Klagmuhme
A wailing sprite that foretells death, akin to the banshee.
The Klagmuhme (also Klagemuhme) is a female sprite from German folklore who heralds imminent death through wailing and whining. She is considered the German equivalent of the banshee.
Quick Facts
- First attested
- 15th century Middle High German as klagmuoter
Facts from the source article.
Other name variants
The terms Klagmuhme, Klage, Klag, Wehklage, Klageweib, Klagefrau, and Klagmütterle refer both to the sprite and to the owl with which it is often identified. Klagmutter also denotes the caterpillar of the death's-head hawkmoth and of Arctiinae moths. Further names include Klagmütterchen, Winselmutter, Haulemutter, Klinselweib, and Klagweh.
Appearance
The Klagmuhme often appears as an animal: a longhaired black dog, a white goose, a dove, a big gray cat wearing a scarf, a whimpering white or three-legged sheep, an eerie bird, a fiery toad, or a calf with red eyes. As a sheep, it grows gigantic if pranked. Its human form is an old woman in a black dress with a white scarf, or a small woman with a cobwebbed face and a three-cornered hat. It may also appear clad in linen, as tall as a church steeple with glowing eyes, or as a gigantic, hollow-eyed, deathly pale figure in a burial robe. Non-animal, non-human forms include a distorted black figure or a rolling tangled clew, especially a misshapen blue clew spraying sparks.
Activities
The Klagmuhme's wailing is an omen of death and disaster, and hearing it can be deadly. If it wails before a house with an ill person, clothing of the diseased is thrown outside; if the sprite carries the clothing away, the person dies, but if left behind, they recover. The disaster can be averted by telling the Klagmuhme an alternative. On stormy nights, houses over which it stretches its long bony arm will have a corpse within a lunar cycle. It is usually invisible near houses, floating over them, and its whining (sounding like 'u-u-u!') can cause nervous illness. Otherwise, it does no harm, though a cold shiver may be felt at its sight. It is active at midnight.
Origin and identity
The Klagmuhme takes different forms across German-speaking regions. In Austria, she is a dead person's soul. Saxony knows her as the spirit of a grieving mother searching for her drowned son. In the Allgäu, ghostly men or wailing women carry a coffin at midnight. The Klagmuhme rides with the wild hunt in Carinthia and Switzerland. The Fichtel Mountains have her as a forest woman called Klagmütterlein. In the Harz, the Haulemutter was mistakenly linked to Frau Holle by scholars.
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