In Germanic and Slavic folk-legends, a Mare is an evil spirit who mounts on chests of people while they are sleeping and causes them to see nightmares. The Old English feminine noun Maere is where the word Mare first originated. They were worn out and drenched in sweat by dawn, and the Mare was thought to ride horses. She could also twist the hair of a sleeping human or animal, creating Marelocks. The word may actually have etymological origin from Proto-Germanic *marōn. Surprisingly the terms for Nightmare in Norwegian and Danish are Mareritt and Mareridt, respectively, which might be rendered as — Mare-Ride. The theory of Marelocks most likely developed as an account for the hair illness known as the Polish plait syndrome. Branches of Trees were also thought to get entwined since it was believed that the Mare even rode even trees. The undersized, twisted pine trees that grow on damp grounds and coastal rocks are referred to as Martallar or Mare-Pines in Sweden or Alptraum-Kiefer i.e. Nightmare Pine in German. It has also been proposed that ilk of Mares even comprised of witches who assumed animal forms when their spirits wandered free and when they were tranced. Frogs, cats, horses, hares, dogs, oxen, birds and even frequently bees and wasps were among these creatures whose animal forms were taken by these Mare-witches. The Norse Ynglinga saga from the thirteenth century has one of the earliest known mentions of the Mare in Scandinivia. Here, the Finnish witch Huld or Hulda, hired by the abandoned wife Drífa of the King, produced a nightmare i.e. Mara that killed King Vanlandi Sveigisson of Uppsala. These entities were also referred to as Mara, Mahr or Mare in Germany. [Information and Image Credit : Mare_(folklore), Wikipedia] [Image: The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, 1781] [The Work (Image) is faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, Public Domain Work of Art. The Work (Image) is in the Public Domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the life of Author plus 100 years or fewer. The work is in the public domain in the United States as well; (Kindly Relate to Individual Source Image URLs for More Usage Properties)] [Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_NightmareFXD.jpg ] #Mythology
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