Night-Mares

legends and superstitions

about the demons that cause nightmares
translated and/or edited by

D. L. Ashliman
© 1998-2005

Contents
1. Definitions.
2. The Alp (Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm).
3. The Alp (Germany, Johann August Ernst Köhler).
4. Beliefs Concerning Alps and Mares (Germany, Karl Bartsch).
5. The Mårt (Germany, A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz).
6. A Mahrt Is Captured (Poland/Germany, A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz).
7. An Alp Is Captured (Germany, Bernhard Baader).
8. Charm against Night-Mares (Germany, A. Kuhn).
9. The Alp (Poland/Germany, J. D. H. Temme).
10. A Charm to Control the Night-Mare (England, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps).
11. Nightmare Charm or Spell against the Mara (Shetland Islands, Biot Edmonston and
Jessie M. E. Saxby).
12. A Shetland Charm (Shetland Islands, Karl Blind).
13. Vanlandi, King of Sweden, and Huld, the Witch Woman (Iceland, The Ynglinga
Saga of Snorri Sturluson).
14. Baku, Eater of Dreams (Japan, F. Hadland Davis).
15. Links to Related Sites.

Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and

mythology.

Definitions
The mare in nightmare is not a female horse, but a mara, an Anglo-Saxon and Old
Norse term for a demon that sat on sleepers' chests, causing them to have bad dreams.
Dialect variants, as explained below, include the forms mara, mahr, mahrt, mårt, and
others.

In High German, the demon who causes bad dreams is most often called an Alp, a
word that is etymologically related to elf.

A mare-induced bad dream is called a nightmare in English, martröð (mare-ride) in

Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic, mareridt (mare-ride) in Danish, mareritt (mare-ride) in
Norwegian, and Alpdruck (alp-pressure) or Alptraum (alp-dream) in German.

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The Alp
Germany

Even though windows and doors may be tightly closed and locked to keep out the
alps, they can still get in through the smallest holes, which they seek out with special
pleasure. In the still of the night one can hear the sound that they make in the wall
while getting in. If one gets up quickly and plugs up the hole, then they must stay in
the room and cannot escape, even after the doors have been opened. Then, before
setting them free, one must make them promise to never disturb the place again. On
such occasions they have complained pitifully that they have little children at home
who will perish if they do not leave.

A trud or an alp often travels a great distance to make his nighttime visits. Once some
herdsmen were out in the field in the middle of the night. They were watching their
herds not far from a body of water. An alp came by, climbed into a boat, untied it
from the bank, rowed it with an oar that he himself had brought along, climbed out,
tied up the boat on the other side, and continued on his way. After a while he returned
and rowed back.

The herdsmen, however, after observing this for several nights, and allowing it to
happen, decided to take the boat away. When the alp returned, he began to complain
bitterly, and threatened the herdsmen that they would have to bring the boat back
immediately if they wanted to have peace, and that is what they did.
Some people have laid a hackle [an iron-toothed comb for the preparation of flax] on
their bodies in order to keep alps away, but an alp often turns it over, pressing the
points into the sleeper's body.

A better precaution is to turn one's shoes around at the side of the bed, so that the
hooks and the laces are next to you.

When an alp is pressing against you, you can put your thumb in your hand, and he
will have to retreat.

Alps often ride your horses during the night, and the next morning you can see how
exhausted they are.

They can also be repelled with horse heads.

If you don't move your chair before going to sleep, the mare will ride it during the
night. They like to give people hair-snarls (called whole-grain braids or mare braids),
by sucking on their hair then braiding it.

When a nurse diapers a child, she must make the sign of the cross and open up a
corner, otherwise the alp will re-diaper the child.

If you say to an alp that is pressing upon you, "Trud, come tomorrow, and I will lend
you something!" then he will immediately retreat and come the next day in the form
of a human, in order to borrow something.

Or you can call out to him, "Come tomorrow and drink with me," then the person who
sent him will have to come.

According to Prätorius, such a person's eyebrows grow together along one line. Others
claim that such a person's eyebrows grow together on their forehead. There are others
who can send an alp to those they hate or are angry with merely with their thoughts.
He comes out of their eyebrows, looks like a small white butterfly, and sits on the
breast of a sleeping person.

 Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Der Alp, Deutsche Sagen (1816/1818), no.

81.
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The Alp
Germany

The alp is a demonic being which presses upon sleeping people so that they cannot
utter a sound. These attacks are called Alpdrücke (nightmares).

