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The Klagmuhme or Klagemuhme (both: wailing aunt; German: [ˈklaːɡˌmuːmə, ˈklaːɡəˌmuːmə]) is a female sprite from German folklore also known as Klagmutter or Klagemutter (both: wailing mother; German: [ˈklaːɡˌmʊtɐ, ˈklaːɡəˌmʊtɐ]). 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 Arctiinae moths.^[4]

Further terms are Klagmütterchen (wailing mother), Winselmutter (whining mother), Haulemutter (wailing mother), Klinselweib (wailing woman), and Klagweh (wailing).^[4]

The Klagmuhme is first attested in 15th century Middle High German as klagmuoter (wailing mother), denoting an owl.^[5]

Appearance

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 curfew ringing 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 stormy nights, 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 (German Wildes 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]

Literature

Ludwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meiningen 1852. (reprint: F. W. Hendel Verlag, Meersburg/Leipzig 1930.)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)
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, ISBN 978-3-11-016860-0)

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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j 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.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c Jungbauer: Mitternacht. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 6 Mauer-Pflugbrot. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 422.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mengis: Gespenst. In: Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer: Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens: Band 3 Freen-Hexenschuss. Berlin/New York 2000, p. 769.
^ ^a ^b Ludwig 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.