The Devil's Bargain

Fourty two years ago, famed country singer-songwriter and Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan gave an unsettling interview on 60 Minutes. When asked why he continued to perform after a five-decade-long career, Dylan revealed he had made a deal with "something" a long time ago and was simply holding up his end of the bargain. When pressed further, Dylan said the bargain was made to get where he is now: his fame, success, accolades, and enormous musical talent. Naturally, the interviewer wanted to know who or what Dylan had made a bargain with, but the answer was unexpected. Dylan said he had made a bargain with "the chief of this world, this earth, and the world we cannot see."

This isn't the first time Dylan made such a revelation. Back in 2008, he commented that he had traveled to the crossroads and made a deal, and when he returned, he was the man he is today. This might seem strange, but in the music industry, especially the blues, there are countless legends of figures going to the crossroads and making a deal with a very specific entity. Legendary blues musicians Robert and Tommy Johnson are often mentioned in this context.

In Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home, which traces Dylan's life, a childhood friend makes an intriguing comment stating that Dylan used to play at parties and was okay, just average, but after returning from a few months in New York, Dylan was performing feats of musical skill his friends couldn't believe. Another friend even referred to him as a "shape changer" or a man possessed. Thus, the ordinary Robert Zimmerman (Dylan's real name) had begun his journey towards becoming the legendary Bob Dylan.

But who was this "chief of the earth and the world we cannot see," the strange entity that Dylan had struck a deal with? It would be natural to assume that Dylan was referring to God, right? Well, the New Testament poses another idea: that it is the devil, not God, who is the Prince of this world. Throughout history, there have been various myths, legends, and even first-hand admissions of men making deals with the devil. Let's explore some ostensibly true stories of men who apparently signed a contract in blood to make a deal with the devil. Some of these stories are so unsettling they may play on your mind.

The Devil

First, what or who is the devil anyway? The devil, or Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Mephistopheles, appears across multiple religions and cultures around the world. In fact, he's so common that some might consider him or the idea of him to be an innate quality of human beings. He always has one thing in common: he is the personification of evil, an extremely hostile and destructive force whose chief weapons are deception and temptation. Perhaps the best concept of the devil is in John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, where the devil is the fallen angel Lucifer whose great pride leads him to rebel against God. He is portrayed as a charismatic, passionate but deeply flawed entity who is incapable of doing good or even seeing how his schemes will harm himself. At one point, he quite literally states he is going to make a heaven out of hell.

As a man of science, I'm skeptical of any fallen angel morphing into a pitchfork-wielding goat, so I consider the devil to be more of a metaphysical manifestation of humanity's vices, a reminder that our selfish inclinations might lead us astray and lead us to self-ruin. But regardless of what you believe, there are some legends of folk who made a deal with the devil that stand well apart from the rest, not just because they involve notable figures from history but because of the bizarre, unsettling, and disturbing consequences that followed.

Faust

The first and perhaps the most famous legend of a man making a deal with the devil is Faust, a story that has been told time and time again by writers such as Goethe, Gounod, Marlowe, and most famously Goethe. Faust began as a morality tale warning against the costs of worldly ambition. Goethe's Faust tells the story of a man who, in his search for ultimate knowledge, falls into suicidal despair at his failed efforts and makes a deal with the devil who appears before him offering a helping hand. But what if I told you this story was actually based on a real man, a man who seemed every bit as touched by the hand of evil as his fictitious counterpart?

German doctor Johann Georg Faust was a notable but incredibly mysterious figure in the 15th and early 16th centuries. For around 30 years, he appeared all over Europe performing magic tricks, offering horoscopes, and was often accused of fraud. He regularly claimed to be a physician, doctor of philosophy, alchemist, and astrologer. All sources indicate that he was a widely traveled and widely known man, and all these sources testify to his incredibly evil nature. In fact, his reputation at the time was steeped in the supernatural. He claimed he could repeat and exceed all of the miracles of Christ, and he was reported to travel with a dog and a horse, with the dog's shape-shifting into a servant at will. He even had dozens of grimoires, magical texts attributed to him. It was thought that he was in league with the devil and had made some kind of deal with him, so much so that he was officially denounced by the church.

