Donde no hay nadie no hay diablo

Abstract

This paper is based on the conjecture that the devil does not dwell in the desert, as is commonly thought, but in populated places. So it could be said that wherever there is a human being the devil is not very far away. It does not matter if his is not a physical presence: where there is vice, distortion, malevolence, there he is. Fiction and rhetoric are the work of this master of deception and disguise, as are laughter, derision and parody, that profane sacred things and virtue and trivialize evilness, making it look funny. Of course, the devil is hiding behind any sign of pride, lack of moderation, rebelliousness, idolatrous beliefs and practices, even in food and in the slightest pleasure, as there is no such thing as innocent pleasure. Many important works of French literature of the period have been analyzed in pursuit of the devil (Roland, Raoul de Cambrai, Tristan, Jeu d’Adam, Miracle de Théophile, Queste, Renart, Rose, etc.) and some others, finishing with an analysis of two stories about the snake-woman: Jean d’Arras’ Mélusine and Antoine de la Sale’s Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle.