Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: New Year’s Water Spirit, Alzette Bridge Cat
Category: Cat
The Myth
Each year on New Year’s Eve, the water spirit of the Alzette River is said to appear in Ettelbrück in the form of a white cat on the bridge.
One year, a man crossing the bridge that night encountered the animal, which followed him through the deep snow. He hurried home, but the strange creature followed him into the house. No matter how often he tried to drive it out, it kept reappearing in the room.
At last he went to bed and tried to sleep, but the cat sat before him and cried out in a pitiful voice. When the clock struck one, the animal suddenly vanished. In the morning, however, the man discovered that his face had been badly scratched.
People said that the water spirit itself had visited him in the form of the white cat.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Die weiße Katze auf der Teichbrücke zu Ettelbrück. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Katze_Ettelbrueck.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