View source for Mare (folklore)

{{Short description|Malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore}}

[[File:Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), The Nightmare, 1781.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''[[The Nightmare]]'', by [[Henry Fuseli]], 1781]]

A '''mare''' ({{langx|ang|mære}}, {{langx|odt|mare}}; [[Old Norse]], [[Old High German]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]]: {{lang|non|mara}}; {{proto|sla|mara}}) is a malicious entity in [[Germanic folklore|Germanic]] and [[Slavic folklore]] that walks on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on [[nightmare]]s.<ref name="bjorvand&lindeman2000">[[Harald Bjorvand|Bjorvand, Harald]];  and [[Fredrik Otto Lindeman|Lindeman, Fredrik Otto]] edd. (2000). ''Våre arveord: Etymologisk ordbok'', {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwoUAQAAMAAJ&q=mara |2=p. 586}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
The word ''mare'' comes (through [[Middle English]] {{Lang|enm|mare}}) from the [[Old English]] feminine noun {{Lang|ang|mære}} (which had numerous variant forms, including {{Lang|ang|mare}}, {{Lang|ang|mere}}, and {{Lang|ang|mær}}).<ref>Alaric Hall, 'The Evidence for ''Maran'', the Anglo-Saxon "Nightmares"', ''Neophilologus'', 91 (2007), 299–317, {{doi|10.1007/s11061-005-4256-8}}.</ref> Likewise are the forms in [[Old Norse]]/Icelandic {{lang|non|mara}}<ref name="cleasby-vigfusson-mara"/> as well as the [[Old High German]] {{lang|goh|mara}}{{Refn|Batten gives OHG {{lang|goh|mahr}}.{{sfnp|Batten|2021|p=352}}}} (glossed in Latin as "{{lang|la|incuba}}"<ref name="AhdGlossen-mara"/>),<ref name="DeutTschech-newerkla-mura"/> while the [[Middle High German]] forms are {{lang|gmh|mar, mare}}.<ref name="lexer-al-mar"/>{{Refn|Even though Grimm could not find the Old High German or Middle High German attestations.<ref name="Grimm-DM-mara"/>}}

These in turn come from [[Proto-Germanic]] {{Lang|mis|*marōn}}<!-- Proto-Germanic -->. {{Lang|mis|*Marōn}}<!-- Proto-Germanic --> from which are derived the modern forms: {{langx|sv|mara}}; {{langx|is|mara}}; {{langx|fo|marra}}; {{langx|da|mare}}; {{langx|no|mare}} / {{Lang|no|mara}}, [[Dutch language|Dutch]]: ({{lang|nl|nacht}}){{lang|nl|merrie}}, and [[German language|German]]: ({{lang|de|Nacht}})''{{lang|de|mahr}}''.<ref name="bjorvand&lindeman2000"/> The ''-mar'' in [[French language|French]] {{Lang|fr|cauchemar}} ('nightmare') is borrowed from the Germanic through [[Old French]] {{Lang|fro|mare}}.<ref name="bjorvand&lindeman2000"/><ref name="EtymWortb2012-ed-kluge&seebold-mahr"/>

Most scholars trace the word back to the [[Linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]] [[Proto-Indo-European root]] {{Lang|mis|*mer-}}<!-- Proto-Indo-European -->, associated with crushing, pressing and oppressing.<ref>[[Julius Pokorny|Pokorny, Julius]] (1959) s.v. "5. mer-" ''Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch''. 2 vols. Bern: Franck.</ref><ref>[[Jan de Vries (philologist)|de Vries, Jan]] (1961) s.vv. "''mara'', ''mǫrn''". ''Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch''. Leiden: Brill</ref><ref>C. Lecouteux, 'Mara–Ephialtes–Incubus: Le couchemar chez les peuples germaniques.' ''Études germaniques'' 42: 1–24 (pp. 4–5).</ref>{{sfnp|Batten|2021|p=352}} or according to other sources 'to rub away' or 'to harm'.<ref>"[http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE326.html mer-] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050910021749/http://bartleby.com/61/roots/IE326.html |date=2005-09-10 }}" in Pickett et al. (2000). Retrieved on 2008-11-22.</ref> However, other etymologies have been suggested. For example, [[Éva Pócs]] saw the term as being cognate with the [[Greek languages|Greek]] term [[Moros]] ({{lang|grc|[[Moros|μόρος]]}} (Indo-European {{Lang|mis|*móros}})<!-- Indo-European -->), meaning 'doom'.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pócs|1999|p=32}}</ref><ref name="Haunted Land 2001, p 78">Devereux (2001), ''Haunted Land'', p.78</ref><ref>{{LSJ|mo/ros|μόρος|ref}}.</ref> 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 {{Lang|mis|mara}}<!-- Proto-Slavonic --> passed into the Germanic language no later than the 1st century BC.<ref>{{Cite book|language=ru|title=Mythological dictionary|editor=Yeleazar Meletinsky|editor-link=Yeleazar Meletinsky|publisher=Moscow: Soviet encyclopedia|location=Stuttgart|date=1990|isbn= 5-85270-032-0}}</ref>

