NIGHT - MARE
Middle English (denoting a evil spirit thought to lie upon and suffocate sleepers): from night + Old English mære ‘incubus’.
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| The Nightmare by Fuseli (1781) |
In folklore, a nightmare is a demonic night spirit of oppression, an incubus that comes to sleepers during the night accompanied by frightening dreams. The nightmare is also known as the night hag or riding the witch.
The old English word for an incubus was mare which is related to the German word of marh - the common Germanic form was maron and the source of the Old Norse mara. In Slavic and Teutonic mythology and belief, the maras were female nightmare spirits, a dark spirit form or succubus who visited men in their dreams to torture them with desire.
The mara included shape - shifting witches who assumed animal forms such as cats or dogs that resembled the assumed 'familiars' or witch companions. In Polish mythology, folktales of maras are the souls of living beings that leave as moths or wisps of hair. In Serbian folklore, a mara is described as a night creature who enters the chamber and sits on the chest of sleeping men or woman.
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The Folklore of the Nightmare, 2013, Eric Edwards Collected Works:
https://ericwedwards.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/the-folkore-of-the-nightmare/
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