While most scholars of his time scoffed at his magical abilities, he was taken very seriously by notable figures such as Martin Luther. Continually accused of fraud and other things like sodomy, Faust was eventually banned from cities or denied entry once he was recognized. But it wasn't until his death that things turned truly strange. Killed in a chemical explosion, Faust's body was discovered to be heavily mutated, so much so that perhaps he had been mutated prior to the explosion. Many assumed this was a toll that Lucifer's evil had enacted on Faust to contort his body into a maligned mess. More strangely, despite the fact Faust's body was laid on its back, it was continually found to have turned over and over again to face the very bowels of the earth, no matter how many times someone righted it.

That is the story of Faust from history, or rather the man known as Faust. According to historians, Faust was his assumed name. However, the true identity of this man and whatever deal he made with the devil may never truly be known.

Bernard Fokker

The second legend is that of Bernard Fokker, the fastest sailor of his age. In the 17th century, the Dutch Empire touched every corner of the known world. With colonies on most continents, the Dutch Empire wielded enormous power and wealth driven largely by its control of extremely valuable spices. One such colony in Jakarta, Indonesia, had spices that were desired all around the world. The problem was the journey from the Netherlands to Indonesia took at best a whole year, making the trade of valuable spices extraordinarily lengthy and vulnerable to piracy, sinking, disease, and much more. Yet despite this incredible distance and the perils involved, one captain, Bernard Fokker, was consistently completing the journey in as little as three months.

How was this possible? There was no Suez Canal to travel through. This meant Fokker would have had to sail around Europe, Africa, and southern Asia to get there. That is no small journey, even for modern boats. But in the 17th century, this was impossible. Two hundred years later, this journey still took tea clippers, the fastest ships on the seas, four months. Perhaps even more unbelievable is that the ship's letters verify the journey time as correct. Unless the letters were faked, Fokker was actually sailing this extraordinary journey in as little as three months. But fake documents wouldn't explain third-party accounts that support Fokker's movements and timescales.

Stories of the time hold Fokker as a strange and menacing character. It was said that all who served under the captain were controlled by an iron fist and were punished to such diabolical extremes that Fokker made their lives a living hell of endless misery. But there was another rumor that was whispered around Fokker, one that explained his unnatural speed. He had sold his soul to the devil in order to be the fastest sailor who ever lived. The devil had agreed and made supernatural modifications to Fokker's ship, allowing it to reach speeds that were impossible for any contemporary vessel. And so Fokker became just what he bargained for: the fastest and most famous sailor of his age.

But that is not where his story ends. Legend has it, after Fokker had enjoyed the fruits of his deal, the devil came back to claim his due. He sentenced Fokker and his ship to sail the oceans for all eternity as captain of none other than the legendary ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, doomed to never find port again. Since its sighting near the Cape of Good Hope in 1709, the Flying Dutchman has haunted sailors as a terrible specter and a reminder of the true cost of doing business with the devil: eternal damnation.

Niccolò Paganini

Now, to return to the theme we touched on at the start of the article, the likes of Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson aren't the only musicians who have supposedly made a deal with the devil. There are countless stories of hopeful musicians wandering out to the crossroads and coming back with a complete, almost supernatural mastery of their instruments. But amongst all these stories, there is one figure from history that stands head and shoulders above the rest: Niccolò Paganini.

In perhaps the most satanic story of the lot, it is said that his relationship with the devil began before he was even born. It was rumored that, pregnant with her son, Paganini's mother sought to commune with the devil in order to ensure that her son would become a great virtuoso. Whatever deal she made certainly paid off, but not without its costs. By age 13, Paganini's skills with the violin were progressing at such a rate that his master declared there was nothing more he could teach him. He was a natural child prodigy, and what came to others only through decades of effort came to him with almost supernatural ease. By age 15, he was already performing solo tours, astonishing his audience with his skill and confidence.

