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The Teufelsbrücke of Andermatt and the Schöllenen Gorge Made by the Devil

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Thought to be made by the Devil himself, the Teufelsbrücke Bridge stretching across the Scllenen Gorge in the Swiss Alps continues to be a marvel and a mystery. So much so that a legend telling it was so hard to build they had to make a deal with the devil to make it happen. 

Hidden deep in the heart of the Swiss Alps lies a horrid legend of desperation, dark deals, and restless spirits. At first glance, the Teufelsbrücke, or Devil’s Bridge, near the village of Andermatt appears like a scenic marvel, gracefully arching over the roaring Schöllenen Gorge. 

Read More: Check out all haunted legends from Switzerland

It was here the French fought the Russians in 1799, and the Suvorov Monument is built to remember the Russian soldiers fallen in battle. 

Yet beneath its weathered stones and the mist rising from the tumultuous Reuss River, centuries-old whispers speak of a sinister pact forged with the Devil himself — and of strange, eerie occurrences that continue to haunt this stretch of mountain pass.

A Bridge Built in Desperation

In medieval times, the treacherous Schöllenen Gorge posed a deadly obstacle for travelers and merchants navigating the Gotthard Pass, one of the most crucial alpine routes linking northern and southern Europe. The gorge’s jagged cliffs and raging waters made crossing perilous, and many lives were claimed by the unforgiving terrain.

The Uri People: The Gotthard Pass was opened in 1230, and Uri was granted imperial immediacy by Henry VII in the following year. Trade across the Gotthard brought ever increasing wealth to Uri, and the towns and villages along the Gotthard route became increasing independent.

Desperate for a solution, the local villagers attempted to build a bridge, but every effort failed. Stone and timber constructions were swept away by floods or crumbled under the sheer force of nature. The Uri people wanted to build a mule track through the Gorge. 

The legend goes that they got help from something sinister some 800 years ago. In their despair, the townsfolk uttered a reckless challenge — they wished the Devil himself would build the bridge for them.

To their horror, the Devil accepted.

The Sinister Bargain

According to legend, the Devil promised to complete a sturdy bridge by the next three days, on one chilling condition: he would claim the soul of the first being to cross it. The villagers, caught between superstition and necessity, agreed to the deal, believing they could outwit the infernal builder.

Devil Bridges: Devil’s Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. The bridges that fall into the Devil’s Bridge category are so numerous that the legends about them form a special category.

True to his word, the Devil built a magnificent stone bridge, its dark, moss-covered stones arching over the abyss. But the villagers had devised a cunning plan. Instead of sending a man or woman across, they drove a goat onto the bridge at dawn.

Enraged by the trickery when he realized the deceit, the Devil seized a massive boulder, intending to smash the bridge and doom the villagers. But before he could hurl it, a clever old woman confronted him, carving a Christian cross into the rock and reciting a holy prayer. The sacred symbol drained the Devil of his power, forcing him to abandon the stone and flee back into the shadows of the mountains.

The Devil’s Stone by the Gorge

That boulder, known as the Teufelsstein or “Devil’s Stone,” still stands near Göschenen as a silent reminder of the villagers’ narrow escape. But though the bridge remained, dark tales persisted. For centuries afterward, travelers spoke of ghostly figures on the bridge at night — a lone goat, eyes glowing in the darkness, or a shadowy figure believed to be the furious Devil returning to claim a soul.

When the legend became told however is uncertain, but it has been told as far back as the 16th century and retold by Johann Jakob Scheuchzer who heard it from the Uri people. There are some variations to the legend as some say it was a dog that was sent over the bridge, some say it was an old woman who held the devil back. 

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A Place Where Legend and Landscape Collide

Even in more modern times, the area has held an uncanny reputation. The Schöllenen Gorge itself remains a place of ominous atmosphere. Its steep, enclosing cliffs blot out the sky in places, while the roar of the Reuss River below drowns out even your own heartbeat. Mist curls in ghostly tendrils along the bridge’s ancient stones, making it easy to believe that spirits of old still linger there.

Source

Today, a newer bridge stands alongside the original, yet the legend endures in Swiss folklore. The first wood bridge was replaced by stones in 1595 that collapsed in 1888. The stone bridge has been replaced and extended several times over the years. The newest bridge dates back to 1956. 

Visitors to Andermatt can still walk the path of ancient travelers, crossing the restored stone bridge and standing beside the Teufelsstein, imagining the echo of distant hooves and the furious howl of a betrayed Devil.