In Norwegian and Danish, the words for 'nightmare' are {{Lang|no|mareritt}} and {{Lang|da|mareridt}} respectively, which can be directly translated as 'mare-ride'. The Icelandic word {{Lang|is|martröð}} has the same meaning ({{Lang|is|-tröð}} from the verb {{Lang|is|troða}}, 'trample', 'stamp on', related to ''tread''), whereas the Swedish {{Lang|sv|mardröm}} translates as 'mare-dream'.

== Beliefs ==

The mare was believed to ride horses, which left them exhausted and covered in sweat by the morning.<ref name="baier1855"/> She could also entangle the hair of the sleeping man or beast,{{Refn|name="rugen-horsemane"|The ''môr'' riding horse (''pîrd'')  and casusing mane to be ''{{linktext|verfilzen}}'' ("felted") (lore from island of  [[Rügen]]).<ref name="baier1855"/>}} resulting in "marelocks", called {{Lang|sv|marflätor}} ('mare-braids') or {{Lang|sv|martovor}} ('mare-tangles') in [[Swedish language|Swedish]] or {{Lang|no|marefletter}} and {{Lang|no|marefloker}} in [[Norwegian language|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.{{Refn|Cf. Tale of the shivering oak below (Pomerania)<ref name="baier1855"/> and repuatation as sap-sucker (Poland),<ref name="kolberg1874"/> }} The undersized, twisted [[pine|pine-trees]] growing on coastal rocks and on wet grounds are known in Sweden as {{Lang|sv|martallar}} ('mare-pines') or in German as {{Lang|de|Alptraum-Kiefer}} ('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.<ref name="Haunted Land 2001, p 78"/>

== By region ==
===Scandinavia===
[[File:Maran.png|thumb|Mare ”riding” a sleeping person]]
The Scandinavian mare is normally a female being which "rides" the victims chest, called ”mare riding” ({{Langx|da|mareridt}}, {{Langx|no|mareritt}}, {{langx|sv|marritt}}), causing severe anxiety and feelings of suffocation. It assaults both people and animals, and often travels in the likeness of an animal, especially a cat.

The mare is attested as early as in the Norse ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'' from the 13th century.<ref>''Ynglinga saga'', chapter 13 (and quoted stanza from ''Ynglingatal''), in Hødnebø and Magerøy (1979), p. 12</ref> Here, King [[Vanlandi|Vanlandi Sveigðisson]] of [[Uppsala]] lost his life to a nightmare ({{Lang|non|mara}}) conjured by the [[Finns|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".<ref>{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Hollander|1964}}|author=Snorri Sturluson|translator=Hollander, Lee M. |title=Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2010|orig-year=1964|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=71U7xXIBbUgC&pg=PA16 |isbn=978-0292786967}}</ref> In [[Sámi people|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.<ref>[http://www.samimuseum.fi/maahisweb/suomi/tieto_kertojien.html Siida – Staalon ja maahisten maa – Kertojien perilliset] (in Finnish)</ref>

According to the ''[[Vatnsdæla saga]]'', Thorkel Silver ({{lang|is|Þorkell Silfri}}) 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 (folklore)|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 {{Lang|non|marr}} and {{Lang|non|mara}}."<ref name="kelchner">{{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Kelchner|1935}}|last=Kelchner|first=Georgia Dunham|title=Dreams in Old Norse Literature and their Affinities in Folklore|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|orig-year=1935|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXMoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|pages=20&ndash;22|isbn=978-1107620223}}</ref>

