Tradition: Belgian Mythology
Alternative Names: Berlavrouw, Boerrede Vrouw
Category: Nymph
The Myth
The Boerlavrouw is a mischievous air spirit from the folklore of Antwerp, Belgium, associated with the wind blowing across fields of flax. She was said to play among the plants as they lay drying in the fields, sometimes teasing the farmers with her tricks.
Her favourite prank was to pick up bundles of flax and carry them into a neighbouring farmer’s field, leaving them there to cause confusion. The farmers might find their drying flax mysteriously displaced, with no obvious explanation for how it had travelled from one field to another.
The Boerlavrouw was more than just a playful spirit: she was the personification of a gust of wind, given a human-like identity in local folklore. Her antics offered a supernatural explanation for the sudden breezes that swept through the flax fields and scattered the farmers’ crops.
Sources
Abe de Verteller. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. In Abe de Verteller, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/