Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: The Grey-Bearded Ghost; The Workshop Spirit of Mühlbach
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In the town of Mühlbach, a carpenter was plagued by a strange problem: none of his journeymen would remain with him for long. They were required to sleep in the workshop, and one bed stood in a corner opposite the door. Whoever slept there soon grew pale and thin. Each complained that during the night his blanket was pulled from him, and by morning it would always be found lying behind the door.
Since no one could endure this for long, the men soon left the carpenter’s service. At last a determined apprentice decided he would uncover the truth. The others laughed at his complaints each morning, and he suspected they were playing tricks on him.
That night he lay down as usual but only pretended to sleep. Before midnight had passed, an old man with a long grey beard appeared from behind the door. Without a word, the figure walked to the bed and seized the blanket. The apprentice held on tightly, refusing to release it. But the old man pulled it away with a stubborn, unwilling look, wrapped himself in it, and shuffled back to the corner behind the door.
There the figure seemed to sink into the wall itself, and the blanket slipped from him onto the floor. The apprentice rose, picked it up, and, shaken though he was, managed to sleep.
In the morning, however, the blanket once again lay behind the door.
No one ever discovered why the spirit troubled the workshop in this way, and in the end the carpenter was forced to forbid his apprentices from sleeping there at all.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Von einem Gespenst in Mühlbach. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/muehlbach.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