21. 05. 2023.

09:22 Les Lavandières - Wikipedia

Les Lavandières
Les Lavandières, or the Midnight Washerwomen, are
three old laundresses in Celtic mythology. Names in various
Celtic languages include the kannerezed noz in Brittany and
the Bean nighe in Scottish. They can also be found in the
Celtic folklore of Iberia as Las Lavanderas in Cantabria, As
lavandeiras in Galicia or Les Llavanderes in Asturias, and in
Portugal are known as Bruxas lavadeiras [1] (https://pt.wiki
pedia.org/wiki/Bruxa%20lavadeira). The three old women
go to the water's edge at midnight to wash shrouds for those Les Lavandières de la nuit, 1861, Yan' Dargent,
about to die, according to the myth and folklore of Brittany; oil, 75×150cm
or to wash the bloodstained clothing of those who are about
to die, according to Celtic mythology. The Midnight
Washerwomen may be related to the old Celtic tradition of the triple goddess of death and slaughter.

The washerwomen are small, dressed in green and have webbed feet. Their webbed feet may be the reason
they are also sometimes called the cannard noz (meaning "night ducks") in Breton folklore.

France
In the nineteenth century, the belief in night washerwomen was very present in Brittany and Normandy, but
it is also attested in many other regions of France: Berry, Pyrenees, Alps, Alsace, Morvan, Creuse, Burgundy
and Ariège.

An important number of Romantic French authors and poets wrote about the lavandières, from Guy de
Maupassant and Victor Hugo to Georges Sand.

Brittany

In Brittany, legends of the lavandière de la nuit were attested by Jacques

Cambry as early as the 18th century.[1]

In Brittany, they can be an ominous portent, foretelling death, either

one's own or a death in the family, though it is rare, just like they are not
always represented as old women, though they always have very pale
skin, being creatures of the night, and are often dressed in white or in
traditional clothing. They are very agile and strong physically, even when
they do not look so.
A triple deity is a deity with three
The Breton washerwomen washapparent
graveclothes, usually
forms thatat function
night, under
as the
a
moonlight, and are notable forsingular
their intense dislike of being
whole. Such deities may disturbed,
cursing those who dare to do so. They arebe
sometimes known to ask
referred to passers-by for
as threefold,
help in wringing clothes, breaking
tripled, the arms of tripartite,
triplicate, those who triune,
do so
reluctantly and drowning thosetriadic,
who refuse.
or as aMore rarely,
trinity. they can
The number also
three
Portrait of Breton author Jacques give charity. has a long history of mythical
Cambry (1749-1807).
associations and triple deities are
According to the Breton legends, the washerwomen
common throughoutcan either
world be ghosts
mythology.
whose name is known to all or else they are anonymous supernatural
beings who appear in a human form. It is encountered during the year in the evening or in the middle of the
night in known places (laundrette, creek), sometimes during the nights of full moon, sometimes only on the
eve of the feast of the dead (All Saints' Day).[2][3]

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Numerous folk tales on the subject have been collected during the 19th
Carl Jungandconsidered
20th century.
the In Breton, the
arrangement
washerwomen are collectively known as ar c’hannerezed-noz,of ar c’houerezed-noz
deities into triplets or
an ar vaouezino
archetype
welc’hin.[2][3] The late written tales we have of the Lavendières do not
the allow
history
usoftoreligion.
know with certainty if they
have the same mythological origin as the bean nighe.

According to a Breton tradition, they are deceased who were buried in a dirty shroud:[4]

Breton[5] English

Quen na zui kristen Until a christian

salver saviour comes
Rede goëlc'hi hou We must whiten our
licer shroud
Didan an earc'h ag an Under the snow and
aër. the wind.

Ireland
In Ireland, they are an ominous portent, foretelling death, either one's own or a death in the family. The
washerwomen of Ireland wash the bloodied shirts of those about to die.

Scotland
In Scotland, if one can get between the washerwomen and the water, they are required to grant three wishes
in exchange for three questions answered truthfully. There is also a tradition in Scotland of a single washer
at the ford, the goddess Clotha, who gives the River Clyde its name.

Wales and Cornwall

In Wales and Cornwall a passerby must avoid being seen by the washerwomen. If they do get seen however,
they are required to help wring out the sheets. If they twist the sheets in the same direction as the
washerwomen, the individual's arms will be wrenched from their sockets and they will get pulled into the wet
sheets and killed instantly. If, however, they twist in the opposite direction, the washerwomen are required
to grant the person three wishes.

England
The washerwomen rarely appear in England, although lonely pools are often haunted by some supernatural
creature, which may have derived from the same original root.

See also
Three Witches in Macbeth
ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae

References
1. Jacques Cambry, Voyage dans le Finistère, ou État de ce département en 1794 et 1795 (http://gallica.bn
f.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k103387b/f82.image), Tome premier, page 73, librairie du Cercle social, Paris, 1798
2. "Les lavandières de nuit" (http://mystere-paranormal.over-blog.com/2017/08/les-lavandieres-de-la-nuit.ht
ml). Overblog. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
3. Giraudon, Daniel. "Lavandières de jour, lavandières de nuit" (http://danielgiraudon.weebly.com/uploads/
3/1/6/3/3163761/lavandires_crbc.pdf), pg. 9, CRBC, 6 December 1996. Retrieved on 14 November 2018

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4. Émile Souvestre, Le Foyer breton : Traditions populaires, Coquebert edition, 1845, page 242, « Les
lavandières de nuit » (read online (http://www.biblisem.net/narratio/souvlava.htm))
5. Phonetic Breton of the 19th century. Transcribed to modern (peurunvan) Breton:

Ken na zui kristen salver

Red eo gwalc'hiñ ho liñsel
Dindan an erc'h hag an aer.

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