where did the saying the devil is beating his wife come from
Sunshower In the Southern United States, Utah as well as in Hungary a sunshower is said to show that "the devil is beating his wife" (or, more rarely, "the devil is beating his wife with a walking stick") because he is angry God created a beautiful day. The rain is said to be his wife's tears. A regional variant from Tennessee is "the devil is kissing his wife".[8][9] In French, the phrase is "Le diable bat sa femme et marie sa fille"[10] (i.e., "the devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter"). In the Netherlands and Belgium, they say that there is a "funfair going on in hell".[11]
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]