Witte Wieven

Another parallel can be drawn with the White Goddess, a concept argued to exist more broadly in Wales, Ireland, most of Western Europe as well as the ancient Middle East.

Historically, the witte wieven are thought to be wise female herbalists and medicine healers who took care of people's physical and mental ailments.

believe Witte Wieven originated as above from honoring graves of wise women, others think the mythology of witte wieven come from part of the Germanic belief in disen, land wights, and/or alven (Dutch for "elf") for several reasons: The practice of bringing offerings and asking for help from their graves is very similar to honoring disen, land wights and alfen in Germanic paganism.

Jacob Grimm mentioned them in the Deutsche Mythologie (1835) as the Dutch variant of the German Weiße Frauen: "The people of Friesland, Drenthe and the Netherlands have just as much to tell of their witten wijven or juffers in hills and caverns ... though here they get mixed up with elvish personages.

Later Christian teaching transformed the idea of a "witte wieven" into mistflarden (wisps of mist or fog): ghost witches[dubious – discuss] — recharacterized as evil and to be avoided.