnson’s 18-month hiatus was spent learning from blues musician Ike Zimmerman, not the devil. However, the story evolved, suggesting the lessons took place in a graveyard, implying the devil was still present. Johnson’s death remains mysterious, with rumors ranging from murder to poisoning.
Rose La Toulippe’s Fatal Dance
Copied to clipboard!
(00:15:16)
  • Key Takeaway: Rose La Toulippe accepted a dance from a handsome stranger on the night before Ash Wednesday, leading to a confrontation with a cleric and her early death.
  • Summary: Rose La Toulippe, engaged to Gabriel, attended a party the night before Lent where a beautiful stranger arrived by a black horse. The stranger convinced her to dance and marry him, but when she took his hand, she was stung, and he was revealed as the devil. A cleric intervened, causing the devil to vanish, but Rose died five years later after becoming a nun.
Dancing Devil Folktale Variations
Copied to clipboard!
(00:20:34)
  • Key Takeaway: The core message across various ‘dancing devil’ folktales, from Quebec to England, is that indulging passions leads to punishment, often resulting in petrification or damnation.
  • Summary: The story of Rose La Toulippe is one iteration of a common theme where people dance past a holy time and are punished by a stranger. The English legend of Stanton Drew features a wedding party dancing past midnight on the Sabbath until they all turned to stone. A modern Texas disco legend from 1979 involved dancers levitating before the stranger vanished with a smell of sulfur.
Grancer’s Hellish Plantation Life
Copied to clipboard!
(00:29:34)
  • Key Takeaway: William Henry Harrison ‘Grancer’ sold his soul through human trafficking, forcing enslaved people to labor for his lavish parties and dance hall.
  • Summary: Grancer, born into privilege, became the largest human trafficker in Coffey County, Alabama, trading enslaved people for his cotton empire, which is framed as selling his soul through action. He forced the enslaved to build and maintain a massive dance hall and play music for his constant parties. Upon his death, he was interred with his dancing shoes, and his spirit now leads a ghost dance every Saturday night.
Podcast Production and Support
Copied to clipboard!
(00:34:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Listeners can support Lore and access ad-free content, including weekly ’lore bites,’ via Apple or Patreon subscriptions.
  • Summary: The episode was produced by Aaron Mankey, with writing by Alex Robinson and research by Jamie Vargas. Ad-free episodes and weekly bonus content called ’lore bites’ are available through a premium feed on Apple or Patreon. Further information on the Lore book series and TV adaptation is available at lorepodcast.com.