The Uhaml Forest Spirit of Without a Face

In the darkness of night and under the foliage cover of the forest, the demonic spirit of Uhaml is said to roam. The only way to escape it is getting out of the forest faster.

In the folklore of the Germans living in former Bohemia and Silesia, places that are now part of Czech Republic and Poland, a forest spirit was warned about. Particularly in the regions shaped by dense woods, marshes, and old trade routes, the spirit known as the uhaml prowled. This entity is something between ghost and monster that no one can describe how it looks like.

Lore described the uhaml as a formless figure, often glimpsed only in fleeting moments or seen more as movement in the shadows than a solid body. It was not a spirit tied to a specific grave or location, but a presence that could appear anywhere in the darkness.

Free Castle River photo and picture — ***Bohemia and Silesia:*** A lot of old folklore from these parts were often germanic because of the german settlers from medieval times, especially for mining. At times, certain settlements far outnumbered the Czech and Polish speakers. During the 1900s, there were less and less until world war two when all the Germans were expelled.

The Forest Spirit

The uhaml was not merely a scary story told to discourage children from wandering at night. It served as a cultural explanation for tragedies that the people of earlier centuries could not otherwise explain. Carriages that overturned, travelers who disappeared between towns, hunters who never returned from the woods, and people who died suddenly in the dark were all sometimes attributed to the presence of the uhaml.

The exact nature of the uhaml varied by region and storyteller. In some tales it resembled a disembodied shape moving just beyond the sight of the observer. In others it was more like a presence that could not be seen at all, only felt. Although there is no description for the creature, it is often said to be female.

The spirit is sometimes described as some sort of a demonic bird, although it is said to have horse feet. The call of uhaml is what is most prominent of the spirit, sounding something like Uhuhu, like an owl. People imitating the spirit are in danger of being chased by it.

Free Eurasian Eagle-Owl Owl photo and picture — ***The Uncanny Owl:*** The name Uhaml can be explained as a Silesian dialectal form of Standard German “unheimlich”, meaning “eerie” or “uncanny”, or can more likely be connected to the Eurasian eagle-owl, called “Uhu” in German with regard to its call. According to historians, people of olden times believed that when the eagle owl let its sinister scream sound in European forests or along the coast, it was a sign of ghosts, accidents, or other terrible things to come. In Asia, especially for the Mongolians and the Turks, the owl is seen as sacred instead.

A Folkloric Warning

But how do you save yourself from a danger you can’t see? To protect oneself of the uhaml, people were said to sometimes leave three chips of wood or a loaf of bread in the parlor. The uhaml would enter and cut the bread in two and take one of the pieces with her. If you were being chased by her, the only way to escape was to reach the border of the forest and home and to seek cover of the eaves of the roof, hoping she would pass by.

Another similar creature is found in Lower Austria close to the historical territories that had tales of the uhaml, there is the Udl. This is a demonic kind of bird dwelling in the woods covering the slopes of the castle mountain in Mödling. The screeching and nightly call of the Udl is an omen for war or other disasters.

So what was the uhaml? Some connect the legends as a sort of cousin to the German Aufhocker, another unidentifiable shapeshifting spirit of the forest, jumping on the back of other people, wearing them down. The victims often die of exhaustion because the Aufhocker cannot be shaken off or killed. As the Uhalm, the only way of getting out of the situation is by making it back home in time.

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