Mara (folklore)

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A mara, or a mare is a kind of malignant female wraith in Scandinavian folklore believed to cause nightmares. She appears as early as in the Norse Ynglinga saga, but the belief itself is probably even older (see below). "Mara" is the Old Norse, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic name, "mare" is Old English, Norwegian and Danish.

The mara was thought of as an immaterial being – capable of moving through a keyhole or the opening under a door – who seated herself at the chest of a sleeping person and "rode" him or her, thus causing nightmares. In Norwegian/Danish, the word for nightmare is mareritt/mareridt, meaning "mareride". The Icelandic word martröð has the same meaning, whereas the Swedish mardröm translates as "maredream". The weight of the mara could also result in breathing difficulties or feeling of suffocation (an experience now known as sleep paralysis). This phenomenon is present in the Finnish word for nightmare, painajainen, which is derived from the verb painaa, meaning "to press/to apply pressure". In the Finnish folklore, a Painajainen was originally a malign creature that climbed on the chest of a sleeping person, paralysing or even suffocating the sleeper.

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", a belief probably originating as an explanation for Polish plait – a hair disease. Even trees could be ridden by the mara, resulting in branches being entangled. The undersized, twisted pine-trees growing on coastal rocks and on wet grounds are known in Sweden as martallar (marepines).

According to a common belief, the free-roaming spirit of sleeping women could become maras, either out of wickedness or as a form of curse. In the latter case, finding out who the cursed person was and repeating "you are a mara" three times was often enough to release her from this condition.

The concept of the mara has very old roots in the folklore of the Germanic peoples, possibly the belief was shaped as early as in proto-Indo-European religion. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word can be traced back to an Indo-European root *mer, meaning to rub away or to harm. The Slavic nightmare spirit mora is likely to have been derived from this root as well, and possibly also the Irish deity Mórrígan and the Buddhist demon Mara. The proto-Germanic name is *marōn, and its Old English derivative is mære. The Anglo-Saxon belief in this creature still echoes in the word nightmare. In later English folklore, hags and witches took on many of the roles of the mara, producing terms such as hagridden and haglock. In Germany the activities of the mara (mahr) were shifted to the elves (nightmare in German is Albtraum or "elf-dream"). According to Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the French word cauchemar ("sleep-mare") entered the French language from a Middle Dutch mare.

Similar mythical creatures are the succubus/incubus, although the belief in the mara lacks the fundamental sexual element of these beings.

Mara in popular culture

Several Mara appear in the book The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, although the creatures as described have more in common with trolls.

The Mara appear in the Doctor Who serials Kinda and Snakedance.

In the Torchwood episode Small Worlds, Jack Harkness states that he thinks the evil, sadistic "fairies" are part Mara, which he describes as "kind of malignant wraiths" that suffocate people in their sleep.

In White Wolf's Exalted RPG, there is a Second Circle Succubus-like Demon named Mara.

In The Elder Scrolls series, Mara appears as one of the Goddesses in the pantheon of the nine divine.

In the Swedish RPG DoDT (Drakar och Demoner Trudvang) it is possible to attract a mara to haunt one's dreams when getting scared enough.

A character in Oh My Goddess! is a female demon (first class) named Mara.

The rap group "Insane Clown Posse" often refers to the Mara in their lyrics, calling it "The Witch on your chest." Visitations of the "Witch" are often accompanied by the inability to move, and a crushing feeling on one's chest, preventing them from breathing.

Mara (folklore)

Mara in popular culture

References

See also