Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology Alternate Names: The Voices over the Sauer Category: Ghost
The Myth
In earlier times, people near the Rosport ferry often heard strange sounds at night above the waters of the Sauer River. Ferrymen crossing the river and travelers passing nearby reported hearing loud shouting and singing of children in the air, though nothing could be seen.
Two fishermen working late one night also heard a terrible cry of children above a small pool of the Sauer called the Wog, situated a short distance downstream from the ferry. The sound was so frightening that the men immediately fled in great terror.
Thus people believed that an unseen presence lingered above the river, known only by the cries of children echoing through the night air.
Near the Bralhof farm between Merl and Rollingergrund, in the area where an old windmill once stood, a headless man was said to appear.
A brave man named Johann Br., who came from a nearby village, once encountered the figure there. Wherever he tried to move, the headless man blocked his path. The same thing later happened to the narrator’s brother when he returned home from town one evening. He reached his house breathless and in terror, struggling to open the door quickly enough to escape the apparition.
People said that the ghost was the spirit of a burgher who had once lived there and whose memory remained infamous in the area.
In earlier times, the ferry at Rosport on the Sauer River was said to be haunted.
When the ferryman had to carry passengers late at night, it sometimes happened that the boat, though empty or only lightly loaded, suddenly became terribly heavy in midstream. It could scarcely be moved and seemed ready to sink at any moment.
The ferrymen believed that this was caused by a malevolent spirit that climbed invisibly into the boat and weighed it down as it crossed the river.
Thus the ferry was feared at night, for people said an unseen being still haunted the crossing.
On the Moselle River, at a place called ob em Meilesteen a short distance upstream from Mertert, fishermen who worked at night often heard a strange sound. It resembled the splashing of countless carp striking the water with their tails, and the noise drifted downstream toward Mertert and beyond. Near Wasserbillig it suddenly ceased, and people said it stopped where the old Moselstadt once stood, for it was believed that a great town of that name had existed there long ago.
The fishermen said the splashing was caused by the Moselgeist, the spirit of the Moselle.
Others told that at the same place, in the darkness of night, they had seen an unknown boatman crossing the river. He rowed silently across the water, and just as suddenly as he had appeared, he vanished into the river and was gone.
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.
Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology Alternate Names: Birch Maiden, Birkenjungfer, Birch Damselfly, White Horse of the Birk Category: Swamp dweller, Ghost
The Myth
In the birch forests and moors near Mutfort, Ötringen, and the Birk, there was said to wander a mysterious female spirit known as the Birch Maiden.
She often appeared as a young woman dressed in dazzling white. At times she spread a white carpet before travelers, upon which a small goat would suddenly appear. Others saw her walking silently along lonely paths, wearing a white skirt, sometimes with a red apron, or carrying a white switch. She would not answer greetings and vanished as suddenly as she appeared.
At the Birkengraben, many claimed to see her at dusk: a white figure who would utter a shrill cry, rise into the air, and disappear toward the birch moor while a terrible roaring swept through the forest. Some saw her carrying two burning candles, accompanying travelers through the night with a rushing noise in the air until she vanished near the village.
The tale says she had once been the daughter of a wealthy count whose castle stood near Ötringen. She wished to remain unmarried, but her father forced her toward a marriage she refused. On the morning of her wedding she fled into the nearby forest. Pursued by her father’s servants, she ran across the birch moor and vanished into its depths with a cry. Since then she has wandered the place as a restless spirit.
On certain nights before midnight, she is seen lamenting at the edge of the moor, clothed in white and carrying lights. If anyone dares to approach, she disappears with a scream. Should a person follow her to the edge of the bog, she may seize him and drag him down into the depths.
The Birch Maiden is also said to roam the area in another form. In the meadow called Lohkaul, a riderless white horse appears at night, bearing a shining saddle. It bursts from the forest, gallops to the banks of the Syr, and grazes there quietly. When a weary traveler passes, the horse comes tamely and seems to invite him to mount. But anyone who accepts is carried with great speed to the birch moor or to the Pleitringer pond and thrown into the water.
Thus the spirit of the Birch Maiden wanders the forest, the moor, and the meadows, appearing sometimes as a grieving woman in white and sometimes as the ghostly white horse that lures the unwary to destruction.
In earlier times, when ghosts were still believed to roam the land, there lived near Heßlingen, by the Wolf’s Mill in the forest called Wölfragrond, a strange being known as Böschgretchen.
She was said to have once been a woman of exceptional height and beauty who had been cursed and bound to the swamp there. People disliked passing that place, though no one was known to have been harmed by her.
One day, an old man known as Burgklees came along the path from Remich. Brave as he was, he went straight past the swamp. But as soon as he neared it, he felt uneasy. Pressing on, he heard someone calling behind him, “Klees, Klees, wait!” He turned and saw Böschgretchen standing before him. Terrified, he tried to flee, but the ground beneath him began to give way. He leapt aside and escaped, reaching home pale and exhausted, collapsing at his door.
The spirit remained in the area for many years and was seen by many. Once, a shepherd grazing his flock near Heßlingen noticed his dog behaving wildly, running and howling so loudly that people came to help. Following the dog, they found Böschgretchen lying dead in a wolf’s den, sunk knee-deep in mud. They pulled the body out, carried it to Ellingen, and buried it in the churchyard, where later the wall was built so that her grave now lies within its foundations.
It was said that once every seven years the dead woman returns by night to the place where she died, and that on stormy nights old people have heard her moaning there.