A girl told how the alp came to her through a keyhole. She was not able to call for
help. Later, she therefore asked her sister to call out her name in the night, and then
the alp would go back out through the keyhole.

In Zwickau they claim that the alp will go away if one invites him for coffee the
following morning.

It is also believed that the alp crushes animals to death. For example, if young geese,
are placed in a pig pen and then die it is said that the alp crushed them to death. If
rabbits die, and it appears that they have been crushed, a broom is placed in their pen,
which protects them against the alp.

 Source: Joh. Aug. Ernst Köhler, Sagenbuch des Erzgebirges (Schneeberg and

Schwarzenberg: Verlag und Druck von Carl Moritz Gärtner, 1886), no. 200, pp.
154-155.
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Beliefs Concerning Alps and Mares

Germany

1. It is believed that by stopping up the keyhole, placing one's shoes with the toes
facing the door, and then getting into bed backwards one can protect oneself
against nightmares or "Mortriden." [mare rides].
2. Further, one can put something made from steel, for example an old pair of
scissors, in one's bed straw.
3. A person suffering from nightmares should urinate into a clean, new bottle,
hang the bottle in the sun for three days, carry it -- without saying a word -- to a
running stream, and then throw it over one's head into the stream.
  Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus
Meklenburg (Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1880), vol. 2, p. 3.
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The Mårt
A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, Germany

1. The name most often found in northern Germany ends with a pronounced "t,"
and can be grammatically either masculine or feminine. The compound
"nightmårt" is also very common. The forms "mår" (masculine) and "måre"
(feminine) also exist. The designation "alp" is recognized as well.
2. All of these names are used to designate the spirit being that sits upon a
sleeping person's chest, thus depriving him of motion and speech. The
approaching being sounds like the gnawing of a mouse or the quiet creeping of
a cat. The mårt can be captured by grasping it with an inherited glove or by
closing up all of the room's openings as soon as the sleeping person begins to
groan.
3. Mårt-pressure (also called a mårt-ride) can be prevented by crossing one's arms
and legs before falling asleep.
4. In the Oldenburg district, in Saterland, and in East Friesland, the alp is called
"wåridèrske" or "wäridèrske."
5. In the vicinity of Wendisch-Buchholz the same being is called the "Murraue."
The fear that it causes the sleeping person does not cease until it gets light in
the room.
6. Some pine trees have twigs that grow together in curls until they look almost
like nests. During a rain storm, one must be careful to not stand beneath such a
twig, because if rain drops fall on a person from such a nest, the murraue will
surely sit on him during the night.
7. A person whose eyebrows grow together is called a murraue.
8. A murraue can be either a man or a woman, but only a person born on Sunday.
If they are pressing against you, you should say that you want to give them
something, then they will come the next day to get it. Braunsdorf near
Fürstenwald.
9. The murraue creeps up a sleeping person's body from below. First you feel her
weight on your feet, next on your stomach, and finally on your chest, and then
you cannot move a muscle. However, if you think that you know who she is,
 you must call her by name as soon as you perceive her, and she will have to
retreat. Teupitz.
10.If a mårt is pressing against you, and you presume that it is an acquaintance,
you need only call him by name, and he will have to appear in his physical
form. Once a mårt was pressing against a man. He called out the name of his
beloved, and in an instant she was standing before him. From Elm.
11.It helps to prevent being ridden by a nightmårt when in the evening one places
one's shoes next to the bed with the toes pointing outward. Varneitze near
Winsen on the Aller.
12.If there are seven boys or seven girls in one family, then one of them will be a
night-mare, but will know nothing about it. Moorhausmoor.
13.On the island of Baltrum the male mare is called "wålrüder" and the female
mare is called "rittmeije."

 Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und

Gebräuche (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), pp. 418-420.
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A Mahrt Is Captured
Poland/Germany

Two farm workers slept together in one room. One of them was ridden by a mahrt so
often that he finally asked his comrade the next time it happened to stop up the
knothole in the door so they could capture the mahrt.

The next time he was miserably moaning and groaning in his sleep, his comrade did
what he had been asked, then called his friend by name. Awakening, he quickly
reached out and grabbed a piece of straw in his hand. Although it twisted and turned,
he held it tightly until his comrade had stopped up the knothole. He then laid the piece
of straw on the table, and they both fell asleep until morning.