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" ({{Lang|non|marlíðendr}} or {{Lang|non|kveldriða}}) and causing serious trampling bruises on Gunnlaug Thorbjornsson. The {{Lang|non|marlíðendr}} mentioned here has been equated to the {{Lang|non|mara}} by commentators.<ref>{{citation|last1=Morris|first1=William|last2=Magnússon|first2=Eiríkr|title=The Story of the Ere-dwellers (Eyrbyggja Saga)|publisher=B. Quaritch |year=1892|pages=29&ndash;, 274, 348|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k0AyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA22}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Du Chaillu|first=Paul Belloni|s2cid=11662165|title=The Viking Age: The Early History, Manners, and Customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking Nations|journal=Nature|volume=1|issue=1052|publisher=Scribner's Sons|year=1890|page=433|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jvcOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA433|bibcode=1889Natur..41..173F|doi=10.1038/041173a0|hdl=2027/hvd.hn4ttf|doi-access=free|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{citation|author=Ármann Jakobsson|s2cid=162338244|title=The Fearless Vampire Killers: A Note about the Icelandic Draugr and Demonic Contamination in Grettis Saga|journal=Folklore|volume=120|issue=3|year=2009|pages=307&ndash;316|doi=10.1080/00155870903219771}}</ref>

=== Germany ===
In Germany, they were known as {{Lang|de|Mara}}, {{Lang|de|Mahr}} (masculine noun, i.e. ""der Mahr"), or {{Lang|de|Mare}}.<ref name="baier1855"/> It is called in Low German {{lang|nds|mårt}} (or {{lang|nds|Mahrt}}<ref name="jahn1889" /> or {{lang|nds|de môr}})<ref name="baier1855"/>) in [[Pomerania]] and [[Rügen]], and when it rides a sleeper it can hardly breathe,<ref name="temme1840"/>  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.<ref name="baier1855"/> While the {{lang|nds|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),<ref name="temme1840"/> there are tales of the ''môr'' either male or female (see below).<ref name="baier1855"/>

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 her husband, fathering her children, but left after being told about the hole, returning just once a year.<ref name="baier1855"/> 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.<ref name="baier1855"/> The ''môr'' also rides a horse and makes its mane matted and impossible to untangle{{Refn|name="rugen-horsemane"}} (folklore collected from [[Rügen]]).<ref name="baier1855"/>

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.<ref name="jahn1889" /> 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, {{interlanguage link|Kreis Schlawe|de|lt=Schlawe district}}, now [[Kwasowo]], [[Gmina Sławno, West Pomeranian Voivodeship|Gmina Sławno]], Poland).<ref name="jahn1889" /> More generally in Pomerania, an upside down pair of slippers left by the bed will ward it off.<ref name="jahn1889" />

German Folklorist [[Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn|Adalbert Kuhn]] records a [[Westphalia]]n charm or prayer used to ward off mares, from Wilhelmsburg near [[Paderborn]]:

{{Verse translation
|2=Here I am lying down to sleep;
No night-mare shall plague me 
until they have swum through all the waters
that flow upon the earth, 
and counted all stars
that appear in the firmament.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mahr |first=August C. |author-link=<!--August C. Mahr--> |title=A Pennsylvania Dutch 'Hexzettel' |journal=Monatshefte für Deutschen Unterricht |volume=27 |number=6 |year=1935 |pages=215–225 |jstor=30169065}}</ref>
Thus help me God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!<ref>Last line of translation supplied by {{cite web|last=Ashliman|first=D. L.|author-link=D. L. Ashliman |title=Night-Mares|work=Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts |url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/nightmare.html|access-date=23 May 2013}}</ref>| lang= de

|Hier leg' ich mich schlafen,
Keine Nachtmahr soll mich plagen,
Bis sie schwemmen alle Wasser,
Die auf Erden fließen,
Und tellet alle Sterne,
Die am Firmament' erscheinen!<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kuhn |first=Adalbert |author-link=Adalbert Kuhn |title=Indische und germanische Segenssprüche|journal=Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung |volume=13 |year=1864 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0lKAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA124 |page=124}}</ref>
Dazu helfe mir Gott Vater, Sohn und heiliger Geist. Amen!<ref>Last line supplied from "541. Mahrsegen" {{Harvnb|Kuhn|1859|loc=vol. 2, p.191}}</ref>}}

