Tradition / Region: Luxembourg Mythology
Alternate Names: Wölfra, Wild Woman of Wölfraleh
Category: Cave dweller, Spinner
The Myth
In the Beringer Forest stands a high rock known as Wölfraleh, the Rock of the Wild Woman. It is hollowed out into a roughly square chamber with one side open, and a narrow stairway leads up from below.
According to the old stories, a wild woman once lived there, alone in the stone chamber. Others say that it was not a spirit but a lonely, childless couple who once made their dwelling in the rock, cut off from the rest of the world.
A similar tale is told of another hollow rock near Mersch, where a woman once lived entirely by herself. She did nothing but spin and lived in such isolation that people called her Wölfra, the solitary one.
Thus the rocks of the region were remembered as the homes of a lone woman who lived apart from all others, spinning in her stone dwelling.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Die Wölfraleh bei Beringen. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/luxemburg/woelfraleh.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