When they awoke they saw a beautiful girl behind the stove. They nearly parted ways
disputing whom she belonged to. The one who had stopped up the knothole said that
she should be his, because if he had not done that, she would have escaped. The other
one said that she belonged to him, because he had captured her.
Finally the one who stopped up the knothole gave in, and the other one married the
girl. They had children and lived together quite happily.

However, the woman often begged her husband to show her the knothole where she
had entered the room. She said that she would have no peace until she had seen it. The
man resisted her pleas for a long time, but once she begged him especially earnestly,
saying that she could hear her mother in England calling the pigs, and asked him to
allow see her again just once.

Finally he softened and gave in. He went with her and showed her where she had
entered the room, but in that instant she flew out through the knothole and never
returned.

 Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, "Mahrt gefangen," Norddeutsche Sagen,

Märchen und Gebräuche (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), no. 16, pp. 14-15.
 Kuhn's and Schwartz's source: "Oral, from Swinemünde." Swinemünde is the
German name for Swinoujscie, Poland, a city on the Baltic very near the
current Polish border with Germany.
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An Alp Is Captured
Germany

A cabinetmaker in Bühl slept in a bed in his workshop. Several nights in a row

something laid itself onto his chest and pressed against him until he could hardly
breathe. After talking the matter over with a friend, the next night he lay awake in
bed. At the stroke of twelve a cat slipped in through a hole. The cabinetmaker quickly
stopped up the hole, caught the cat, and nailed down one of its paws. Then he went to
sleep.

The next morning he found a beautiful naked woman in the cat's place. One of her
hands was nailed down. She pleased him so much that he married her.

One day, after she had borne him three children, she was with him in his workshop,
when he said to her, "Look, that is where you came in!" and he opened the hole that
had been stopped up until now.
The woman suddenly turned into a cat, ran out through the opening, and she was
never seen again.

 Source: Bernhard Baader, "Alp," Volkssagen aus dem Lande Baden und den
angrenzenden Gegenden (Karlsruhe: Verlag der Herder'schen Buchhandlung,
1851), no. 136, p. 126.
 Bühl is a town in southwest Germany. The closest larger city is Baden-Baden.
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Charm against Night-Mares

Germany

I lay me here to sleep;

No night-mare shall plague me,
Until they swim all the waters 
That flow upon the earth, 
And count all the stars 
That appear in the firmament!
Thus help me God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!
Original German:
Hier leg' ich mich schlafen,
Keine Nachtmahr soll mich plagen,
Bis sie schwemmen alle Wasser,
Die auf Erden fließen,
Und tellet alle Sterne,
Die am Firmament erscheinen!
Dazu helfe mir Gott Vater, Sohn und heiliger Geist. Amen!

 Source: Adalbert Kuhn, Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen und

einigen andern, besonders den angrenzenden Gegenden
Norddeutschlands (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1859), vol. 2, p. 191.
 This charm comes from from Wilhelmsburg in the vicinity of Paderborn.
 Return to the table of contents.
The Alp
Poland/Germany

The alp, or as it is most often called, the "märt," is frequently encountered in

Pomerania. A märt rides on sleeping people at night, pressing against them until at last
they can no longer breathe. A märt is usually a girl who has a bad foot. Once in the
village of Bork near Stargard there was a smith who had a daughter with a bad foot,
and at that time an unusually large number of people complained that they were being
ridden by a märt.

 Source: J. D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen von Pommern und Rügen (Berlin: In

der Nikolaischen Buchhandlung, 1840), p. 341.
 Pomerania (Polish Pomorze, German Pommern) is a historic region lying
mostly in today's northwest Poland, but partly in northeast Germany.
 Stargard is the German name for the Szczecin, a Polish city on the Ina River.
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A Charm to Control the Night-Mare

England

S. George, S. George, our ladies knight,

He walkt by daie, so did he by night.
Untill such time as he her found,
He hir beat and he hir bound,
Untill hir troth she to him plight,
She would not come to him that night.

 Source: James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Popular Rhymes and Nursery

Tales (London: John Russell Smith, 1849), p. 213.
 Halliwell-Phillipps' source is "Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 87."
 Return to the table of contents.
Nightmare Charm or Spell against the Mara
Shetland Islands (Unst)

Pulling from my head the longest hair it possessed, and then going through the
pantomime of binding a refractory animal, the nurse slowly chanted this spell:

De man o' meicht 

He rod a' neicht 
We nedder swird 
Nor faerd nor leicht, 
He socht da mare, 
He fand da mare, 
He band da mare 
Wi' his ain hair, 
An' made her swear 
By midder's meicht, 
Dat shö wad never bide a neicht 
What he had rod, dat man o' meicht.

