The White Women · The Figures in the Fog

On the heaths of the eastern and northern Netherlands, figures in white appear in the fog. Locals call them the “White Women”: they do not speak, and they walk slowly through the mist.

There are two accounts. One says they were women who knew herbs in life and still walk the heath after death; the other says they lead people to water or to marsh, and that those who follow wake the next day in the same place.

The old rules on the heath still hold: when the fog comes, do not take the side paths, do not follow the figure ahead, and do not call anyone’s name in the fog.

Folklore / Drenthe · Netherlands / Time immemorial