They’re not canon, they’re folklore. Folk Christianity is syncretic; it accepts the existence of (historically pre-Christian) supernatural entities while relegating them to a subordinate, often demonized position in Christian lore.
The Christian aspect is that, whatever Satanic creature opposes you, Christian prayer can save you.
@TruthSandwich@austria@folklore "Propaganda" implies that it is written by people deliberately trying to spread their beliefs to as many other people as possible.
Folklore, on the other hand, was told to small audiences, mouth to mouth, frequently for entertainment purposes - and the actual authorities frequently frowned on them.
@TruthSandwich@austria@folklore Yes, folk stories are shaped by religious beliefs, including those pushed by the authorities.
But we should not discount the agency of folk storytellers. They had their own motivations, and I feel calling these stories "propaganda" is doing them disservice.
Not in the time and place most of these tales were recorded (19th century Germany/Austria/Switzerland), and I wager not for some centuries before that.
Does a fish in the ocean think of spreading the waters?
@juergen_hubert And then there was Edmund Jones traipsing all over the Welsh countryside, totes believing in the supernatural because that too was an expression of the divine.
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