There are different versions of this incantation, and I [Mrs. Saxby] forget which it was
that the old nurse used on the occasion mentioned. Therefore I have given the one
which is most familiar to me.

 Source: County Folk-Lore, vol. 3: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning

the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black and edited by
Northcote W. Thomas (London: Folk-Lore Society, 1903), p. 145.
 Black's source: Biot Edmonston and Jessie M. E. Saxby The Home of a
Naturalist, (London, 1888), pp. 186-187.
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A Shetland Charm
Shetland Islands
Arthur Knight 
He rade a' night, 
Wi' open swird 
An' candle light. 
He sought da mare; 
He fan' da mare; 
He bund da mare 
Wi' her ain hair. 
And made da mare 
Ta swear: 
'At she should never 
Bide a' night 
Whar ever she heard 
O' Arthur Knight.

 Source: County Folk-Lore, vol. 3: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning

the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black and edited by
Northcote W. Thomas (London: Folk-Lore Society, 1903), p. 145.
 Black's source: Karl Blind Nineteenth Century, (1879), p. 1106.
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Vanlandi, King of Sweden, and Huld, the Witch Woman

From the Ynglinga Saga of Snorri Sturluson

Svegdir's son was named Vanlandi, and he took the kingdom after him and ruled over
the Wealth of Uppsala. He was a great warrior and went far over the land. He had
stayed one winter in Finland with Snæ the Old, and there married his daughter Driva.
In the spring he went away, whilst Driva stayed behind, and he promised to come
back after three winters, but he came not for ten winters.

Then Driva had Huld the witch woman called to her, and sent Visbur, hers and
Vanlandi's son, to Sweden. Driva paid Huld the witch woman to draw Vanlandi to
Finland with sorcery or else to kill him. When the spell was being furthered, Vanlandi
was in Uppsala, and he had a longing to go to Finland, but his friends and advisers
forbade him, and said that it certainly was Finnish witchcraft which caused his
wanderlust. Then he became sleepy and said that the Mare was treading on him. His
men sprang up and would help him, but when they came to his head she trod on his
feet, so that they were nigh broken; then they resorted to the feet, but then she
smothered the head, so that he died there. The Swedes took his body and burned it
near a river which was called Skuta; there was his standing-stone set up. Thus says
Tjodolv:

But on the way

To Vili's brother
Evil wights
Bore Vanlandi;
Then there trod
The troll-wise
Sorceress
On the warrior lord.
And there was burned
On the Skuta bank
That generous man
Whom the Mare killed.

 Source: Snorre [Snorri] Sturlason, Heimskringla; or, the Lives of the Norse

Kings, edited with notes by Erling Monsen and translated into English with the
assistance of A. H. Smith (Cambridge, England: W. Heffer & Sons, 1932), pp.
9-10.
 Snorri Sturlason (1179-1241) was an Icelandic political leader and writer. His
best-known work is the Prose Edda, one of the best sources of Germanic
mythology still extant.
 Tjodolv is Tjodolv of Kvin, an Old Norse poet.
 Vili's brother is Odin
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Baku, Eater of Dreams

Japan

In Japan, among superstitious people, evil dreams are believed to be the result of evil
spirits, and the supernatural creature called Baku is known as Eater of Dreams.
The Baku, like so many mythological beings, is a curious mingling of various
animals. It has the face of a lion, the body of a horse, the tail of a cow, the forelock of
a rhinoceros, and the feet of a tiger.

Several evil dreams are mentioned in an old Japanese book, such as two snakes
twined together, a fox with the voice of a man, blood-stained garments, a talking rice-
pot, and so on.

When a Japanese peasant awakens from an evil nightmare, he cries: "Devour, O

Baku! devour my evil dream." At one time pictures of the Baku were hung up in
Japanese houses and its name written upon pillows. It was believed that if the Baku
could be induced to eat a horrible dream, the creature had the power to change it into
good fortune

 Source: F. Hadland Davis, Myths and Legends of Japan (London: G. G.

Harrap, 1913), pp. 358-359.
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Links to related sites:

 The Nightmare by the Swiss-English artist Henry Fuseli (1741-1825). Notice the
demon seated on the dreamer's chest in this famous painting.
 Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas.
 D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and
mythology.
 Return to the table of contents.