A mare (, ;

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

and Swedish: ; ) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that walks on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on nightmares. Bjorvand, Harald; and Lindeman, Fredrik Otto edd. (2000). ''Våre arveord: Etymologisk ordbok'',

Etymology

The word ''mare'' comes (through

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

) from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

feminine noun (which had numerous variant forms, including , , and ). Likewise are the forms in

/Icelandic as well as the

(glossed in Latin as ""), while the

Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...

forms are . These in turn come from

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

. from which are derived the modern forms: ; ; ; ; / , Dutch: (), and German: ()'. The ''-mar'' in French ('nightmare') is borrowed from the Germanic through

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Most scholars trace the word back to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root">Linguistic reconstruction">reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root , associated with crushing, pressing and oppressing. or according to other sources 'to rub away' or 'to harm'. However, other etymologies have been suggested. For example, Éva Pócs saw the term as being cognate with the Greek languages, Greek term Moros ( (Indo-European )), meaning 'doom'.Devereux (2001), ''Haunted Land'', p.78 There is no definite answer among historians about the time of origin of the word. According to the philologist Yeleazar Meletinsky, the Proto-Slavonic root passed into the Germanic language no later than the 1st century BC. In Norwegian and Danish, the words for 'nightmare' are and respectively, which can be directly translated as 'mare-ride'. The Icelandic word has the same meaning ( from the verb , 'trample', 'stamp on', related to ''tread''), whereas the Swedish translates as 'mare-dream'.

Beliefs

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 ('mare-braids') or ('mare-tangles') in Swedish or and in Norwegian. The belief probably originated as an explanation to the

Polish plait Polish plait (Latin: ''Plica polonica'', or ''plika'', ''Kołtun'' in Polish meaning matted), less commonly known in English as plica or trichoma, is a particular formation of hair. This term can refer to either a hairstyle or a medical condit ...

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 ('mare-pines') or in German as ('nightmare pine'). According to Paul Devereux, mares included witches who took on the form of animals when their spirits went out and about while they were in trance (see the Icelandic example of Geirrid, below). These included animals such as frogs, cats, horses, hares, dogs, oxen, birds and often bees and wasps.

By region

Scandinavia

The Scandinavian mare is normally a female being which "rides" the victims chest, called ”mare riding” (, , ), causing severe anxiety and suffocation feelings etc. It assaults both people and animals, and often traveles in the likeness of an animal, especially cat. The mare is attested as early as in the Norse ''

Ynglinga saga ''Ynglinga saga'' ( ) is a Kings' sagas, Kings' saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelanders, Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his ''Heimskringla''. It was first translated into Engl ...

'' from the 13th century. Here, King Vanlandi Sveigðisson of

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

lost his life to a nightmare () conjured by the Finnish sorceress Huld or Hulda, hired by the king's abandoned wife Drífa. The king had broken his promise to return within three years, and after ten years had elapsed the wife engaged the sorceress to either lure the king back to her, or failing that, to assassinate him. Vanlandi had scarcely gone to sleep when he complained that the nightmare "rode him"; when the men held the king's head it "trod on his legs" on the point of breaking, and when the retinue then "seized his feet", the creature fatally "pressed down on his head". In Sámi mythology, there is an evil elf called ''Deattán'', who transforms into a bird or other animal and sits on the chests of sleeping people, giving nightmares. According to the '' Vatnsdæla saga'', Thorkel Silver () has a dream about riding a red horse that barely touched ground, which he interpreted as a positive omen, but his wife disagreed, explaining that a mare signified a man's fetch ('' fylgja''), and that the red color boded bloodiness. This association of the nightmare with fetch is thought to be of late origin, an interpolation in the text dating to circa 1300, with the text exhibiting a "confounding of the words and ." Another possible example is the account in the '' Eyrbyggja saga'' of the sorceress Geirrid accused of assuming the shape of a "night-rider" or "ride-by-night" ( or ) and causing serious trampling bruises on Gunnlaug Thorbjornsson. The mentioned here has been equated to the by commentators.

Germany

In Germany, they were known as , (masculine noun, i.e. ""der Mahr"), or . It is called in Low German (or or )) in

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

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 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 Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; ) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 2021 it was inhabited by 67,293 people. It is situated on ...

having that reputation), there are tales of the ''môr'' either male or female (see below). 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 (folklore collected from Rügen). It is also said that to prevent a ''Mahrt'' from returning, a man who sees it after being visited should offer it a cold bowl and buttered bread for breakfast in the morning, after which she will cease to visit. Another way is boil water in a newly bought jar plugged with a new cork, at which the ''Mahrt'' will request the cork to be removed and will not come back again. (folklore of Quazow, , now Kwasowo, Gmina Sławno, Poland). More generally in Pomerania, an upside down pair of slippers left by the bed will ward it off. German Folklorist Adalbert Kuhn records a Westphalian charm or prayer used to ward off mares, from Wilhelmsburg near

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

: Such charms are preceded by the example of the ''Münchener Nachtsegen'' of the fourteenth century (See

Elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

under §Medieval and early modern German texts). Its texts demonstrates that certainly by the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, the distinction between the , the Alp, and the (

Drude In German folklore, a drude (, , pl. ''Druden'') is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit (an alp, kobold or hag) associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in the Wild Hunt and we ...

) was being blurred, the Mare being described as the Alp's mother.

Slavic

Poland

The Polish nightmare is known by such names as (around

Podlachia Podlachia, also known by its Polish name Podlasie (; ; ), is a historical region in north-eastern Poland. Its largest city is Białystok, whereas the historical capital is Drohiczyn. Similarly to several other historical regions of Poland, e.g ...

