[[death]] [[nightmares]] # Mara/Mares [WIki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare-(folklore)) mare (pl. mares) “evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person; A type of evil spirit formerly thought to sit on the chest of a sleeping person; also, the feeling of suffocation felt during sleep, attributed to such a spirit." a frustrating or terrible experience. ex. "I'm having a complete mare today." Polish mara A creature that drinks the blood of sleeping people German Mahr Germanic misc mara, mare, māre, maar, mar, mair, marā PG *marǭ (“nightmare, monster, incubus, succubus, evil (female) spirit”) f. a spectre or wraith-like creature in Germanic and particularly Scandinavian folklore; a female demon who torments people in sleep by crouching on their chests or stomachs, or by causing terrifying visions. EX. 1996, Catharina Raudvere, "Now you see her, now you don't: some notes on the conception of female shape-shifters in Scandinavian traditions", pages 41-55 in Sandra Billington & Miranda Green (editors) The Concept of the Goddess The corpus of related texts tells us that within rural society it was not improbable for your neighbour's envy of your fine cattle to take the form of a mara. Old Irish Morrígan (“phantom queen”) From mór (“great”) +‎ rígan (“queen”). Some posit an (otherwise unattested) Old Irish mor cognate with Old English mare as in nightmare, with the compound meaning "phantom queen". http://edil.qub.ac.uk/32588 PIE *mor- (“feminine malicious evil spirit”) from *mer- "to die, disappear" Skt. mara #cleanup