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References:

The Schöllenen gorge and the Teufelsbrücke (the Devil’s Bridge) | Switzerland Tourism

Devil’s bridge • Famous building/monument » outdooractive.com

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Halloween Stories: The Legend of Stingy Jack and the origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern

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The carved pumpkin is perhaps the global symbol of the modern Halloween celebration. But where did this custom come from and what does the Jack-o’-Lantern really represent?

The eerie glow of a carved pumpkin, flickering from a toothy grin, has become an iconic symbol of Halloween on a global scale. Known as the “jack-o’-lantern,” this tradition has its roots deep in ancient folklore where they celebrated Samhain, blending tales of wandering spirits, old-world customs, and the haunting specter of Stingy Jack.

Read Also: Halloween Traditions Across the World

The Jack-o’-lantern is carved mostly from pumpkins these days as the Americans started doing their own versions of the carving tradition brought over by the Irish, Cornish, Scottish and other Celtic cultures. But also other root vegetables like mangelwurzel, rutabaga or turnip have been used over the years. 

The carved faces in the vegetables used to be a way of warding off spirits during the old festivals like Samhain when the door between the living and the dead was especially thin as the summer passed over to winter. The lanterns also helped guide the people doing the Samhain ritual of going house to house for food and drink, the prelude to the modern Trick and Treat. 

The Old Tradition of Jack-o’-Lantern: Image from The Book of Hallowe’en. Caption “No Hallowe’en without a Jack-o’-Lantern.” This picture is from around 1919. // Source

The Art of Carving Vegetable

Although the tradition of pumpkin carving as we know it today dates perhaps a couple of centuries back, the act of cutting out faces in fruits and vegetables dates back millennials, and is a thing around the world. In the northern European Celtic cultures, some speculate that it was a way to symbolize the severed head of your enemies before its connection to Samhain. 

It is worth noting as well, the making of the lanterns was also a practical and cheap way of making use of what you had to shield the lights you lit up in the dark nights. And the faces were a practical and decorative way to make the light shine through, sort of what we do today as well. 

Ghost Turnip: This old carved turnip can be found in the National Museum of Ireland. In 1943 a schoolteacher, Rois Ní Braonáin,teaching near Fintown, Co. Donegal. According to here, they always made them like this around 1900. This plaster-cast model was created and painted by the museum artist, Eileen Barnes. Candles were placed inside the turnips and they were used to frighten people on the night of 31 October. // Source

The Magical Lights of the Will-o’-the-wisps

There are many origin stories about the Jack-o’-lantern as a more supernatural item. Perhaps the oldest ones are connected with the will-o’-the-wisps lights with a lot of legends attached to it. The will-o’-the-wisp, also known as ignis fatuus (foolish fire), is one of the most enduring and mysterious legends across cultures. These eerie, flickering lights appear in marshes, forests, and other desolate places, often just out of reach, luring travelers into danger.

In European folklore, will-o’-the-wisps are ghostly lights that hover just above the ground, often leading those who follow them astray. The name itself comes from “Will of the wisp,” referring to a man named Will or Jack who carried a flickering torch, or wisp, through the night. According to some tales, these lights are the souls of those denied entry to both Heaven and Hell, doomed to wander the Earth in limbo. Their ethereal glow lures the unsuspecting traveler deeper into treacherous bogs and dark woods, where they lose their way or meet their demise.

In England, the will-o’-the-wisp is thought to be a malevolent fairy or spirit, delighting in leading travelers off the safe path and into the depths of the wild. In other versions, the lights are said to be the souls of the dead, restless spirits who died untimely deaths and now seek company in the living. Many old English tales speak of people following the lights, only to end up stranded in dangerous swamps or falling into unseen pits.

Will-o-the-wisp and Snake: A painting from 1823 by Hermann Hendrich (31 October 1854 in Heringen, Thuringia – 18 July 1931), a German painter. The legend of the ignis fatuus lights have spurred many legends, one of them leading up to the Halloween pumpkin lantern.

Other cultures have their own interpretations of these haunting lights. In Scandinavia, they’re called irrbloss, believed to be the spirits of unbaptized children or the souls of treasure guardians trying to protect their hoards. In Japan, the hitodama are floating flames representing the souls of the recently deceased, drifting away from the body.

In scientific terms, the phenomenon may be explained by the combustion of gasses such as methane and phosphine released by decaying organic matter in marshes. These gasses can spontaneously ignite, producing the flickering lights that have inspired such widespread fear and fascination.

The Story of Stingy Jack

The will-o’-the-wisps soon merged with the story of the lantern, but so did another one that gave its name. The story of the jack-o’-lantern also originates from Irish myth from the mid 18th century. He has also been called Jack the Smith, Drunk Jack and Flakey Jack But who was Jack? In the 17th century, it was common to call men you didn’t know, Jack, in Britain. So a man working at night as a watchman would be known as Jack-of-the-lantern for instance. 

