![]() Water is another common motif in Catalan legends, and in particular water nymphs appear regularly. Others tell the story of how peculiarly shaped mountain peaks earned their form. Many of the stories commonly found in Catalan mythology are centred around real-world elements, such as the Devil’s Bridge. She was sent to a dungeon, where he skin slowly became scaly due to the lack of light, and she morphed into a crocodile-like creature, before then growing wings as she was still somewhat saintly. The ‘cocollana’ is a type of person-dragon hybrid that was once a nun who was punished for her lack of faith. ![]() As a result, he would forever roam the land on his horse tortured by the flames spewing from his eyes, mouth, and nose.īeings that are half-human, half-creature also feature often in Catalan mythology. The second sin was not paying his vassals an adequate price for their work in the jurisdiction Comte Arnau presided over. The first of which was engaging in relations with an abbess, a nun with a high level of status running a convent. ‘Comte Arnau’ translates to ‘Count Arnau,’ and he was a knight known for committing two sins for which he will be eternally punished. ‘Comte Arnau’ is one of the most well-known characters in local folklore. The devil is not the only hellish figure found in the pantheon of Catalan mythology. “This kind of mystery is very attractive, mystery with darkness, something we cannot understand.” “All legends have something magic,” Victor Borràs says. The Pont del Diable de Martorell is hardly unique, there are several other Catalan towns with their own Pont del Diable such as Tarragona, Cardona, Pineda de Mar, and several others, and all have similar stories telling the origin of the bridge. As he didn’t technically finish the bridge, he didn’t gain the soul of the maid.Īs the story passed through generations, different versions started to appear: in another, the devil promised an old lady to build the bridge overnight in exchange for the soul of the first living creature that crossed the bridge the morning after, with the old lady tricking the devil by hiding a cat inside her basket and letting it go just before crossing herself. He throws a stone into the ground and leaves just as the bridge was about to be complete. The devil hears this and thinks daytime is approaching and, as he can only work at night, becomes furious. She throws a bucket of water on one of the roosters of the house who begins to crow. That night, as he’s working fast, the maid realises she’s about to lose her soul and becomes worried, so the innkeeper of where the maid is staying comes up with a plan. ![]() All of a sudden, a knight appears and offers to build a bridge overnight in exchange for her soul, an offer she accepts. Fed up one day, she said it would be better to just give it to the devil instead of having to make so many journeys. The devil is one of the most popular characters in Catalonia’s legends, often presented as a dangerous figure with magic powers that will try to trick people into selling their souls - but also one that can be easily outsmarted.Ī long long time ago, the legend goes, there was a maid who had the arduous task of crossing the river every day to collect water. But a local folk tale tells a far more interesting story that gives the bridge its name: the Devil’s Bridge. It was originally built by the ancient Romans as part of the Via Augusta road crossing the Iberian Peninsula and was rebuilt on various occasions throughout the centuries. One story that comes from the middle ages collected by Amades is that of the ' Pont del Diable' in Martorell. “Most legends come from the middle ages,” Borràs says, “but we have some from the 17th, 18th, 19th century.” The Devil’s Bridge “Legends come from the beginnings of humanity because we need to explain our origins, our stories, our history, through word of mouth,” says Víctor Borràs, a playwright and the director of the theatre company Teatre Nu which organizes the Festival de Llegendes de Catalunya every year in Sant Martí de Tous, in central Catalonia. Much of what we know of Catalonia’s legends today comes from the work of myth collectors such as Joan Amades, an ethnologist and folklorist who documented his work in the Costumari Català, a collection of Catalan customs. Word of mouth was the only way to spread these stories for most of their history until in the late 19th century they began to be collected and written down by well-educated urbanites looking to the countryside and their past. Be they tales of dragons, water nymphs, or the devil himself, Catalonia’s rich tradition of mythology and legends have passed through generations for centuries.
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