Ghostly Folklore: Dames Blanches 🇫🇷👻

 

Dames Blanches.

🇫🇷🌉👻

In French folklore there is a ghost like woman often seen near bridge's or alleys.

Her name is Dame Blanche .

 The most common version of the legend says she would stop someone and ask them to join her in dance or assist her in a certain way in order to pass. If the passerby offered her assistance, she would make him courtesies and disappear,  if he refused to play along with her request, he would meet an unfortunate end.

The name Dames Blanche translates to  “White Ladie / Ladies” 

She is a supernatural entity most often thought to be a spirit though some believe she may infact be a type of fay .

She can be seen near near caverns, ravines, bridges and other narrow places where she can attract the attention of people passing by.

In France, the Dames Blanches are most  popular in  Lorraine and Normandy and were said to appear in Occitan, the Pyrenees mountains with various other sightings throughout the country.

The Dames Blanches have similar counterparts in name and characterization in Germany she's called  Weiße Frauen and in  Dutch she's  the Witte Wieven.

She may also have ancient connections to a pre Christian guardian goddesses known as the Matres,  specifically the Dominæ, who watched over the home, perhaps became the Dames of folklore.

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Thomas Keightley (1870) describes the Dames Blanches as a type of Fae known in Normandy "who are of a less benevolent character." They lurk in narrow places such as ravines, forest, and on bridges and try to attract passerby attention. They may require one to join in her dance or assist her in order to pass. 

If assisted she "makes him many courtesies, and then vanishes." One such Dame was known as La Dame d'Apringy who appeared in a ravine at the Rue Quentin at Bayeux in Normandy, where one must dance with her a few rounds to pass. 

Those who refused were thrown into the thistles and briar, while those who danced were not harmed. Another Dame was known on a narrow bridge in the district of Falaise, named the Pont d'Angot. She only allowed people to pass if they went on their knees to her. Anyone who refused was tormented by the lutins(a type of hobgoblin), cats, owls, and other creatures who helped her.