Amare (Old English:mære;Danish,Norwegian:mare;Swedish:mara;Polish:mara,zmora; among many others) is a malicious entity inGermanic andSlavic folklore that sits, walks, or "rides" on people's chests while they sleep, bringing onnightmares.[1] When placed on the victim's chest, it is said to have a suffocating effect, and can lead to cold sweats or sleep paralysis. It is often a female being with magical abilities for haunting its victim, including the ability toshapeshift.
The wordmare comes (throughMiddle Englishmare) from theOld English feminine nounmære (which had numerous variant forms, includingmare,mere, andmær).[2]
Cognates in other languages includes:
These in turn come fromProto-Germanic *marōn.[1] The-mar inFrenchcauchemar ('nightmare') is borrowed from the Germanic throughOld Frenchmare.[1][11]
Most scholars trace the word back to thereconstructedProto-Indo-European root*mer-, associated with crushing, pressing and oppressing,[12][13][14][4] or according to other sources 'to rub away' or 'to harm'.[15] Compare this to Finnish and Karelian, where the creature is roughly called "pressinger" (Finnish:painajainen,Karelian:painajaini), or "ridinger" (Finnish:ajajainen). Further, in Danish and Norwegian, the word for 'nightmare' is "mare ride" (Danish:mareridt,Norwegian:mareritt); in Icelandic, the word for 'nightmare' is "mare tread", or "mare trample" (Icelandic:martröð); whereas in Swedish and Finnish, the word for 'nightmare' is "mare dream" (Swedish:mardröm,Finnish:painajaisuni).
However, other etymologies have been suggested. For example,Éva Pócs saw the term as being cognate with theGreek termMoros (μόρος, fromProto-Indo-European **móros) meaning "doom".[16][17][18] There is no definite answer among historians about the time of origin of the word. According to the philologistYeleazar Meletinsky, a Slavonic root,Proto-Slavic *mara, passed into the Germanic language no later than the 1st century BC.[19]
The mare was believed to ride horses, which left them exhausted and covered in sweat by the morning.[20] She could also entangle the hair of the sleeping man or beast,[21] resulting in "marelocks", calledmarflätor ('mare-braids') ormartovor ('mare-tangles') inSwedish ormarefletter andmarefloker inNorwegian. The belief probably originated as an explanation to thePolish plait phenomenon, a hair disease.
Even trees were thought to be ridden by the mare, resulting in branches being entangled.[23] The undersized, twistedpine-trees growing on coastal rocks and on wet grounds are known in Sweden asmartallar ('mare-pines') or in German asAlptraum-Kiefer ('nightmare pine').
According toPaul 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.[17]
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In German folklore, the mare is related or analogous to thealp, a supernatural creature of similar nature; the German word fornightmare beingAlbtraum (lit. 'alp dream', orAlptrück (lit. 'alp preassure'). InHigh German, the mare known asMara,Mare, orMahr (masculine noun, i.e. "der Mahr");[20] inLow German asmårt,Mahrt,[24] orde môr inPomerania andRügen.[20] It rides on sleepers, making it hard to breathe,[25] 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.[20] While themårt is usually a girl with a bad foot according to one source (a certain daughter of a smith in the village of Bork nearStargard having that reputation),[25] there are tales of themôr either male or female (see below).[20]
Themôr enters a house through a hole the carpenter forgot to plug, and can be captured by plugging the hole. A malemôr 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.[20] In another tale, a femalemôr 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.[20] Themôr also rides a horse and makes its mane matted and impossible to untangle[21] (folklore collected fromRügen).[20]
It is also said that to prevent aMahrt 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.[24] Another way is boil water in a newly bought jar plugged with a new cork, at which theMahrt will request the cork to be removed and will not come back again. (folklore of Quazow,Schlawe district [de], nowKwasowo,Gmina Sławno, Poland).[24] More generally in Pomerania, an upside down pair of slippers left by the bed will ward it off.[24]
German FolkloristAdalbert Kuhn records aWestphalian charm or prayer used to ward off mares, from Wilhelmsburg nearPaderborn:
Such charms are preceded by the example of theMünchener Nachtsegen of the fourteenth century (SeeElf under§Medieval and early modern German texts). Its texts demonstrates that certainly by theLate Middle Ages, the distinction between theMare, theAlp, and theTrute (Drude) was being blurred, the Mare being described as the Alp's mother.[30]
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The Scandinavian is normally a female being which "rides" the victims chest, called "mare riding" (Danish:mareridt,Norwegian:mareritt,Swedish:marritt), causing severe anxiety and feelings of suffocation. It assaults both people and animals, and is often said to be a young beautiful woman, although she could also be depicted as an nasty older lady.[31] It has the ability to shapeshift, and can also appear as a man, or a furry animal, sometimes a cat, sometimes a dog; in a couple of cases, even a bird, most often an owl.[31] The given basis for mares are many and varried. Some legends speak of mares as the soul of a person, alive or dead (seehamr), such as a sinful woman, someone wronged, or someone who died unmarried.[31]
