The Laumės of the Rivers
In Lithuania, people said beautiful women lived by the rivers and in the woods, spinning and weaving at night, and the rainbow was their belt.
What was reported
Laumės are fairy women of Lithuanian folklore, called laumas in Latvia. They lived near water, in forests and on hilltops, and were said to be very beautiful, with long hair, though in some tales their feet were a bird's or a goat's.
They spun, wove and washed linen at night, and could help hard-working women, finishing their spinning by morning. But they also played tricks, punished laziness, and were said to swap human babies for their own. The rainbow is still called the laumė's belt in Lithuanian.
Explanations offered
Laumės probably come from old Baltic beliefs about goddesses of fate and nature, older than Christianity in the region, which arrived late in Lithuania. They are folk figures, not sightings, and live on in place names and children's stories.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- As told across Lithuania
- Witnesses
- Lithuanian and Latvian folklore
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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