Boruta

Also Known As: also Diabeł Boruta, “the devil Boruta”; Błotnik, “the marsh one”; Boruta Tumski and Czarny, “the Black”; the name is tied to Polish bór, a pine forest, and old Polish boruta is given as a word for a pine
Region/Culture: Central and Eastern Europe
Mythos: Polish Mythology, Slavic Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Demons and Devils
Mythical Attributes: Boruta is the devil of the town of Łęczyca in central Poland, who guards a hoard of gold and silver in the cellars of its castle and changes shape at will.
Role in Mythos: He is the best known of the Polish noble devils, a fiend who dresses, drinks and duels like a country gentleman.
Relation to Humans: He frightens travellers at night in the woods and on the causeways, leads them off the road and pulls them into the bog. A man bold enough to rob his treasure may come out rich, but the door takes his heel and his strength goes with it.

Under the castle at Łęczyca there is a cellar lit by a single splinter of resinous pine. The light is poor and the air is cold and wet. On an empty wine barrel sits a very large man with a moustache down to his chest, and he is bored. Up above, he says to himself, the sun shines, birds and people sing, bands play, and everyone is feasting. He has been down here with his gold for close to four hundred years.

This is Boruta, the most famous devil in Poland. His town stands in flat, marshy country on the river Bzura, and its brick castle was built by King Casimir the Great in the fourteenth century. The story that put him into print is a klechda, a folk tale, published by Kazimierz Władysław Wójcicki in Warsaw in 1837. Wójcicki called Boruta “the name of a famous devil” and noted that the local gentry already swore by him when they cursed their neighbours. He also remarked that the devil must have grown old, since he had settled down and was seldom heard from.

The man in the cellar passes for a nobleman. He is tall and wide across the back, with eyes that throw sparks. He wears a crimson coat, black gloves and boots with turned-down tops and enormous spurs. The cap stays on and the gloves stay on. When he forgets himself and lifts a hand to scratch his head, five great claws show at the wrist, and under the tilted cap sit two small black horns. In later tellings a rich nobleman’s robe hides the tail as well.

Older than the gentleman is something out of the trees. The name hangs on bór, the Polish word for a pine forest, and the account given in Łęczyca itself makes him first a forest demon of the same kind as the leshy: a master of the woods and their animals, to whom hunters left offerings at the foot of the pines. Priests called such beings devils, and in time the forest spirit put on a nobleman’s coat. Nobody wrote the forest demon down while he was still believed in, so this history is a reconstruction. It fits the ground, at least. He is also called Błotnik, the one of the marsh.

On an ordinary night he is out on the dykes and in the woods. People walking home from a gathering find the path gone and the bog under their boots. Around Łęczyca he has been seen on the marshes as a huge bird, in the Bzura as a great fish with horns, in the fields as a black horse at full gallop, in the woods as a wolf, and in the town as an owl. At the ruined castle of Panoszów he sits hooded like a monk with a shining kettle in his hands. In one form he is almost kindly. As a miller he visits the mills by night and gives the flour he grinds to the poor.

Wójcicki’s tale has two halves. The first belongs to a mortal, a rich, grey-coated squire with no surname and no coat of arms, so strong that his neighbours named him after the devil and called him Siwy Boruta, Grey Boruta. He drank his first glass at every feast to the health of his namesake. When his money was gone he took a sabre and a lantern and went down into the castle vaults. After two hours of wandering he found the treasure room. In the corner, on a lump of gold, sat an owl with burning eyes. The squire bowed. The owl nodded. He filled his pockets, his purses and finally his mouth, bowed again and stepped out. The door slammed by itself and cut off his heel. He was rich after that, and he was finished. His strength never came back, and he died in a quarrel with a neighbour over a field boundary. Nobody would live in his house. The devil sat in the willow in the yard and walked the rooms at night, carrying the gold back.

The second half is the devil’s own bad evening. Sick of the cellar, he dresses and walks into a wedding at the house of a squire named Kalina. He keeps his cap on. Offered a cup, he throws it on the floor and drinks the mead straight from the jug, then empties a whole barrel until foam hangs in his moustache. The guests cheer. Here is one of their own. Then he seizes the bride by the hand. The groom slaps him and calls him outside, and by torchlight the young man scratches a cross in the dirt and fights. One clean stroke takes two fingers and the glove with them. A cock crows. Where the stranger stood, a little pitch boils on the ground and the yard smells of sulphur. Two claws fall out of the glove, and the dropped sabre carries a Turkish crescent where a Christian blade would have a cross. The guests shout his name. Back on his barrel, he licks a hand with three claws on it and never comes up again.

His powers are those of a devil who owns a district. He changes shape, clouds the way home, and keeps a fortune that no one man could carry. A mocking laugh from inside the stove, when somebody speaks his name, is his.

His limits are just as clear. He once tried to push over the tower of the Romanesque collegiate church at Tum, a short walk from the castle, and could not shift it. The mark of his paw is still shown in the stone. A cross drawn on the ground and a cockcrow undo him. So does a bridegroom with a good sword arm. He lost a duel at a country wedding, and he has been sulking about it ever since.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Boruta?

Boruta is the best-known devil in Polish folklore, tied to the town of Łęczyca in central Poland. He lives in the cellars of Łęczyca castle, where he guards a hoard of gold and silver. He usually appears as a tall nobleman who hides his claws and horns under gloves and a cap.

Where does the story of Boruta come from?

The tale that made Boruta famous was published by Kazimierz Władysław Wójcicki in Warsaw in 1837, in a collection of Polish folk tales. Wójcicki noted that local people already used the devil’s name when cursing their neighbours. The account given in Łęczyca makes Boruta a forest demon first, like the leshy, who was later turned into a devil, but nobody recorded that forest demon at the time.

What does Boruta look like?

In the 1837 tale Boruta is a very tall, broad-backed man with sparkling eyes and a heavy moustache that falls onto his chest. He wears a crimson coat, black gloves and boots with huge spurs. He has five large claws on each hand and small black horns under his cap. He can also appear as an owl, a wolf, a black horse, a huge marsh bird or a horned fish.

What happens to people who steal Boruta’s treasure?

In the best-known story a strong squire called Siwy Boruta goes into the castle cellars and fills his pockets with the devil’s gold. As he leaves, the door slams and cuts off his heel. He stays rich but loses his strength and health, and he later dies in a fight with a neighbour.

How was Boruta defeated?

Boruta was beaten in a sabre duel at a wedding after he grabbed the bride. The groom drew a cross on the ground and cut off two of the devil’s fingers, and Boruta vanished when a cock crowed. Boruta also failed to push over the church tower at Tum, where the mark of his paw is still shown in the wall.