The Klagmuhme or Klagemuhme (both: wailing aunt) is a female
sprite from
German folklore also known as Klagmutter or Klagemutter (both: wailing mother). She heralds imminent
death through wailing and whining[1] and is thus the
German equivalent of the
banshee.
Other name variants
The terms Klagmuhme, Klage, Klag, Wehklage (all: wailing), Klageweib, Klagefrau (both: wailing woman), and Klagmütterle (wailing mother) refer both to the Klagmuhme and to the
owl with which the Klagmuhme often is identified. [2][3] The term Klagmutter also refers to the
caterpillar of both the
death's-head hawkmoth and of
Arctiinaemoths.[4]
Further terms are Klagmütterchen (wailing mother), Winselmutter (whining mother), Haulemutter (wailing mother), Klinselweib (wailing woman), and Klagweh (wailing).[4]
The Klagmuhme often appears as an animal. So she roves howling around the concerned house in the shape of a longhaired black
dog, or she sits whiningly in the corner as a white
goose or in the eaves gutter as a
dove. She also appears as a big gray
cat wearing a scarf on its head or during
curfewringing as a whimpering[6] white or three-legged
sheep[7] near the concerned house.[6] She further is a very eerie
bird,[4] a fiery
toad[8] or a
calf with red eyes. As a sheep, she will grow to gigantic proportions if pranked by humans.[4]
The Klagmuhme's human appearance is that of an old woman in a black dress with a white scarf. Otherwise, she is described as a small woman with a face covered with
cobwebs who is wearing a little
three-cornered hat.[9] She also appears clad in
linen, as tall as a church
steeple, and with glowing eyes[4] or gigantic, hollow-eyed, deathly pale, and dressed in a wafting burial robe.[10]
Her appearance can also be neither human nor animal, though. She then appears as a distorted black figure or a rolling tangled clew,[4] particularly a misshapen blue clew spraying sparks.[8]
Activities
The Klagmuhme's wailing being an
omen of death and
disaster, it can be downright deadly for those who hear her. If the Klagmuhme wails in front of a house where an ill person is inside, clothing belonging to the diseased is thrown outside the door. If the Klagmuhme carries the clothing away, the diseased will undoubtedly die; if she leaves it behind, the diseased will recover. The prophesied disaster can be averted by immediately telling the Klagmuhme an alternative.[4] In the houses over which she stretches her long bony arm in
stormynights, there will be a corpse ere the
moon has finished its
cycle. [10]
She is usually
invisible[4] when she gets close to the houses without ever entering them[9] and floats over them.[4] Her whining (which sounds like "u-u-u!") can cause frightened people to fall ill with a
nervous disease. Otherwise, she does nobody harm. It might happen that a cold
shiver can be felt at the sight of the Klagmuhme, though.[9] She is usually active at
midnight.[8]
Origin and identity
Regarding its origin, the Klage in
Austria is the
soul of a deceased.[4] In Saxony, she is the soul of an unlucky mother looking for her
drowned son.[11] In the
Allgäu, there is a midnight
procession of Klagefrauen (wailing women) or of ghostly men carrying a
coffin. In
Carinthia and
Switzerland, the Klagmuhme is part of the
wild hunt (
GermanWildes Heer meaning "wild host"). In the
Fichtel Mountains, the Klagmütterlein is a female
wood sprite, a Waldweibchen (forest woman). In the
Harz,
mythologists wrongly identified the Haulemutter with the similar-sounding Frau Holle.[12]
Mengis: Gespenst. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 3 Freen-Hexenschuss. Berlin 1931. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
Herold: Schaf. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 7 Pflügen-Signatur. Berlin 1936. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
Hoffmann-Krayer: Klagevogel. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin 1932. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
Jungbauer: Mitternacht. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 6 Mauer-Pflugbrot. Berlin 1935. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
Peuckert: Kauz. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin 1932. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
Ranke: Klage, Klagemutter, Wehklage. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin 1932. (reprint: Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2000,
ISBN978-3-11-016860-0)
References
^ Ranke: Klage, Klagemutter, Wehklage. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1439 f.
^Peuckert: Kauz. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 422.
^ Hoffmann-Krayer: Klagevogel. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1442.
^
abcdefghij Ranke: Klage, Klagemutter, Wehklage. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1440.
^ Hoffmann-Krayer: Klagevogel. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1442 f.
^
ab Mengis: Gespenst. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 3 Freen-Hexenschuss. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 768.
^ Herold: Schaf. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 7 Pflügen-Signatur. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 984.
^
abcJungbauer: Mitternacht. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 6 Mauer-Pflugbrot. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 422.
^
abc Mengis: Gespenst. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 3 Freen-Hexenschuss. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 769.
^
abLudwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meersbusch, Leipzig 1930, p. 221.
^ Ranke: Klage, Klagemutter, Wehklage. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1440 f.
^ Ranke: Klage, Klagemutter, Wehklage. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 4 Hieb- und stichfest-Knistern. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 1441.