Such charms are preceded by the example of the ''Münchener Nachtsegen'' of the fourteenth century (See [[Elf]] under [[Elf#Medieval and early modern German texts|§Medieval and early modern German texts]]). Its texts demonstrates that certainly by the [[Late Middle Ages]], the distinction between the {{Lang|de|Mare}}, the [[Alp (folklore)|Alp]], and the {{Lang|de|Trute}} ([[Drude]]) was being blurred, the Mare being described as the Alp's mother.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Alaric |author-link=Alaric Hall |title=Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2007|isbn=978-1843832942 |pages=125–126}}</ref>

=== Slavic ===
==== Poland ====
[[File:Zmora dusząca człowieka.jpg|thumb|Mare from Polish folklore – graphics by Kasia Walentynowicz]]

The Polish nightmare is known by such names as {{Lang|pl|mara}} (around [[Podlachia]]), {{Lang|pl|zmora}} (around [[Kraków]]).<ref name="szela̜gowski1914"/><ref name="ostling2011"/> An etymological connection with [[Marzanna]], the name of a demon/goddess of winter has been conjectured.<ref name="szela̜gowski1914"/>

{{citation needed span|It could be a soul of a person (alive or dead) such as a sinful woman, someone wronged or someone who died without confession.|date=November 2024}} 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. {{Lang|pl|Zmoraś Mario}} instead of {{Lang|pl|Zdrowaś Mario}} (an inverted version of ''[[Ave Maria]]'') at baptism, the child would become a ''zmora''.<ref>{{harvp|Lorentz|Fischer|Lehr-Spławiński|1934|p=175}}; {{harvp|Lorentz|Fischer|Lehr-Spławiński|1935|p=231}}</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The 17th century accused witch Katarzyna of Wojnicz administered this inverted [[Hail Mary]] attempting to heal children who suffered from "nightmare oppression" ({{lang|pl|nocnice}}) symptoms.<ref name="ostling2011" />}}

The ''zmora'' could be recognized by the joined unibrow ({{lang|pl|żrośnięte brwi}}), according to the lore of the Wielkopolska ([[Greater Poland]]),<ref name="nowak2001"/> including {{interlanguage link|Kreis Posen|de}} ([[Poznań County]]) where a ''zmora'' of either sex is recognizable by huge black eyebrows joined in the middle above the nose.{{Refn|Berwiński (I, 195), as well as F. Klepaczewski, apud ''Lud'' '''15''' (1882).<ref name="kolberg1882" />}}{{Refn|Kmietowicz (1982) states "A man might be a Zmora from birth, in which case he had bushy, black eyebrows, growing together above his nose".<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/>}} Black unibrow is ascribed to ''zmora'' or the {{lang|pl|morus}} (likened to a {{lang|pl|ciátow}}, ''{{linktext|ciátow}}'' 'witch').<ref name="kolberg1882" /> Other signs of someone being a mare could be: having multicoloured eyes or a unibrow (exclusive to the [[Kalisz]] region, Poland).{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The ''zmora'' by the power of the devil can [[shapeshift]] into various forms: straw, grass, a mouse, a dog, a cat, a mare, a cow, (also white shadow, leather bag, snake<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/><!--frogs, yarn, apples{{cn|date=November 2024}}-->) or anything to disturb a person's sleep.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#145}}  The ''zmora'' is also called a ''[[strzyga]]'' (‘witch’, cog. [[strigoi]]), and is hard to distinguish from a normal human woman, except she prowls at night doing things she will not remember afterwards.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#144}} 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.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#145}}

In a family with seven daughters and no sons. the eldest or youngest was bound to become a ''zmora'', so it has been told.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#143}}{{Refn|Baranowski (1965) relates the belief that "the seventh, sixth, or fifth 
 daughter born will be a ''zmora'' ({{lang|pl|że zmorą jest każda siódma  córka, względnie szósta lub nawet piąta}})", but opinions differ whether sons born in between will affect this.{{sfnp|Baranowski|1965|p=171}} Kmietowicz (1981) states the fifth, sixth, and seventh daughters born in a row become ''zmory''.<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/>}} Or if a pregnant woman passes through in-between two other pregnant woman, the daughter born becomes a ''zmora''.{{sfnp|Baranowski|1965|p=171}}<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/>

