when was the smith and the devil written
The Smith and the Devil The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm in their Children's and Household Tales (published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815),[2] although they removed it in editions of 1822 and later, substituting "Brother Lustig" and relegating references to it to the notes for "Gambling Hansel", a very similar tale.[3] Edith Hodgetts' 1891 book Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tsar collects a Russian version,[4] while Ruth Manning-Sanders included a Gascon version as "The Blacksmith and the Devil" in her 1970 book A Book of Devils and Demons.[citation needed]. Richard Chase presents a version from the Southern Appalachians, called "Wicked John and the Devil."[5]
Speak of the devil Deriving from the Middle Ages, this proverb (which was, and to a certain extent still is, rendered as "Talk of the Devil...") was a superstitious prohibition against speaking directly of the Devil or of evil in general, which was considered to incite that party to appear, generally with unfortunate consequences. Its first printed usage in modern English can be found in Giovanni Torriano's Piazza Universale (1666), as "The English say, Talk of the Devil, and he's presently at your elbow."