), (around

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

). An etymological connection with Marzanna, the name of a demon/goddess of winter has been conjectured. If a woman was promised to marry a man, but then he married another, the rejected one could also become a mare at night. A very common belief was that if the sponsor (godparent) mispronounced a prayer – e.g. instead of (an inverted version of ''

Ave Maria The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical pa ...

'') at baptism, the child would become a ''zmora''. The ''zmora'' could be recognized by the joined unibrow (), according to the lore of the Wielkopolska (

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

), including (

Poznań County Poznań County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

) where a ''zmora'' of either sex is recognizable by huge black eyebrows joined in the middle above the nose. Black unibrow is ascribed to ''zmora'' or the (likened to a , ' 'witch'). Other signs of someone being a mare could be: having multicoloured eyes or a unibrow (exclusive to the Kalisz region, Poland). The ''zmora'' by the power of the devil can shapeshift into various forms, a straw, or grass, or a mouse, a dog, a cat, a mare, a cow, (also white shadow, leather bag, snake) or anything to disturb a person's sleep. The ''zmora'' is also called a '' strzyga'' (‘witch’, cog. strigoi), and hard to distinguish from normal human woman, except she prowl at night doing things she will not remember afterwards. The ''zmora'' differs from ''strzyga'' according to another account, which asserts that when the ''zmora'' dies, it dies for good, while the ''strzyga'' becomes a revenant and exhibits transformational abilities only after becoming an undead. In a family with seven daughters and no sons. the eldest or youngest was bound to become a ''zmora'', so it has been told. Or if a pregnant woman passes through in-between two other pregnant woman, the daughter born becomes a ''zmora''. It is said that the ''zmora'', once it turns to day, becomes completely unaware of her own strangling or blood-sucking activities during the night. Some say she sticks in her tongue while mounting the victim on his chest, and sucks the blood from his tongue, leaving him emaciated. It can transform into a moth or mosquito and invade a house through cracks in the window. It is also said that the ''zmora'' must exit by the same hole it entered, and this characteristic can be exploited to capture it, as told in one tale where a jilted whore who was a ''zmora'' sneaks into the home and blood-sucks her chosen man and his wife. She was bound with a belt of St. Francis, which he converted to a halter, and she turned into a female horse and ridden by him for 7 years to her death. In a variant (also from Krakow County penned by the same woman), a farmhand marries the ''zmore'' but tests how she may suffer after plugging her conduit, only uplugging it after she is pregnant. Another variant (from Lublin County) tells of a farmhand who catches the ''zmora'' in cat-for using St. Francis's belt; it turns out to be a girl in love with him. People believed that the mare drained people – as well as cattle and horses –of energy and/or blood at night. And not only is she a bloodsucker of men, but even a sapsucker of trees, according to Krakovian lore. The ways purportedly effective for warding the stable (and perhaps home too) are hanging a slaughtered magpie ('), inviting the mare for

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regi ...

, cutting off a string from the doorknob, sticking an awl in the door, or putting a broom and an axe crosswise on the threshold (or a broom in the bedroom to ward it off). To protect livestock, some people hung mirrors over the manger (to scare the mare with its own face) or sometimes the horses were given red ribbons, or covered in a stinking substance. Other protection practices include: * drinking coffee before sleeping, * taking the mare's hat, * throwing a piece of a noose at the demon, * sleeping with a leather, wedding belt or a scythe, * changing one's sleeping position, * smearing feces on the front door, * leaving a bundle of hay in one's bed and going to sleep in another room.

Other

Polish and Czech denotes both a kind of elf (alp, nightmare) as well as a moth. Other

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

with cognates that have the double meaning of

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

are: Kashubian , and Slovak . The Polish term attested in the 15th century means an illness condition of a child, who suffers from spasmodic crying, for which demons were sometimes blamed. This is precursor to the related term referring to the adult condition of "nightmare oppression" (German: ); note that ''nocnica'' could also mean "night moth". Another Polish synonym was '. In Croatian, refers to a 'nightmare'. ''Mora'' or ''Mara'' is one of the spirits from ancient Slav mythology, a dark one who becomes a beautiful woman to visit men in their dreams, torturing them with desire before killing them. In Serbia, a mare is called or , or ('night creature', masculine and feminine respectively). In Romania they were known as '' Moroi''. The Russian counterpart is called '' kikimora'' or ''hihimore'', like the French name ''cauchemar''. Some believe that a enters the room through the keyhole, sits on the chest of the sleeper and tries to strangle them (hence , 'to torture', 'to bother', 'to strangle', , 'to tire', 'to kill', , 'tiredness' and , 'tired'). To repel ''s'', children are advised to look at the window or to turn the pillow and make the

sign of the cross Making the sign of the cross (), also known as blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is both a prayer and a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. It is a very significant prayer because Christians are acknowledging ...

on it (); in the early 19th century, Vuk Karadžić mentions that people would repel ''s'' by leaving a broom upside down behind their doors, or putting their belt on top of their sheets, or saying an elaborate prayer poem before they go to sleep.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * Bjorvand, Harald; Lindeman, Fredrik Otto edd. (2007). ''Våre arveord''. 2nd edition. Novus. . * Devereux, Paul (2001). ''Haunted Land: Investigations into Ancient Mysteries and Modern Day Phenomena'', Piatkus Publishers. * ** * Hødnebø, Finn and Magerøy, Hallvard (eds.) (1979). ''Snorres kongesagaer 1'', 2nd ed. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. . * * ** * Pickett, Joseph P. et al. (eds.) (2000).
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
', 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. . *