White Lady
A White Lady is a type of female ghost. She is typically dressed in a white dress or similar garment, reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with local legends of tragedy. White Lady legends are found in many countries around the world. Common to many of these legends is an accidental or impending death, murder, or suicide and the theme of loss, betrayed by a husband or fiancé, and unrequited love.
Global versions
In popular medieval legend, a White Lady is fabled to appear by day as well as by night in a house in which a family member is soon to die. They also appear within photos just before or after death. According to The Nuttall Encyclopædia, these spirits were regarded as the ghosts of deceased ancestors.Brazil
Called Dama Branca or Mulher de Branco in Portuguese, the Brazilian Lady in White is said to be the ghost of a young woman who died of childbirth or violent causes. According to legend, she appears as a pale woman in a long white dress or a sleeping gown. Although usually speechless, she will occasionally recount her misfortunes. The origins of the myth are not clear. Luís da Câmara Cascudo's Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro proposes that the ghost is related to the violent deaths of young white women who were murdered by their fathers or husbands in an "honor" killing. The most frequent reasons for these honor killings were adultery, denial of sex, or abuse. Monteiro Lobato, in his book Urupês describes a young woman starved to death by her husband because he suspected she was in love with a black slave and only gave her the stewed meat of his corpse for food.Canada
White Ladies are called Dames blanches in French. A popular legend claims that the surroundings of Montmorency Falls near Quebec City are haunted by a white lady. It is said to be the spirit of a young French-Canadian woman whose fiancé was killed while fighting against the British in the Battle of Beauport. The young couple allegedly used to meet near the top of the falls. Accordingly, the grieving woman is said to have chosen the site to end her life by throwing herself in the raging waters while wearing the wedding dress that she had recently ordered to be made. A smaller waterfall in the vicinity now bears the name Chute de la Dame Blanche in reference to this legend.Czech Republic
The best-known White Lady of the Czech Republic is the ghost of Perchta of Rožmberk at Rožmberk Castle. Perchta of Rožmberk was a daughter of an important Bohemian nobleman, Oldřich II of Rožmberk. She married another nobleman, Jan of Lichtenštejn in 1449. The marriage was quite unhappy. One reason may have been that Perchta's father was reluctant to pay the agreed dowry. During her married life, Perchta wrote many letters to her father and brothers with colourful descriptions of her unhappy family life and the bad treatment by Jan of Lichtenštejn. Some 32 of these letters had been handed down. Legend has it that as her husband was dying, he asked for her forgiveness for his treatment of her. Perchta refused, and her husband cursed her. After her death, she returned as a ghost to her family holdings. According to legends, the ghost was most apparent in the settlements of Rožmberk, Český Krumlov, Jindřichův Hradec, Třeboň and Telč. The story of White Lady is also included in the Ancient Bohemian Legends.Estonia
The most famous white lady of Estonia is said to reside in Haapsalu Castle. According to the legend, a canon fell in love with her, so she hid in the castle disguised as a choir boy, but she was discovered when the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek visited Haapsalu and subsequently immured in the wall of the chapel for her crime. To this day, she is said to look out of the Baptistery's window and grieve for her beloved man. According to legend, she can be seen on clear August full-moon nights.Germany
White Ladies are called Witte Wiwer in northern Germany and Weiße Frauen in Standard German. Stories of white lady ghosts are associated with residential castles of the Hohenzollern family. Two women are supposed to be the historical basis of a ghost haunting the Plassenburg. According to legend, the countess Kunigunda of Orlamünde murdered her two children because she believed this could enable her to marry Albert of Nuremberg, who married Sophie von Henneberg instead of her. She became a nun and died as an abbess of the monastery Himmelskron. A white lady ghost reportedly appeared in 1486, 1540, 1554 and 1677 as a harbinger of misfortune. A variation of the tale holds that the white lady of the Plassenburg is the unfortunate widow Bertha of Rosenberg from Bohemia, overthrown by the heathen Perchta.A white lady ghost, said to be a harbinger of death and misfortune, was claimed to be seen in the Berliner Schloss in 1598 shortly before the death of John George of Brandenburg, and again in 1618, 1625, up until 1940. The castle is the residence of the kings of Prussia, and the stories associate the lady with several historical figures, most notably Anna Sydow, the paramour of Joachim II of Brandenburg, who bore him two extramarital children. Sydow was imprisoned in the Spandau Citadel after Joachim's death by John George, despite his promise to care for her. She died in 1575 without regaining her freedom.
