Abstract
Jods, nelabais, ragainais, nečystas, nelabasis, biesas, kipšiukas, pinčiukas, velniūkštis, ledokas, smailakulnis - are only some of the names that ancient Latvians and Lithuanians used to refer to the devil. Who was this devil, and what was his function in Latvian and Lithuanian folklore if he had so many different names and was talked about so much by our ancestors? Is he depicted also in Latvian and Lithuanian folklore as terrible as the Christian church has always portrayed him, or is he an ambivalent creature whose actions, like ours, depend on the situation? Can multiple devils exist at the very same time and be in hierarchical relationships with each other? Where does the devil live, and what does his shelter look like? Is he a frequent visitor in the human world, and does he often walk among us, humans? Or is he perhaps one of us? In my presentation, I aim to find answers to these questions and reflect upon how the devil is depicted in folklore, more specifically, in Latvian and Lithuanian folktales.