| Nightmare | |
|---|---|
 The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, 1781 | |
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Other Names |
Mare, Mara, Marra, Nachtmerrie, Nachtmahr, Cauchemar |
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First Appearance |
Germanic Folklore |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Mares, also known as Nightmares, are evil spirits (or goblins) in Germanic folklore which ride on people's chests while they sleep, bestowing bad dreams ("nightmares"). This said phenomena is attested as early as in the Norse Ynglinga saga from the 13th century, but the belief itself is likely to be considerably older. As in English, the name appears in the word for "nightmare" in the Nordic languages (e.g. the Swedish word "mardröm" literally meaning mara-dream, the Norwegian word "mareritt" literally meaning mare-ridden or the Icelandic word "martröð" meaning mara-dreaming repeatedly). The Mare is similar to the succubi and incubi, and was likely inspired by sleep paralysis.
The mare was believed to ride horses, which left them exhausted and covered in sweat by the morning. She could also entangle the hair of the sleeping man or beast, resulting in "marelocks", called marflätor ('mare-braids') or martovor ('mare-tangles') in Swedish or marefletter and marefloker in Norwegian. The belief probably originated as an explanation to the Polish plait phenomenon, a hair disease.
Even trees were thought to be ridden by the mare, resulting in branches being entangled. The undersized, twisted pine-trees growing on coastal rocks and on wet grounds are known in Sweden as martallar ('mare-pines') or in German as Alptraum-Kiefer ('nightmare pine').
The Scandinavian mare is normally a female being which "rides" the victims chest, called ”mare riding” (Danish: mareridt, Norwegian: mareritt, Swedish: marritt), causing severe anxiety and suffocation feelings etc. It assaults both people and animals, and often traveled in the likeness of an animal, especially cat.
In Germany, they were known as Mara, Mahr (masculine noun, i.e. ""der Mahr"), or Mare. It is called in Low German mårt (or Mahrt or de môr)) in Pomerania and Rügen, and when it rides a sleeper it can hardly breathe, or it lies over his chest, making its victim drenched with sweat, whereby the victim is able to groan but otherwise rendered speechless and spellbound, and unable to waken unless he is called by his baptismal name. While the mårt is usually a girl with a bad foot according to one source (a certain daughter of a smith in the village of Bork near Stargard having that reputation), there are tales of the môr either male or female.
The môr enters a house through a hole the carpenter forgot to plug, and can be captured by plugging the hole. A male môr who had been tormenting a woman was caught by this method in one tale; he became husband, fathering her children, but left after being told about the hole, returning just once a year. In another tale, a female môr was caught by the method of applying green paint on the hands, and the captor set her permanently on an oak which withered but always shivered. The môr also rides a horse and makes its mane matted and impossible to untangle.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Nightmare from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Ynglinga saga
- Vatnsdæla saga
- Eyrbyggja saga