"nightmare" and "bugbear"

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/19/2000 6:04:37 PM, Georg at home.ivm.de writes:
<< Fine, but what does this have to do with "nightmare" ? Is it a horse which
haunts you at night? Well, not me, I'm afraid. What does haunt people in bad
nights is a (Germ.) "Mahr" (G. /Nachtmahr/ is the equivalent to e.
/nightmare/).... IE sthl. *mora: "a k. o. ghost, malevolent spirit othl.".>>

Now, hold your horses there, pilgrim. :-)

There may be a little bit of horse involved in the history of this
word/concept.  One of the earliest descriptions of a severe incident of
nightmare appears in the "Ynglingasaga":

"Then Drífa sent for Huld, a seithr kona, and sent Vísbur, her son by
Vanlandi, to Sweden. Drífa prevailed upon Huld by gifts that she should
conjure Vanlandi back to Finnland or else kill him. At the time when she
exercised her seithr, Vanlandi was at Uppsala. Then he became eager to go to
Finnland; but his friends and counselors stayed him from doing so, saying
that most likely it was the witchcraft of the Finns which caused his longing.
Then a drowsiness came over him and he lay down to sleep. But he had hardly
gone to sleep when he called out, saying that a mara rode him. His men went
to him and wanted to help him. But when they took hold of his head the mara
trod on his legs so they nearly broke; and when they seized his feet it
stepped down down on his head so that he died." (Ynglingasaga,13)

Now what's a little odd about this is that, in this tradition, the mara
"rides" you.  The Old Norse for horse (of either gender) -- marr -- might
have been source of this confusion.  But the "riding" element also occurs in
some of the earliest references in English.  The OED cites a quote from
1000AD: "Gif mon mare ride..."   The connection also comes up in Old French,
in which the OED mentions <cauchemar>, nightmare.  <Caucher> is to trample
and seems also to refer to the work of a horse or other large animal.

In the other direction, some of the earliest instances in English mention the
Greek, as a medical reference I think, <epialtes, ephialtes>, "nightmare"
which is specifically defined as early as Homer as a "throttling demon" that
comes at night.  Parallel to the Finnish witch's conjuring in the saga, the
meaning in Greek seems to be from <epiallo:> (fut. epialo:), to set upon, to
send something after someone.  But it seems there was one instance where a
miswrite also turned <ephialtes> into <ephipplatus>, Middle Latin/Greek for
"saddled".  The irony seems to be that the accidental connection with horses
comes from every which direction.  But obviously as early as there are
sources in English and ON we see some kind of allusion to "riding" and
"trampling."  (And clearly the mara is not just any goblin or spirit, it is
already in 700AD an "incubus.")

In "The Conception of the Nightmare in Sweden" Tillhagen, Carl-Herman; in
Humaniora: Essays in Literature, Folklore,etc. eds. Wayland D. Hand and
Gustave O. Arlt. J.J. Augistin. 1960. pp. 317-329, (a cite for you Roz), the
tradition seems to be that the "marr" can take the shape of a horse or an elk
or other large animal and actually take you for a ride, where you get all
banged up and die.

Stefan Georg also writes:
<< OHG /mara/, OE /mare/, ON /mara/; this is also found in Slavic, Czech
/mu:ra/, russ. (kiki-)mora, and in Celtic, OIr/morri:gain/.  IE sthl. *mora:
"a k. o. ghost, malevolent spirit othl.". >>

Something else.  The original OED cites the "synonymous Polish" <mora>, but
there is another word in Polish, <marzyc>, that meant nothing more than to
dream or to imagine.  And that brings up other words that refer to illusion
or deception: "ma:rrach, a thicket to catch cattle. Root: mar, mer, deceive,
as in mear brath." (McBain's Etym Dictionary of Gaelic) and the Greek
<mo:ria>, folly, delusion.  But, given the trampling and crushing theme in
all the early accounts, perhaps the Sanskrit <mar>, to crush, and the Latin
<marcus>, hammer, are worth noting.  Perhaps "mara" was originally a
nickname, like "Old Scratch", for a spirit of the night called "Mr. Crush."

In any case, it feels like there are just too many possible twist and turns
in the etymologies to warrant much confidence in there having been a specific
word "*mora:" that meant "ghost, malevolent spirit" in PIE, whether or not
that word can be reconstructed based on rather simplified semantics.

Regards,
Steve Long

PS - Good to see you all back on the list.