"nightmare"

[Robert Whiting]

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:

> 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.

Then what is the origin of the expressions 'priest-ridden' and
'hag-ridden'?  Or is 'hag-ridden' a folk etymology of *'nag-ridden'?

Bob Whiting
whiting at cc.helsinki.fi