Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: Walferdingen Gnomes, Wichtelches Apartments
Category: Gnome
The Myth
Legend says that little gnomes once lived in the mountain above Walferdingen.
One morning, as several farmers were going out to their fields, they passed close to a small hole in the ground. From beneath it they heard giggling and other noises. Curious, they began to dig at once. Before long they broke through into a set of beautifully built underground rooms.
Inside they found many kitchen utensils and various household objects, which people said the gnomes had taken from human homes. They also discovered gold, which they carried with them to the fields and watched over carefully as they worked.
But when they returned home in the evening, the gold had vanished. They hurried back to the hole, only to find that the fine rooms they had seen before were gone. In their place were only ruins — everything broken and utterly destroyed.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Walferdingen. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/Walferdingen.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