But this is where Paganini's problems began. Although enormously gifted with a rare and valuable skill, Paganini fell into a breakdown and swiftly turned to alcohol to ease his torment. This may have been one of the reasons why, despite being a young man enduring enormous fame and success, Paganini was rapidly seduced by gambling, womanizing, and even more alcoholism. Now some unsettling rumors about Paganini began to emerge. One popular story said that Paganini had murdered a woman he'd seduced, used her intestines as violin strings, and imprisoned her soul within his instrument forever.

While outlandish, many of these rumors had roots within the bizarre and unusual character of Paganini himself. Firstly, his skill was unparalleled. He could play at a rate of 12 notes per second, and he performed and popularized complex techniques almost effortlessly on none other than the violin, which was known to many as the devil's instrument. Perhaps most striking and most satanic was his appearance. He was said to have enormously long fingers with lengthy, immaculate nails. His skin was ghostly pale, and he had hollow, sunken cheeks, thin lips, and his tall, thin body was always dressed in black. This may be why, to many people, he was thought to be the devil himself. It was reported by some audience members that a terrible bolt of lightning struck during one of his performances right as Paganini bowed, and one audience member claimed to have seen some kind of supernatural being helping Paganini as he performed.

Eventually, after age and disease ravaged his body and he had long retired from performing, Paganini died of larynx cancer. One of his final actions was to turn away the priests who offered him his last rites, a decision taken by many to indicate his satanic connection. His body was soon after refused by the church, but after years of being transported around, he was finally forgiven by Pope Gregory and buried in Parma, northern Italy.

Jonathan Moulton

Lastly, there is one final man said to have made a deal with the devil, and in fact, he is a man who supposedly tried to best the devil at his own game. After all, as the saying goes, "It's no sin to cheat the devil." Jonathan Moulton was a legendary Civil War hero who came into enormous wealth in later life. While he may have been a fantastic soldier and respected for his feats in battle, he was simultaneously despised by the poor Puritan population of his local town. The reason? He frequently flaunted his enormous wealth in front of them with little regard for how much it rubbed in their faces. In fact, he had risen to wealth so quickly it was widely believed there was some supernatural element involved.

This was why, when his house suddenly burned down for no obvious reason, many suspected that Moulton had brought about some kind of unholy retribution upon himself. Moulton took further actions that damaged the public's view of him. When his wife suddenly died, he wasted no time in marrying her much younger, attractive friend and then flaunting her around town. It was even whispered in the community that the spirit of his deceased wife would haunt his new wife's marital bed, seeking to reclaim the ring that had been stolen from her.

But the story of how Moulton suddenly came to be opulent in the first place is the most disturbing of all. Offering his soul in return for riches, Moulton made a pact with the devil. In return, the devil would fill two of his boots, which were hanging over his fireplace, to the brim with gold each day. The devil accepted the arrangement, and soon Moulton was a fabulously rich man. But bootfuls of gold soon became insufficient for him, and driven mad by his greed, he ordered that larger and larger boots be made and hung over his fireplace so that each day the devil would give him more gold than he had previously. Seeing that their arrangement hadn't changed, the devil continued filling Moulton's boots to the brim as promised.

But it was here that Moulton decided to trick the devil. Coming up with the idea that if he cut the bottom off the boots, the coins would pour out onto the floor, and try as he might, the devil could never fill them. The gold would be left to pour and pour. Unsurprisingly, the devil didn't take this deceit very well. Discovering Moulton's trick and finding the coins spilling out over the floor, the devil was filled with incandescent rage and legend has it he burnt Moulton's house to the ground. He and his family barely escaped alive.

But that's not where our story ends. Years later, when Moulton died at the age of 61, his body vanished from his coffin. It seemed that the devil hadn't forgotten what happened and had dragged Moulton, body and all, straight down to hell. It is said that all that was left in the coffin was a small pot of gold bearing a demonic insignia. Whatever actually happened to Moulton, we may never know.

Now, you might want to consider what you would sell your soul for, and would it be worth it? Because, as the Gospel of Matthew says, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?"