"nightmare"

X99Lynx at aol.com X99Lynx at aol.com
Thu Oct 26 02:38:03 UTC 2000


In a message dated 10/25/2000 8:08:27 PM, whiting at cc.helsinki.fi writes:
<< Then what is the origin of the expressions 'priest-ridden' and
'hag-ridden'?  Or is 'hag-ridden' a folk etymology of *'nag-ridden'? >>

OED I has a number of difference references to hag as some kind of spirit,
but none of them occur before the 16th century in English.

More importantly, the ONLY one I see where the hag "rides" is in the
following from 1696:  "It is to prevent the Night-Mare (viz.) the Hag from
riding their Horses."

In some cases, it seems it is a witch (as in the Ynglingasaga) that sends or
brings the mare.  This is the "ride" that gets the mare to the victim,
sometimes on horseback, rather than the "riding" of the victim.  Kveldulf
Hagen Gundarsson writes in "The Folklore of the Wild Hunt and the Furious
Host":  "Witches are also called "mirk-riders" (Harbardhzliodh 20) and
"evening-riders" (Helgakvidha Hjorvardhzsonar 15), though these latter titles
may refer to the magical act of nightmare-riding, rather than to the haunting
ride through the air, such as that carried out by the 'Darradhrljodh'
valkyries..."  (Mountain Thunder (Cambridge Folklore Soc.), issue 7,1992.)

But it seems from what I can gather that the business of the non-"mare" kind
of "hags" is not "riding" victims at all, though they do come specifically at
night to suck your blood or "change" your children or as just plain
harbingers, sometimes on horseback or even on reindeer.

(As to "priest-ridden" I see no reference to it in several different volumes.
 Sounds kind of Joycean.)

Going back to my original statement:

> There's simple logic involved here.  There were all kinds of spirits in the
> ancient times and in the early middle ages that would restrain you, fall
> upon you and do you physical violence of all sorts, but as far as I can tell,
> only the mare "rides" you.

This still SEEMS to be true.  But I have no clear idea of why it would be so.
Folk etymology (AS: mare ride and mareridt) may be an explanation.  But if
it is, it seems to be very old and remarkably congruent for two supposedly
distinct ideas.

On the other hand, the Greeks (ephilates) and Romans (suppressio nocturea;
later Latin, incubo) seem to have named the phenomenon directly,
unambiguously and without any reference to either "mare" or "ride".

So once again, based on this much at least, it seems the "mare" (in
nightmare) is a Germanic-Slavic thing.  And though the word may be
reconstructible as IE, its meanings and usage appear to be too local and
complex to justify seeing it as IE.  (Of course, I don't know how this whole
idea ran in Basque.)

Regards,
Steve Long



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