Tradition / Region: Luxembourg (between Dalheim and Waldbredimus; Gondelingen ruins, Sulphur Spring, Hurenstein)
Alternate Names: The Well Spirit of Gondelingen, The White Woman of the Sulphur Spring
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In the forest between Dalheim and Waldbredimus lies an old spring known as the Sulphur Spring. Long ago, near this place stood the castle of Gondelingen, now almost entirely vanished. People have long believed that a restless spirit dwells at the spring and in the surrounding hills.
Once, several women gathering herbs near the spring saw their collected plants suddenly scattered by an unseen force, as if by an invisible hand. It was said that an underground tunnel once led from the spring to the castle, and that within the castle there was a chamber called the Green Chamber, feared by its inhabitants because the spirit sometimes haunted it at night.
Some described the spirit as a gaunt, slender woman who wandered between the spring, the ruins, and the nearby mountain called the Hurenstein. At midnight she was said to fight with a knight beneath a great beech tree and then, defeated, hurry back toward the castle, disappearing into the tunnel that led to the spring. Woe to anyone she met on the path.
One man from Dalheim told how, while out at night gathering pears, he saw a white female figure walking ahead of him. Though she seemed to move slowly, he could not catch her. He later heard the clock strike midnight, and the figure let out a piercing scream. When he returned to search for her with prayers and holy water, he experienced terrifying noises, crashing blows, and flashes of fire. When he regained his senses, he found himself near the Sulphur Spring, where he saw the white woman glide swiftly through the air and vanish into the spring with cries of lament.
Another man encountered the spirit during a storm near the old ponds fed by the spring. He followed a moving light, sank into swampy water, and saw the spirit rise in a burst of brightness, hovering above the banks and circling the air while wailing. A violent wind arose, and as he fled, he saw the apparition disappear toward the Hurenstein.
Since then, people say the spirit of the Sulphur Spring still wanders between the ruins, the hills, and the water, lamenting without rest.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Der Brunnengeist bei Dalheim. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Brunnengeist_Dalheim.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