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The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, 1781 A mare ( Old English : mære , Old Dutch : mare ; Old Norse , Old High German and Swedish : mara ; Proto-Slavic * mara ) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that walks on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on nightmares .
As the apparent convergence with dwarves suggests, the word alp declined in use in German after the medieval period, though it still occurs in some fossilised uses, most prominently the word for "nightmare", Alptraum ("elf-dream"). [18] Variations of the German elf in later folklore include the moss people [19] and the Weiße Frauen ("White ...
A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, [1] is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror, or panic .
The Nightmare by Johann Heinrich Füssli, oil on canvas, 1781. The mare is etymologically close to the word nightmare in many languages: "mähre" means mare in German, [100] and also refers to a fabulous chtonian mare. The word is spelled nightmare in English, which also means "mare of the night", while in French quauquemaire means "witch".
Most sources link the suffix -mora with the Proto-Slavic *morà ('nightly spirit, bad dream') and the Proto-Germanic *marōn (id.), as in the modern English nightmare. [2] [3]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.
The early meaning of nightmare included the sleeper's experience of weight on the chest combined with sleep paralysis, dyspnea, or a feeling of dread. [6] Sleep and dreams were common subjects for Fuseli, although The Nightmare is unique among his paintings for its lack of reference to literary or religious themes (Fuseli was an ordained ...
Epiales was also known as Melas Oneiros (Black Dream). [1]"The words epialos, epiales and epioles denote (1) the feverish chill (2) the daimon who assaults sleepers. Homer and most writers have epioles with the e; the form in -os means something different, namely the feverish chill . . .
The traditional Japanese nightmare-devouring baku originates in Chinese folklore from the mo 貘 (giant panda) and was familiar in Japan as early as the Muromachi period (14th–15th century). [2] Hori Tadao has described the dream-eating abilities attributed to the traditional baku and relates them to other preventatives against nightmare such ...