#polishlegend

So I saw a post from @wonder-place-but-people-suck that was relating to demon!Shane, “The whole thing about Shane being a demon stops being funny when you realise that Madej in Polish legends was a guy whose punishment in hell was so horrible that the devil himself feared it.”

Instantly I became interested in the legend so I did research on it. At first I found nothing regarding a punishment or the devil or even a Madej Polish legend. I was starting to think the post was bs and made up. But then I found https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Columbian_Cyclopedia.html?id=dB4YAAAAYAAJ which mentions a Robber Madej in section 3 Transmigration of Souls, Robber Madej was saying the names of the people he killed while sitting under an apple tree. When their names were said the soul of that person, represented by an apple, would transform into a white pigeon, he also murdered his dad. This book then never mentions him again.

Now with a proper name I looked up Robber Madej and found it was mentioned in The Folktale From Ireland to India section of this book http://folkmasa.org/yashpeh/The_Folktale.pdf, this one goes into greater detail and tells the whole story which is confusing to follow so I’ll try to organize it so it’s easier.

This legend has 3 tales under the name The Three Green Twigs. The first tale is The Self-righteous Hermit, this is about a punishment to a self-righteous man. He has to become a beggar until he finds three twigs on a dry branch, his punishment is over when he meets robbers and changes them for the better.

The second tale is The Devil’s Contract in which a boy who was sold to the devil as a “you can have my first born” type of deal goes to hell to get back the contract. The boy gets help from a famous robber who knew his way around hell and found he already had his place saved in hell.

Both of those tales didn’t seem to be the one the person was referring to as the punishments don’t seem so horrible that the Devil is fearful of it. However, the third tale The Greater Sinner fits the post better as the penance is referred to as severe.

Depending on the story the man has either: killed 99 men, killed his parents, or shot at Sacramental bread. The following are his punishments which vary from story; carry a bag on his back that’s filled with a stone for each victim, plant a firebrand flower and water it daily with water from far away carried by his mouth, plant a garden and allow anyone to stay over, wear an iron loop on his head until it falls off, and care for a black sheep until it turns white. He isn’t forgiven until he kills someone who was going to commit a greater crime.

The book, and all of the other websites I’ve visited, fail to make the connection between Robber Madej’s punishment and striking fear in the Devil. Not to mention the punishments happen while Madej is on Earth and not in Hell as said on the post.

Now I were just a tiny bit more invested in this or if I had more time I would gladly do more research relating to Madej and the Devil. I tried a different approach by searching up “worst torment in hell polish legends” or “Madej punishment” but nothing relevant has came up.

Illustrations for National Theater of Education spectacle “Mitologia i Legendy Słowian”.