Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: Wichtelcher of Mersch, Gnomes of Wichtelcheslê, Wichtelchesfels Gnomes
Category: Gnome
The Myth
In the valley around Mersch, the gnomes were once said to be especially numerous. Their dwellings were shown in many places, including on the hill near Angelsberg, but the best known lay near Schönfels and Reckingen.
At the foot of a rock near Schönfels, called op Wichtelcheslê, there was once a narrow entrance to their dwelling, now blocked. It was believed to lead deep into the mountain through a labyrinth of passages that stretched to the other side near Reckingen. There, the Wichtelchesfels, or Gnome Rock, stood with the Wichtelchesloch, a hollow opening through which one could enter a passage. Many daring men followed it far into the mountain without reaching its end. One man even carried two pounds of tallow candles inside, yet he too failed to find the end.
In this region the little earth sprites lived. They were said to have dug a deep well in the valley called the Wichtelchespötz. It was so deep that no one knew its bottom. Long ago, people from the surrounding villages tried for three days to fill it with stones, but without success. Today it remains as a small bog about two meters wide, overgrown with shrubs. The place is called Im Hals, a narrow gorge, and it was once said that a village had stood there, for old people remembered seeing piles of stones and even gravestones.
Some elderly women claimed to have seen the little gnomes themselves coming down from the Gnome Rock. They were said to be one to one and a half feet tall and carried buckets suspended from a pole across their shoulders as they went to fetch water from the Eisch River. They never harmed anyone. When people began to track them, they withdrew from sight and only came out at night, helping the good, pious, and orderly people with their work while troubling the wicked and stealing their grain in the fields.
The gnomes were said to be clever, industrious, and friendly toward good people. They avoided human houses and lived together among themselves. They dressed much like humans but always wore large straw hats and usually carried a spade or hoe over their shoulder.
An old man once told how he had left his plow in the field one evening and returned the next day to find his entire field already plowed.
Another farmer, while working near the Wichtelchesfels, once heard faint voices from inside the rock calling, “Bake me one too!” He went closer and shouted back, “Gnome, bake me a roll too!” The voices fell silent. When he returned to his plow, he found a fine roll lying upon it. The roll had the strange property that it did not shrink no matter how much he cut off and ate. But once he told the villagers about it, the roll began to shrink and soon disappeared entirely.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Die Wichtelcher in der Gegend von Mersch. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Wichtlein_Mersch.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive