Jack o' Kent

Jack o' Kent is the cunning folk-hero of the Welsh Marches — a wizard, priest or trickster of the borderland around Kentchurch and Grosmont who, in tale after tale, strikes a bargain with the Devil and outwits him every time. He has the Devil build a bridge over the Monnow in a single night in return for the soul of the first to cross it, then sends a dog over first and cheats Satan of his fee. Dividing a harvest, he chooses 'tops' and leaves the Devil the useless roots, then takes 'butts' the next year, always leaving his partner with nothing.

At the last he cheats the Devil even of his corpse, arranging to be buried neither inside the church nor outside it but within the very thickness of the wall, so that the bargain for his body can never be claimed. Long current on the English–Welsh border and perhaps attached to a real medieval cleric, the legends belong to the rich European tradition of the mortal who beats the Devil at his own game through sheer wit. Jack o' Kent is the Marches' beloved trickster — proof that cleverness can outface even damnation.