Many cultures have stories describing encounters with divine beings that hinge on contract language.
This case from the Tanakh is exemplary. The divine interprets Jephthah’s words not as an excited exclamation or hyperbole, but as a contract.
31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
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34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back.
These stories are older than recorded history. European fae myth is particularly rife with examples of this trend.
When cross referenced with supernatural legal history, we can see that these stories start to circulate as a principality converges more towards legal formalism, and assigns more value to rule of (supernatural) law than to individual judgement in contract enforcement cases.1
A formalist regime is a product of generations of scholarly practice by legal elites. However, if the governed population is still uneducated or even illitate, contract law is most like the magical incantations they’re already used to in their normal life. Powerful, but dangerous — a tool to be careful of. These populations naturally use stories of horrific accidents as intergenerational teaching tools. Stories of a man who lost a bargain with the devil are right at home with stories of a man who lost a bargain with the sea, or with liquor, or with explosives.
These stories are not, in sum, intended to warn people away from infernal contracts categorically. The most famous example of course is imbued with Christian morality, originally identifying the scientific pursuit of medicine with demonic knowledge against knowledge of Scripture. But even it is careful to note that Mephistopheles honors his contract to the end.
The full time of Doctor Faustus his 24. yeeres being come, his Spirit appeared vnto him, giuing him his writing againe, & commanding him to make preparation, for that the Deuill would fetch him against a certaine time appointed.
– The historie of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, pp 75. Readers may prefer a more modern transcription.
Despite the brutality2 of this and other stories, they offer utility for prospective contracting parties. While these deals are often inhumane and dangerous, and the two sides are asymmetrical in both power and information, the divine is bound by the same rigid rules. Sometimes, that’s all one needs to know to come out ahead.
This same asymmetry applies even to regular people under entirely natural government, and the memetic pressure produces similarly flamboyant advice.
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Legal systems seem to converge toward formalism over time, especially with respect to contracts. Readers may be familiar with the American case.
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“But when it was day, the Students that had taken no rest that night, arose and went into the Hall, in the which they left Doctor Faustus, where notwithstanding they found not Faustus, but all the Hall lay sprinkled with blood, his braines cleauing to the wall, for the Deuill had beaten him from one wall against another: In one corner lay his eyes, in another his teeth, a pittifull and fearefull sight to behold.”, pp 78 of the same work ↩︎
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