The Mare

Once upon a time there was a man, whom every night found himself ridden by a mare. He could not for the life of him understand how she managed to get in, but eventually he discovered a hole in the wall, and immediately after which stuffed a cork in it.

When he woke up the following morning, he saw a naked woman crouching on the floor. He bought clothes for her, and as she was a beautiful woman, he got her christened and married her. They had six children and lived happily together for eight years.

Then, a Christmas Eve when the man had had a little too much to drink, he started asking questions about her folks. She replied that she had neither a father nor mother. "Well, I don't know your family, but I'll show you where you came from," said the man, and then he took the cork out of the hole. At the same moment, his wife slipped out through the hole, and he never saw her again.

This legend from the county of Telemark does not tell if the man grieved when his wife disappeared. Nevertheless, he was probably happier than many others who were subjected to the evening rides of the mare. One unfortunate wretch who simply died due to an encounter with her, was the Swedish king Vanlande whom Snorrir tells about in the Ynglinge saga. One time the king went on one his many voyages, he had promised his wife, Driva, to come back to her before three winters were over. But when he did not come on time, his abandoned wife hired the sorceress Huld for her to kill her husband. 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." 

The Nightmare (1800) by Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard, 
Danish painter and professor of painting, mythology, and anatomy at the 

New Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen

The work of Snorri Sturlasson may have been written in the 13th century, but the notions of demons who sought people at night, clinging to them, strangling them, "riding them to torment”, date all the way back to the Sumerians, 3000 years before Christ. Now, there were rational souls - even in the old days - thinking that nightmares could be caused by more everyday things, such as eating too much hot porridge in the evening, sleeping on your back or breathing in stuffy air. Such diplomacy however, was most likely seen as heresy.

In Norwegian and Danish, the words for "nightmare" are mareritt and mareridt respectively, which can be directly translated as "mare-ride". The Icelandic word martröð has the same meaning (-tröð from the verb troða, "trample", "stamp on", related to "tread"), whereas the Swedish mardröm translates as "mare-dream".

In the folk tradition, mara apparently emerges as an ordinary being, but at night her soul flies out in search of someone to afflict, people and animals alike. Through holes and other tiny openings, she enters people’s homes. The person in question is unaware of the shape-shift she endures.

The mare could take many forms; a desirable woman who hinged upon young boys and men, casting upon them erotic fantasies, or an old, ugly, even deceased hag, in desperate search for a roll in the hay. It also happened that she appeared in animal shape, whereas dog, cat or toad are among the animals most often mentioned in the tradition.

Why were some women cursed in such a manner? Many notions seem to blame the mother. If she tried to alleviate and ease her child birth by using magic tricks - say crawling through the fetus of a foal or through a horse’s harness (!) – her newborn baby girl might be cursed to be a mare. If she had a son, he would become a werewolf. (It was said that werewolves were especially looking to harm pregnant women). Both father and mother could otherwise be held responsible for the fate of their children. In case of adultery, their daughters became mares, their sons became werewolves. 

Lithographie by German artist Ernst Barlach (1912)

Der Nachtalb

The notions about mara are also in posession of religious traits, as the creature was seen as Satan himself. Anyone possessing evil thoughts was in danger of being haunted by mara. According to older Christian law, those who "nightly rode men and livestock" should be heavily penalized, and during the time of the witch hunts, the mare, according to the notions, played a significant role in joining man and demon.

Luckily, help was close at hand. To guard against mara, one could resort to a little bit of everything, from hanging up growths of old birch twigs, to putting a knife with leaf in the bedstead with the blade turned up. It was also advisable to put the tips of the shoes facing outwards under the bed, or switching the right and left shoe. If the livestock had become ill of the nightly mares, the so-called “mare’s prayer”, told in different variations throughout Norway. In Nordland the wording was this:

Mare, mare of mine,

if inside you are old Bessie, you must go out,

With cane and stone,
With iron and with bones,
Then comes saint Olaf with his sword,
Strikes your back -

You are going on a hell of a journey
be aware, Mare, Mare of mine.

For those who were more on the sober side however, regularly readings of the Lord's Prayer would do. 


Sources:

• Valebrokk, Eva (1995) Trollpakk og andre vetter. Boksenteret: Oslo