Tradition / Region: Luxembourg (Weiler; castle stream called the Gels)
Alternate Names: Washerwomen of the Gels
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In earlier times, the Gelsfrächen were said to come at night to the castle stream called the Gels near Weiler. There they washed clothing, and people in the surrounding houses often heard the clapping sound of water and washing through the darkness.
If the women or maids of the nearby households had no time to wash their garments, the Gelsfrächen would sometimes do the work for them. More than once the farmhands from the manor farm that had belonged to the castle found their dirty overpants, left soiled the evening before after work in the fields, freshly washed and hanging on the fence posts.
Thus the Gelsfrächen were remembered as night-washing spirits who labored unseen beside the stream.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Das Gelsfrächen zu Weiler zum Turm. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Gelsfraechen_Weiler.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