The mare is attested as early as in the NorseYnglinga saga from the 13th century.[32] Here, KingVanlandi Sveigðisson ofUppsala lost his life to a nightmare (mara) conjured by theFinnish sorceressHuld or Hulda, hired by the king's abandoned wifeDrífa. 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".[33] InSámi mythology, there is an evil elf calledDeattán, who transforms into a bird or other animal and sits on the chests of sleeping people, giving nightmares.[34]
According to theVatnsdæla saga, Thorkel Silver (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'sfetch (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 wordsmarr andmara."[35]
Another possible example is the account in theEyrbyggja saga of the sorceress Geirrid accused of assuming the shape of a "night-rider" or "ride-by-night" (marlíðendr orkveldriða) and causing serious trampling bruises on Gunnlaug Thorbjornsson. Themarlíðendr mentioned here has been equated to themara by commentators.[36][37][38]
Polishmora andCzechmůra denotes both a kind of elf (alp, nightmare) as well as a moth.[7][9][39] OtherSlavic languages with cognates that have the double meaning ofmoth are:Kashubianmòra/mora,[40][41] andSlovakmora.[42]
The Polish termnocnice attested in the 15th century means an illness condition of a child, who suffers from spasmodic crying, for which demons were sometimes blamed.[43][44][a][44] This is precursor to the related termnocnica referring to the adult condition of "nightmare oppression" (German:Alpdruck); note thatnocnica could also mean "night moth".[43][45] Another Polish synonym wasgniotek.[43]
InCroatian,mora refers to a 'nightmare'.Mora orMara 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 calledzmora[43] ormora, ornoćnik/noćnica ('night creature', masculine and feminine respectively).[46] In Romania they were known asMoroi.
The Russian counterpart is calledkikimora orhihimore, like the French namecauchemar.[43]
Some believe that amora enters the room through the keyhole, sits on the chest of the sleeper and tries to strangle them (hencemoriti, 'to torture', 'to bother', 'to strangle',umoriti, 'to tire', 'to kill',umor, 'tiredness' andumoran, 'tired'). To repelmoras, children are advised to look at the window or to turn the pillow and make thesign of the cross on it (prekrstiti jastuk); in the early 19th century,Vuk Karadžić mentions that people would repelmoras 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.[47]
The Polish nightmare is known by such names asmara (aroundPodlachia),zmora (aroundKraków).[48][44] An etymological connection withMarzanna, the name of a demon/goddess of winter has been conjectured.[48]
It could be a soul of a person, alive or dead (seehamr), such as a sinful woman, someone wronged or someone who died without confession.[31] 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.Zmoraś Mario instead ofZdrowaś Mario (an inverted version ofAve Maria) at baptism, the child would become azmora.[49][b]
Thezmora could be recognized by the joined unibrow (żrośnięte brwi), according to the lore of the Wielkopolska (Greater Poland),[50] includingKreis Posen [de] (Poznań County) where azmora of either sex is recognizable by huge black eyebrows joined in the middle above the nose.[52][54] Black unibrow is ascribed tozmora or themorus (likened to aciátow,ciátow 'witch').[51] Other signs of someone being a mare could be: having multicoloured eyes or a unibrow (exclusive to theKalisz region, Poland).[citation needed]
Thezmora by the power of the devil canshapeshift into various forms: straw, grass, a mouse, a dog, a cat, a mare, a cow, (also white shadow, leather bag, snake[53]) or anything to disturb a person's sleep.[22]: #145 Thezmora is also called astrzyga (‘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.[22]: #144 Thezmora differs fromstrzyga according to another account, which asserts that when thezmora dies, it dies for good, while thestrzyga becomes arevenant and exhibits transformational abilities only after becoming an undead.[22]: #145
In a family with seven daughters and no sons. the eldest or youngest was bound to become azmora, so it has been told.[22]: #143 [56] Or if a pregnant woman passes through in-between two other pregnant woman, the daughter born becomes azmora.[55][53]
It is said that thezmora, once it turns to day, becomes completely unaware of her own strangling or blood-sucking activities during the night.[22]: #144 [51] Some say she sticks in her tongue[53] while mounting the victim on his chest, and sucks the blood from his tongue, leaving him emaciated.[51]
It can transform into a moth or mosquito and invade a house through cracks in the window.[57] It is also said that thezmora 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 azmora 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.[22]: #149 In a variant (also fromKrakow County penned by the same woman), a farmhand marries thezmore but tests how she may suffer after plugging her conduit, only uplugging it after she is pregnant.[22]: #150 [c] Another variant (fromLublin County) tells of a farmhand who catches thezmora in cat-for using St. Francis's belt; it turns out to be a girl in love with him.[57]
People believed that the mare drained people – as well as cattle and horses –of energy and/or blood at night.[58] And not only is she a bloodsucker of men,[22]: #146 but even a sapsucker of trees, according to Krakovian lore.[22]: #147 [59] The ways purportedly effective for warding the stable (and perhaps home too[60]) are hanging a slaughteredmagpie (sroka), inviting the mare forbreakfast,[d] cutting off a string from the doorknob, sticking an awl in the door, or putting a broom and an axe crosswise on the threshold[58] (or a broom in the bedroom to ward it off[53]). 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:
Fiction:
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