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.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#144}}<ref name="kolberg1882"/> Some say she sticks in her tongue<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/> while mounting the victim on his chest, and sucks the blood from his tongue, leaving him emaciated.<ref name="kolberg1882"/>

It can transform into a moth or mosquito and invade a house through cracks in the window.<ref name="kolberg1884"/> 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.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#149}}
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.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#150}}{{efn|#149 and #150 possibly literary, attributed to Elżbieta Kostaśka in [[Modlnica]].}} 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.<ref name="kolberg1884"/>

People believed that the mare drained people – as well as cattle and horses –of energy and/or blood at night.<ref name="golębiowski1884"/> And not only is she a bloodsucker of men,<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#146}} but even a sapsucker of trees, according to Krakovian lore.<ref name="kolberg1874"/>{{rp|#147}}{{Refn|Kmietowicz: "even injured and withered trees".<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/>}} The ways purportedly effective for warding the stable (and perhaps home too{{Refn|While Golębiowski writes as if this is to protect the stable, {{harvp|Kolberg|1874|p=74}}, footnote, allows for both human and animal protection, citing  Golębiowski and Tomasz Wolicki "Nauka dla włościan", p, 175 for describing the same protection.}}) are hanging a slaughtered [[Eurasian magpie|magpie]] (''{{linktext|sroka}}''), inviting the mare for [[breakfast]],{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|In a variant, the promise of bread or butter the next day must be fulfilled when a strange woman or little girl comes in the morning, otherwise the consequences will be dire<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/><ref>{{harvp|Baranowski|1981|p=72}}: "..pozbyć się zmory obietnicą dania jej nazajutrz chleba, masła lub czegoś innego chleba, masła, lub czegoś innego.."</ref>}} cutting off a string from the doorknob, sticking an awl in the door, or putting a broom and an axe crosswise on the threshold<ref name="golębiowski1884"/> (or a broom in the bedroom to ward it off<ref name="kmietowicz1982"/>). 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 {{lang|pl|mora}} and [[Czech language|Czech]] {{Lang|cs|můra}} denotes both a kind of elf (alp, nightmare) as well as a moth.<ref name="DeutTschech-newerkla-mura"/><ref name="Grimm-DM-mara"/>{{Refn|Grimm gives {{lang|de|Abend-schmetterling}}, and specifies [[sphinx moth]]. Stallybrass adds "night butterfly" but it is dubious whether this phrase has any appreciable currency in English for the meaning "moth". Newerkla glosses Czech ''můra'' or Slavic ''mora, mura'' as meaning {{lang|de|nachtfalter}}, which also means "moth".<ref name="DeutTschech-newerkla-mura"/>}} Other [[Slavic languages]] with cognates that have the double meaning of [[moth]] are: [[Kashubian language|Kashubian]] {{Lang|csb|mòra/mora}},<ref>Bernard Sychta. Słownik gwar kaszubskich na tle kultury ludowej, Ossolineum, Wrocław - Warszawa - Kraków 1969, tom III, pp. 102-105</ref>{{sfnp|Lorentz|Fischer|Lehr-Spławiński|1935|p=281}} and [[Slovak language|Slovak]] {{Lang|sk|mora}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Slovenské slovníky|url=https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk/?w=mora&d=kssj4|access-date=2021-02-06|website=slovnik.juls.savba.sk}}</ref>

The Polish term {{lang|pl|nocnice}} attested in the 15th century means an illness condition of a child, who suffers from spasmodic crying, for which demons were sometimes blamed.<ref name="brückner1924"/><ref name="ostling2011"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The from {{lang|pl|nocznicze}} is given by Ostling, which he says literally means 'night ones'}}<ref name="ostling2011"/> This is precursor to  the  related term {{lang|pl|nocnica}} referring to the adult condition of  "nightmare oppression" (German: {{lang|de|Alpdruck}}); note that ''nocnica'' could also mean  "night moth".<ref name="brückner1924"/><ref name="PolishDict-linde-nocnica"/> Another Polish synonym was ''{{linktext|gniotek}}''.<ref name="brückner1924"/>

In [[Croatian language|Croatian]], {{Lang|hr|mora}} 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 {{Lang|sr-latn|zmora}}<ref name="brückner1924"/> or {{Lang|sr-latn|mora}}, or {{Lang|sr-latn|noćnik/noćnica}} ('night creature', masculine and feminine respectively).<ref>{{Harvnb|Pócs|1999|p=33}} gives the feminine form.</ref> In Romania they were known as ''[[Moroi]]''.

