Klagmuhme

Regional traditions vary rather than providing a single origin story. In Austrian sources the Klage (Klagmuhme) is sometimes described as the soul of the deceased; in Saxony she is reported as the soul of an unlucky mother searching for her drowned son; in Carinthia and parts of Switzerland she is attested as part of the Wild Hunt or a midnight procession of wailing figures. These localized identities reflect differing ways communities anthropomorphize nocturnal lamentations and relate them to restless dead or processional phenomena.

Appearances vary widely by locality. She is often animal-shaped (long‑haired black dog howling near houses; white goose whining in a corner; dove in the eaves gutter; big gray cat; white or three‑legged sheep; eerie bird; fiery toad; a calf with red eyes), humanoid (old woman in black with a white scarf; small woman with a cobwebbed face and three‑cornered hat; a wafting burial-robed figure, sometimes described as church‑steeple tall), or non‑anthropomorphic (distorted black figure; rolling tangled clew). Midnight and nocturnal contexts are commonly reported when she is visible; she is often described as invisible when very near houses and may float over them.

Her principal activity is wailing/whining that functions as an omen announcing imminent death or disaster. She is associated with divinatory interactions involving clothing: householders throw the clothing of a sick person outside the door—if the Klagmuhme carries the clothing away the patient is said to die, if she leaves it the patient is said to recover. Tradition also records that the prophesied disaster can sometimes be averted if someone immediately speaks to the Klagmuhme and offers an alternative outcome. She is generally portrayed as not entering houses; hearing her cry can cause fright or nervous illness in sensitive people, but she is not typically described as directly violent.