According to legend, a man known as Stingy Jack was a trickster who managed to deceive the Devil himself. Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him, but when it came time to pay, Jack convinced the Devil to turn into a coin to cover the cost. Instead of using the coin to pay, Jack pocketed it next to a silver cross, trapping the Devil. In exchange for his release, Jack made the Devil promise not to take his soul for ten years.

Ten years later, the Devil returned for Jack, but the cunning man tricked him once again, this time by asking the Devil to climb a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While the Devil was in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the bark, once again trapping him. In exchange for his freedom, the Devil promised never to take Jack’s soul.

However, when Jack eventually died, Heaven refused him entry due to his sinful life, and the Devil, true to his word, wouldn’t claim him either. Left to wander the Earth as a lost soul, Jack was given only a single ember by the Devil to light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, using it as a makeshift lantern as he roamed the afterlife.

In Ireland, people began carving their own turnips and placing candles inside them to ward off Jack’s wandering spirit and other evil entities, Seán na Gealaí’ as it jack-o’-lanterns are called in Irish. This practice, brought to America by Irish immigrants in the 19th century, evolved as the native pumpkin—larger and easier to carve—became the preferred choice for jack-o’-lanterns.

The Jack-o’-Lantern Lights Today

With the rise of electric lights, the tales of Stingy Jack and what happened in the darkness started to fade as the imagination of it was lit up. The custom of cutting out Jack-o’-Lantern for Halloween still persist though. Today, the eerie glow of jack-o’-lanterns is a familiar sight during Halloween, their carved faces a reminder of Stingy Jack’s eternal punishment. Each flickering light serves as a beacon, keeping the spirits at bay while honoring a haunting tale that stretches back through the centuries.

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References:

The Jack-O-Lantern’s Origins 

How Jack O’Lanterns Originated in Irish Myth | HISTORY

The twisted transatlantic tale of American jack-o’-lanterns

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5 Songs About the Devil

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Some of them uses him more of a muse of exploring the dark sides of humanity. Some use him just for financially gain, like Jack Black himself said when saying: “Satan sells tickets.” Some have gone even further, dabbling in the occult or being straight believing in Satan and worshiping. This is mostly harmless, but then again, churches have definitely burnt down in the name of Satan.

Satan was something of a multi-instrumentalist himself, because as well as playing the fiddle, Ezekiel 28:13 states that he had his own instruments built into his very being. So perhaps not that strange that many musicians find him alluring as a character.

The Deamon Lover

This is a famous Scottish ballad about a man (usually the Devil) returns to his former lover after a very long absence, and finds her with a husband and a baby. He entices her to leave both behind and come with him, luring her with many ships laden with treasure. It can be traced back to the 1700.

Lyrics

Well met, well met, my own true love
Well met, well met, cried he
I’ve just returned from the salt, salt sea
And it’s all for the sake of thee

I’ve come for the vows that you promised me
To be my partner in life
She said my vows you must forgive
For now I’m a wedded wife

Yes I have married a house carpenter
To him I’ve born two fine sons
For it’s seven long years since you sailed to the west
And I took you for dead and gone

If I was to leave my husband dear
And my two babies also
Just what have you to take me to
If with you I should now go

I have seven ships out upon the sea
And the eighth one that brought me to land
With four and twenty bold mariners
And music on every hand

It was then she went to her two little babes
She kissed them on cheek and on chin
Saying fare thee well my sweet little ones
I’ll never see you again

They had not sailed much more than a week
I know that it was not three
When altered grew his countinence
And a raging came over the sea

When they reached the shore again
On the far side of the sea
It was there she spied his cloven hoof
And wept most bitterly

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Me and the Devil Blues

One of the most famous Made-A-Pact-With-The-Devil stories must be Robert Johnson, that made a deal for some crazy guitar skills. In the crossroad of highway 61 and 49 intersect a legend was born. In 1930 it is alleged he went out to make a Faustian pact with the devil to be the greatest guitar player. In any case, talent he got. When he died he was only 27 and it is said he was poisoned by the devil. The legend goes he heard the howling of the hell hounds, coming for him when the devil claimed him as his own.

Lyrics

Early this mornin’
When you knocked upon my door
Early this mornin’, ooh
When you knocked upon my door
And I said, “Hello, Satan,”
I believe it’s time to go.”

