“The Devil in the Mirror: Projections of Desire from Folk Tales to Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt”

Abstract

Dealing with the Devil is one of most prominent cultural motifs across the history of recorded folk tales. From ancient folk tales to contemporary cultural products the Devil has appeared as an illicitly desirable being. The focal point of dealing with the Devil is that it is instigated by a pre-existent desire to exceed one's capacity determined by their temporal circumstances. In the Christian narrative tradition a deal with the devil occurs over a Manichean undercurrent and ends in the condemnation of the participant or in the devil's humiliation. Pantheistic traditions discombobulate this contract by virtue of the nonexistence of Manichean binaries. This study aims to analyze the prevalence of desire in the deal with the devil motif throughout various tales and how the video game Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (2015) complicates notions that are often taken for granted in Christian folk tales through its core narrative design. © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.