Tradition: Swiss Mythology
Alternative Names: The Spirit of Grüth, The Ghost of the Schwarzenbach Farm
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Grüthergeist is the ghost of a former farm servant who haunts the fields and meadows around the Schwarzenbach farm in Grüth, Switzerland. She appears on dark nights after the church clock in Allenwinden has struck midnight. The apparition takes the form of a maiden wearing a black bodice, with flowing hair and fiery eyes. She has been seen hovering above the fields and sitting beside an old well, the place most closely associated with her terrible crime.
Many years ago, the maiden worked as a servant on the farm and secretly drowned her illegitimate child in the well during the night. After committing the murder, she hurried back to her bedchamber, but as she entered, the dead child appeared to float towards her. Horrified, she cried out and fled. The innocent victim continued to appear before her, and she could find no peace. Eventually, she confessed her guilt before a court, and the executioner carried out her sentence. Yet death did not free her from the consequences of her crime, and she was condemned to wander the place where she had murdered her child.
The Grüthergeist’s haunting follows a grim nightly ritual. Sometimes she carries a brightly shining lantern as she approaches the well. She circles it three times, throwing a small stone into its depths on each visit. As midnight draws towards its end, she climbs onto the edge of the well and releases a terrifying cry of anguish before plunging into the water at the stroke of the church clock. Her repeated return to the scene of the murder reflects her eternal punishment and remorse, making the old well a place of dread for anyone travelling through Grüth after dark.
Sources
“Der Grüthergeist.” SAGEN.at – Zuger Sagen. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/schweiz/zug/gruethergeist.html