The Russian counterpart is called ''[[kikimora]]'' or ''hihimore'', like the French name ''cauchemar''.<ref name="brückner1924"/>

Some believe that a {{Lang|sh|mora}} enters the room through the keyhole, sits on the chest of the sleeper and tries to strangle them (hence {{Lang|sh|moriti}}, 'to torture', 'to bother', 'to strangle', {{Lang|sh|umoriti}}, 'to tire', 'to kill', {{Lang|sh|umor}}, 'tiredness' and {{Lang|sh|umoran}}, 'tired'). To repel {{Lang|sh|mora}}''s'', children are advised to look at the window or to turn the pillow and make the [[sign of the cross]] on it ({{Lang|sh|prekrstiti jastuk}}); in the early 19th century, [[Vuk Karadžić]] mentions that people would repel {{Lang|sh|mora}}''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.<ref>{{citation|last=Karadžić|first=Vuk|author-link=Vuk Karadžić|title=Srpski rječnik|year=1898|publisher=Central European University Press |orig-year=1818|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4d-AAAAMAAJ|isbn=9789639116184}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Alp (folklore)]]
* [[Basty]]
* [[Batibat]]
* [[Enchanted Moura]]
* [[Ghosts in Thai culture]]
* [[Incubus]]
* [[Lietuvēns]]
* [[Madam Koi Koi]]
* [[Mara (demon)]]
* [[Mara (Hindu goddess)]]
* [[Marzanna]] (Slavic goddess of death and winter)
* [[Maya (illusion)]]
* [[Moroi]]
* [[Moros]]
* [[Mouros]]
* [[Night hag]]
* [[Nightmare]]
* [[Pesanta]]
* [[Sleep paralysis]], medical term for the condition the mare is thought to originate from.
* [[Slavic fairies]]
* [[Succubus]]

Fiction:
* ''[[Paranormal Entity]]'', a 2009 found-footage film featuring a mare named Maron as the antagonist
* ''[[Marianne (2011 film)|Marianne]]'', a 2011 Swedish horror film featuring mares
* ''[[Borgman (film)|Borgman]]'', a 2013 Dutch thriller film featuring mares
*''[[Outlast]]'', a 2013 video game featuring Mares/Alps
* ''[[Hilda (TV series)|Hilda]]'', a 2018 TV series. Episode 6 "The Nightmare Spirit" focuses on one
* ''[[Mara (film)|Mara]]'', a 2018 American horror film
*''[[Phasmophobia (video game)|Phasmophobia]]'', a 2020 video game featuring Mares

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|2|refs=
<ref name="AhdGlossen-mara">{{cite book|editor1-last=Steinmeyer |editor1-first=Elias  |editor1-link=Elias von Steinmeyer |editor2-last=Sievers |editor2-first=Eduard  |editor2-link=Eduard Sievers |title=Die althochdeutschen Glossen |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=Weidmann |year=1898 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUgI2Tue-AgC&pg=PA204 |page=204}}</ref>

<ref name="baier1855">{{cite journal|last=Baier |first=Rudolf |author-link=:de:Rudolf Baier (Museumsleiter) |title=Beitrage von der Insel Rügen |journal=Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde |volume=2 |date=January 1855|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBpBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA139 |pages=139–141<!--139–146-->}}</ref>

<ref name="brückner1924">{{Cite book|last=Brückner |first=Aleksander |author-link=Aleksander Brückner |title=Mitologja polska: studjum porównawcze  |location=Warszawa |publisher=Instytut wydawniczy Bibljoteka poska |date=1924 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBJLAGYc_30C&pg=PA110 |pages=110–111 }}</ref>

<ref name="cleasby-vigfusson-mara">Cleasby-Vigfusson (1884) s.v. "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=T8PycFVar1UC&pg=PA412 |2=mara}}". ''An An Icelandic-English Dictionary''.</ref>

