#mills

This legend vividly demonstrates the power of malevolent magic and, at the same time, warns of the dangers of the night that lie in wait for a person. In one version of the tale “Three Hairs from the Devil’s Beard,” only the all‑knowing killer, robber, and cannibal knows why the mill is stuck: “A treasure is hidden under the millstone, and as long as it remains there, the mill cannot run.”

In pre‑Enlightenment society, it was commonly believed that there were several reasons for this. The explanations presented in various narrative genres confirm that the mill was susceptible to the influence of demonic forces and human injustice. In the life of the Irish abbot Luherin of Ossgoria, it is said that his mill refused to grind, firstly, on Sundays, and secondly, stolen grain. The miraculous power that the saint possessed was transferred to the inanimate object and thus prevented misdeeds.

The woman who had been begging for alms promises to help the impoverished miller in gratitude. The beggar manages to tie the devil with a rope made of linden bast — in folklore, it was believed that this tree repels demons — and lead him away and imprison him in an abandoned tavern.

Shortly after this, when he visits his relatives, it turns out that the robbers were after the gold coins that he had hidden under the floorboards in the living room.

In the Hungarian version of the fairy tale “The Golden One,” the miller, for whom the hero takes on as a servant, turns out to be not only a swindler who exploits the poor, but also a demon who forced witches to work for him at night, “grinding weeds, datura, and vetch, and they mixed this into the poor people’s flour; that is why their bread is so dark.”

They often acted as intermediaries in various transactions. They brought news from neighboring mills, both nearby and distant. They often served as a kind of postman for millers, reporting on opportunities to buy or sell mills or milling machines and collecting orders.