- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- last nail, roof, hidden thoughts, cunning
The story
People said that a devil waited when a church roof was nearly finished. As soon as the roofer drove in the final nail, it would push him off.
One craftsman knew the danger. While driving the last nail, he said aloud that another was still missing: he would climb down to fetch it and return. He left his hammer on the roof and descended.
Only when safely on the ground did he thank God for the completed work. The devil realised the trick. Furious, it grabbed the hammer and hurled it at him. It missed and drove into the earth beside him.
The tale explains that the devil cannot know a person’s thoughts; it hears only spoken words. That was the weakness the roofer had used.
Reading the story
Danger gathers around the exact moment a job is completed. The craftsman survives through language, directing his opponent’s attention to a future task that is no longer needed.
Told by Jurgis Tverkus in Plingiai; recorded by S. Džiugas in 1938, LTR 1542(374).
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 468, p. 501–502: „Velnias ir stogdengys“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.