The castle of Düsseldorf is claimed to be haunted by a white lady. The castle was built in 1260 and demolished in 1896 with only an old tower remaining. According to legend, a duchess named Jakobine and her lover were murdered by her jealous husband. Her ghost was said to be seen before each of a series of fires that plagued the castle.
Friedland in Brandenburg is claimed to be haunted by a white lady, supposedly the daughter of a baronet cursed by her father for not giving him an heir. According to the legend, her ghost haunts the castle and surrounding forests, strangling anyone who talks to her.
Lahneck Castle is the site of a legend of a white lady ghost claimed to be stalking the castle. It is said that the ghost is Idilia Dubb.
There is a legend about an adulterous nobleman's wife in the civil parish of Batenhorst, Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Westphalia. The legend originates from the time of the Thirty Years' War. According to the story, the nobleman encased her in the cellar of his manor Haus Aussel to assure she could not betray him while he went away to war, but he never returned, and her spirit supposedly haunts the premises forever afterwards. During recent renovations to the manor, workers found no human remains that might give factual basis to the legend.
According to legend a white lady haunts the remains of a monastery in the forest of the Uhlberg near to the famous Altmühltal with its limestone-underground and many potholes.
Hungary
In Hungarian mythology, a white lady was the ghost of a girl or young woman that died violently; usually, young women who committed suicide, were murdered, or died while imprisoned. The ghost is usually bound to a specific location and is often identified as a specific person.Ireland
In Charles Fort, there is the story of a white lady, the ghost of a young woman that died on her wedding night. Her death was a suicide which followed the death of her husband at the hand of her father. She came back as a ghost to search for her father, and now every year on her marriage night you can hear her scream.Netherlands
Vrouwen in wit, or "Witte Wieven" as these women are called in local dialects, are mythical creatures of Low Saxon origin and so most known in the eastern and northern parts of the Netherlands. Sometimes referred to as witte joffers, they can have a benevolent and malevolent nature. Often related with witches and/or ghosts, they show many similarities with the banshee, the fairy, and the elf. Understood as malevolent beings, they abduct or switch newborns, abduct women, and punish people who have mistreated them. As benevolent beings, they may aid in childbirth or offer good advice. Indeed, though the adjective wit means "white", it may originally refer to the Germanic word wid, related to English "wit" and "wise", and so might be better understood as "wise women", as they are known in Germany, where they are connected to the Völva.They are believed to dwell in tumuli, the Hunebedden and on the moors. Wisps of mist and fog banks are sometimes called witte wieven.
The Schinveldse Bossen forest is also home to another White Lady story. Archival evidence suggests that the forest was once home to a castle farm that was built in 1396. In the 17th century, this site was burned down killing the daughter of Lord Lambert Reynart. This historical event has spawned a few variations on a White Lady ghost story based around the death of the woman who burned with the castle farm. The most common versions of the tale involve the woman having two fighting lovers or of the site being burned on her wedding day by a jealous nobleman. However, all versions claim that she now wanders the forest like a ghost in a long white dress, some saying she only appears at midnight, and others saying she only appears on nights of the full moon. The site of the former castle farm is referred to as Lammendam after the ghost who supposedly haunts the area. The term is a Dutch adaptation of the French "La Madame Blanche." It is now protected as a cultural-historical site.
Philippines
White Ladies, indigenously known as kaperosa, are popular ghost story topics in the Philippines. White Ladies are often used to convey horror and mystery to young children for storytelling. Sightings of White Ladies are common around the country. The most prominent one is the White Lady of Balete Drive in Quezon City. It is said that it is the ghost of a long-haired woman in a white dress who, according to legend, died in a car accident while driving along Balete Drive. Most stories about her were told by taxi drivers doing the graveyard shift, such as when a taxi crosses Balete Drive, and a stunning woman is asking for a ride. The cabbie then looks behind and sees the woman's face was full of blood and bruises, causing him to abandon his taxi in terror.In other instances, it is said that when solitary people drive on that street in the early morning, they briefly see the face of a white-clad woman in the rear-view mirror before she quickly disappears. Some accidents on this road are blamed on apparitions of the White Lady.
Many sources have said a reporter manufactured this legend in the 1950s as a combination of multiple stories from the area.