Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: Laundry Maiden of the Olkerbach
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In the Olkerbach gorge below Ralingen, where the stream falls from the rock called the Scheeß into a pool, a tall maiden in dazzling white robes was once said to appear on certain nights. The people called her the Wäschfrächen of the Olker Bâch.
Sometimes she washed snow-white linen in the pool beneath the rock; at other times she wandered along the banks of the stream or moved through the hazel thickets that once grew thickly there.
A woman from Olk once went to the place on the evening of the Feast of the Assumption to gather hazelnuts. As she reached the pond, the white-clad maiden appeared on the opposite bank, wearing a necklace of gold and silver coral. She rebuked the woman sternly for profaning the holy feast. Filled with fear, the woman hurried home at once.
Another time, a young tailor from Kordel, who lived in Rosport, wandered into the hazel bushes there on the same feast day while gathering nuts with friends. Separated from the others, he saw a radiant maiden pacing on a meadow below the pond. She wore a golden crown, and her garments glittered with gold and silver, shining with an unearthly light. When the young man spoke to her, she answered gravely, telling him that the day was not meant for pleasure but for sanctification.
The encounter filled him with dread. He returned home, took to his bed, and from that time on was ill. The following year, on the same feast day, he died.
Thus the white washer-maiden of the Olkerbach was remembered as a radiant and solemn spirit who appeared beside the water and rebuked those who treated sacred days lightly.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Das Wäschfrächen von der Olker Bâch. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Waschfrachen_Olker_Bach.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