A
mare or
nightmare is a
spiritThe English word "spirit" has many differing meanings and connotations, but commonly refers to a supernatural being or essence — transcendent and therefore metaphysical in its nature: the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines it as "the non-physical part of a person"...
or
goblinA goblin is a legendary, evil, crabby, and mischievous creature described as a grotesquely disfigured or gnome-like phantom, that may range in height from that of a dwarf to that of a human. They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and...
in
Germanic folkloreGermanic folklore is recorded folklore of the Germanic speaking peoples. It is often used as a starting point for the reconstruction of a Common Germanic mythology:*Dutch folklore*English folklore*German folklore*Scandinavian folklore...
which rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams (or "
nightmareA nightmare is an unpleasant dream. Nightmares cause a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror. The dream may contain a situation of extreme danger, or sensations of pain, bad events, falling, drowning, being raped, becoming disabled, losing loved ones,...
s"). The mare is attested as early as in the Norse
Ynglinga sagaThe Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson about 1225. He based it on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and which also appears in Historia Norwegiae.The 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 languagesThe North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages...
(e.g. the Swedish word "mardröm" literally meaning mara-dream or the Norwegian word "mareritt" literally meaning mare-ridden). The mare is similar to the mythical creatures
succubusIn folklore that stems from medieval legend, a succubus is a demon who takes the form of a woman to seduce men in dreams to have sexual intercourse. In modern times, a succubus may or may not appear in dreams and is often depicted as highly attractive, while in the past succubi were frightening...
and
incubusAn incubus is a demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have sexual intercourse with them, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions. Its female counterpart is the succubus. An incubus may pursue sexual relations with a woman in order...
, and was likely inspired by
sleep paralysisSleep paralysis is a condition that may occur in normal subjects or be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. The pathophysiology of this condition is closely related to the normal hypotonia that occur during REM sleep. When considered to be a disease, isolated sleep...
.
Etymology
The word "mare" comes (through
Middle EnglishMiddle English is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language in use between the late 11th century and about 1470, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing...
mare) from Old English
mære,
mare, or
mere, all feminine nouns. These in turn come from Common Germanic
*marōn.
*Marōn is the source of
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
mara (from which come
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
,
FaroeseFaroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...
, and
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
mara and
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
and
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
mare),
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
(
nacht)
merrie, and German
Mahr. The
-mar in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
cauchemar ("nightmare") is borrowed from the Germanic through
Old FrenchOld French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 900 to 1300...
mare. The word can ultimately be traced back to the
reconstructedLinguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language to make inferences about an earlier stage of that language...
Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European may refer to:*Proto-Indo-European language, the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages.*Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language....
rootThe roots of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language are basic morphemes carrying a lexical meaning. By addition of suffixes, they form stems, and by addition of endings, these form grammatically inflected words ....
*mer-, "to rub away" or "to harm".
In Norwegian and Danish, the words for "nightmare" are
mareritt and
mareridt respectively, which can be directly translated as "mare-ride". The Icelandic word
martröð has the same meaning (-tröð from troða, "squeeze", related to "tread") , whereas the Swedish
mardröm translates as "mare-dream".
Beliefs
The mara was also 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. The belief probably originated as an explanation to the
Polish plaitPolish plait is a formation of hair. It can be viewed as a hairstyle similar to dreadlocks or a hair disease.-As a disease:...
phenomena, a hair disease. Even trees could be ridden by the mara, resulting in branches being entangled. The undersized, twisted
pine-treesPines are coniferous trees in the genus Pinus , in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Distribution:...
growing on coastal rocks and on wet grounds are known in Sweden as
martallar "mare-pines".
See also
- Mora (mythology)
Mora are mostly malevolent folkloric beings associated with sleep that in some form or another can be found throughout Europe.In Polish folklore, mora are the souls of living people that leave the body during the night, and are seen as wisps of straw or hair or as moths...
, SlavicSlavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs prior to Christianisation.The religion possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
counterpart of the Scandinavian mara.
- Sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis is a condition that may occur in normal subjects or be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. The pathophysiology of this condition is closely related to the normal hypotonia that occur during REM sleep. When considered to be a disease, isolated sleep...
, medical term for the condition the mara is thought to cause.