<ref name="DeutTschech-newerkla-mura">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Newerkla |first=Stefan Michael |author-link=Stefan Michael Newerkla |entry=můra |title=Sprachkontakte Deutsch - Tschechisch - Slowakisch |location= |publisher=Lang |year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6hiAAAAMAAJ&q=nachtfalter |page=544 |isbn=<!--363151753X, -->9783631517536}}</ref>

<ref name="EtymWortb2012-ed-kluge&seebold-mahr">{{cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Kluge |editor1-first=Friedrich |editor1-link=Friedrich Kluge |editor2-last=Seebold  |editor2-first=Elmar |editor2-link=Elmar Seebold |entry=Mahr |title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache |edition=25 |location= |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2012 |orig-year=1899 |entry-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FSSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA593 |page=406 |isbn=<!--3110223651, -->9783110223651 }}</ref>

<ref name="golębiowski1884">{{Cite book|last=Gołębiowski |first=Łukasz |author-link=Łukasz Gołębiowski |title=Lud polski, jego zwyczaje, zabobony |location=Warszawa |publisher=Wydawnictwa Artystyczne i Filmowe |year=1830 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cj1pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA156 |pages=156157}}</ref>

<ref name="Grimm-DM-mara">{{harvp|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1883}} {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ektAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA439 |2='''2''': 464  and note2}}; {{harvp|Grimm|1875}} {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=yDLaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA384 |2='''1''': 384 and n3}}.</ref>

<ref name="jahn1889">{{cite book|editor-last=Temme |editor-first=Jodocus Deodatus Hubertus |editor-link=:de:Jodocus Deodatus Hubertus Temme |chapter=Nachtrag. X. Die Mahrt. 695. Schutz vor der Mahrt |title=Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen |edition=2 |location=Berlin |publisher=Mayer & Müller  |year=1889 |orig-year=1886 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA559 |page=559}}</ref>

<ref name="kmietowicz1982">{{cite book|last=Kmietowicz |first=Frank A. |author-link=<!--Frank A. Kmietowicz--> |title=Slavic Mythical Beliefs |place=Windsor, Ontario |publisher=157–158 |isbn=}}</ref>

<ref name="lexer-al-mar">[[Matthias Lexer|Lexer]] (1878). "{{URL|1=https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=Lexer&lemid=M00501|2=mar, mare}}", ''Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch''</ref>

<ref name="kolberg1874">{{Cite book|last= Kolberg |first=Oskar |author-link=Oskar Kolberg|chapter=Zmora |title=Lud: jego zwyczaje |trans-title=The People. Their Customs, Way of Life, Language.. |volume=7 |issue=Krakowskie III |location=Warszawa |publisher=Drukarni Jaworskiego |date=1874 |url=https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA69 |pages=69–71}} (Okolice Krakowa: część III. Gusła, Czary Przesądy)</ref>
<ref name="kolberg1882">{{Cite book|last= Kolberg |first=Oskar |author-link=Oskar Kolberg|chapter=Zmora |title=Lud: jego zwyczaje |trans-title=The People. Their Customs, Way of Life, Language.. |volume=15 |issue=Krakowskie III |location=Warszawa |publisher=Drukarni Jaworskiego |date=1882 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugPgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38 |pages=69–71}} (W. Kreis Poznańskie)</ref>
<ref name="kolberg1884">{{Cite book|last= Kolberg |first=Oskar |author-link=Oskar Kolberg|chapter=Zmora |title=Lud: jego zwyczaje |trans-title=The People. Their Customs, Way of Life, Language.. |volume=17 |issue=Lubelskie  |location=Warszawa |publisher=Drukarni Jaworskiego |date=1884 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DXgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA99 |pages=99–100}}</ref>

<ref name="nowak2001">{{cite book|last=Nowak |first=Henryk |author-link=<!--Henryk Nowak--> |chapter=829 Znaczenie wyrazów ''mora, zmora, wieszczyca'' |editor-last=Sobierajski |editor-first=Zenon |editor-link=:pl:Zenon Sobierajski |title=Atlas języka i kultury ludowej Wielkopolski: Lecznictwo ludowe. Magia. Wykazy i komentarze do map 764-834 |volume=10 |number=2 |publisher=Wydawn. Polskiej Akad. Nauk |date=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2MpAQAAIAAJ&q=zmora |pages=178<!--176–181--> |isbn=<!--8323211124, -->9788323211129}}</ref>