Me and the Devil
Was walkin’ side by side
Me and the Devil, ooh
Was walkin’ side by side
And I’m goin’ to beat my woman
Until I get satisfied

She say you don’t see why
That you will dog me ’round

Now, babe, you know you ain’t doin’ me right, don’cha

She say you don’t see why, ooh
That you will dog me ’round
It must-a be that old evil spirit
So deep down in the ground

You may bury my body
Down by the highway side

Baby, I don’t care where you bury my body when I’m dead and gone

You may bury my body, ooh
Down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit
Can catch a Greyhound bus and ride

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Sympathy For The Devil

The Rolling’s stones is perhaps not remembered as a satanic rock band, but once upon the time, they kind of were. Mostly Mick Jagger was the one interested in occult books like Taoist Secret Of The Golden Flower. And in 1969 sympathy for the devil came out. There were also claims that the Church Of Satan used the song as an anthem. Hey, it was the late 60s!

Lyrics

Lyrics:
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul and faith

I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around St. Petersberg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank
Held a general’s rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
What’s puzzling you is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee as your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the Gods they made
I shouted out
“Who killed the Kennedys?”
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
And I lay traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reach Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game, oh yeah
Well, get down, hit it

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what’s confusin’ you is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails just call me Lucifer
‘Cause I’m in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste, mmm yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, mmm yeah
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game

The Devil Went Down to Georgia

Released in 1979, the song was the most successful one for the band Charlie Daniels Band. It is a pretty upbeat song, but with a more sinister lyric. Inspired by a poem the song deals with the deal with the devil motif. The song begins as a disappointed Devil arrives in Georgia, apparently “way behind” on stealing souls, when he comes upon a fiddle-playing young man named Johnny.

Lyrics

The devil went down to Georgia
He was lookin’ for a soul to steal
He was in a bind
‘Cause he was way behind
And he was willin’ to make a deal
When he came across this young man
Sawin’ on a fiddle and playin’ it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, “boy, let me tell you what”
“I guess you didn’t know it
But I’m a fiddle player too
And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I’ll bet a fiddle of gold
Against your soul
‘Cause I think I’m better than you.”
The boy said, “my name’s Johnny
And it

The devil went down to Georgia
He was lookin’ for a soul to steal
He was in a bind
‘Cause he was way behind
And he was willin’ to make a dealWhen he came across this young man
Sawin’ on a fiddle and playin’ it hot
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump
And said, “boy, let me tell you what””I guess you didn’t know it
But I’m a fiddle player too
And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with youNow you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I’ll bet a fiddle of gold
Against your soul
‘Cause I think I’m better than you.”The boy said, “my name’s Johnny
And it might be a sin
But I’ll take your bet, you’re gonna regret
‘Cause I’m the best there’s ever been.”Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
‘Cause Hell’s broke loose in Georgia, and the devil deals the cards
And if you win, you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose, the devil gets your soulThe devil opened up his case
And he said, “I’ll start this show.”
And fire flew from his fingertips
As he rosined up his bowAnd he pulled the bow across the strings
And it made an evil hiss
Then a band of demons joined in
And it sounded something like thisWhen the devil finished
Johnny said, “well, you’re pretty good, ol’ son
But sit down in that chair right there
And let me show you how it’s done.””Fire on the Mountain” run boys, run
The devil’s in the House of the Rising Sun
Chicken in a bread pan pickin’ out dough
Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, noThe devil bowed his head
Because he knew that he’d been beat
And he laid that golden fiddle
On the ground at Johnny’s feetJohnny said, “Devil, just come on back
If you ever wanna try again
I done told you once you son of a bitch
I’m the best that’s ever been.”He played “Fire on the Mountain” run boys, run
The devil’s in the House of the Rising Sun
The chicken in a bread pan pickin’ out dough
Granny, will your dog bite? No child, no

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Houses Of The Holy

Songs like this made people talk aboud Led Zeppelin being a Satanic Band. Jimmy Page himself was extremly occupied of exploring the occult, attending séances, collected occult artefacts. He also bought a house in Loch Ness. Page once said that mixing in Satanic influences was like an “alchemical process”.

Lyrics

Let me take you to the movies
Can I take you to the show
Let me be yours ever truly
Can I make your garden grow

From the houses of the holy, we can watch the white doves go
From the door comes satan’s daughter, and it only goes to show, you know

There’s an angel on my shoulder, in my hand a sword of gold
Let me wander in your garden and the seeds of love I’ll sow you know

So the world is spinning faster are you dizzy when you’re stoned
Let the music be your master will you heed the master’s call
Oh Satan and man

Said there ain’t no use in crying ’cause it will only, only drive you mad
Does it hurt to hear them lying?
Was this the only world you had? oh oh

So let me take you, take you to the movie
Can I take you, baby, to the show
Why don’t you let me be yours ever truly
Can I make your garden grow, you know

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