<ref name="ostling2011">{{Cite book|last=Ostling |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ostling |title=Between the devil and the host : imagining witchcraft in early modern Poland |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GwYg9AItS7wC&pg=PA233 |page=233 |isbn=978-0199587902 |location=Oxford |oclc=751748759}}</ref>

<ref name="PolishDict-linde-nocnica">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Linde |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Linde |entry=nocnica |title=Słownik języka polskiego: M - T |volume=2 |location=Warsaw |publisher=autor  |year=1809 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7lSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA325 |page=325}}</ref>

<ref name="szela̜gowski1914">{{cite book|last=Szelągowski |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Szelągowski |title=Wici i topory: studyum nad geneza i znaczeniem godeł polskich i zawołń |location=Kraków |publisher=Akademia Umiejętności, Skład główny w księg |year=1914 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccgHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA14 |pages=13–14}}</ref>

<ref name="temme1840">{{cite book|editor-last=Temme |editor-first=Jodocus Deodatus Hubertus |editor-link=:de:Jodocus Deodatus Hubertus Temme |chapter=Abergläubische Meinungen und Gebräuche in Pommern and Rügen (Alp) |title=Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen |location=Berlin |publisher=Nicolai |year=1840 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kA8XxrP0CYC&pg=PA340 |page=340}}</ref>

}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Baranowski |first=Bohdan |author-link=:pl:Bohdan Baranowski |title =Pożegnanie z diabłem i czarownicą |trans-title=Farewell to the Devil and the Witch |publisher=Wydawn. Łódzkie |year=1965 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlkQAQAAIAAJ&q=Zmora |pages= }}
* {{cite book |last=Baranowski |first=Bohdan |author-link=:pl:Bohdan Baranowski |title=W kręgu upiorów i wilkołaków |trans-title=In the circle of ghosts and werewolves |publisher=Wydawn. Łódzkie |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4UQAQAAIAAJ&q=Zmora |pages= |isbn=<!--8321800726, -->9788321800721}}
* {{cite journal |last=Batten |first=Caroline R. |author-link=<!--Caroline R. Batten--> |title=Dark Riders: Disease, Sexual Violence, and Gender Performance in the Old English ''Mære'' and Old Norse ''Mara'' |journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology|volume=120 |issue=3 |date=2021 |pages=352–80 |doi=10.5406/jenglgermphil.120.3.0352 |jstor=10.5406/jenglgermphil.120.3.0352|s2cid=236779356 |doi-access=free |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jegp/article-abstract/120/3/352/283613/Dark-Riders-Disease-Sexual-Violence-and-Gender?redirectedFrom=fulltext|url-access=subscription }}
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** {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Grimm|Stallybrass tr.|1883}} |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Grimm |others=Translated by James Steven Stallybrass |title=Teutonic Mythology|publisher=W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen|year=1883 |volume=2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ektAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA439|chapter=XVII. Wights and Elves |pages=439–517}} 
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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last=Barešin |first=Sandra |author-link=<!--Sandra Barešin --> |title=Mora kao nadnaravno biće tradicijske kulture |trans-title=Mare as Supernatural Being of Traditional Culture |journal=Ethnologica Dalmatica |volume=20 |date=2013|pages=39–68 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/107477}}
* {{cite journal |first1=Agnieszka |last1=Pieńczak |first2=Polina |last2=Povetkina |date=2023 |title=The Polish Nightmare Being (Zmora) and the Problem with Defining the Category of Supernatural Double-Souled Beings |journal=Folklore |volume=134 |issue=1 |pages=73–90 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.2022.2088957|doi-access=free }}
{{refend}}

{{Scandinavian folklore}}
{{German folklore}}
{{Slavic mythology}}
{{Fairies}}

{{Commons category}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mare (Folklore)}}
[[Category:German legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Scandinavian legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Scandinavian folklore]]
[[Category:English folklore]]
[[Category:Slavic legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Sleep in mythology and folklore]]
[[Category:Supernatural legends]]