Anglo Saxon Monster Names

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. Kuhnand W. Schwartz).
6. A Mahrt Is Captured (Poland/Germany, A. Kuhn andW. 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 theNight-Mare (England, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps).
11. Nightmare Charm or Spell against theMara (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 SnorriSturluson).
14. Baku, Eater of Dreams (Japan, F. Hadland Davis).

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

Anglo-Saxon literature was passed on by this oral tradition. The Anglo-Saxons often. Gathered in great mead halls to listen to stories, poems, and riddles. Oral literature was meant. To entertain, as well as to pass along religious beliefs, rituals, and customs. Had other purposes as well.

Definitions

BEOWULF m Anglo-Saxon Mythology Possibly means 'bee wolf' (in effect equal to 'bear') from Old English beo 'bee' and wulf 'wolf'. Alternatively, the first element may be beadu 'battle'. This is the name of the main character in the anonymous 8th-century epic poem Beowulf. There are three monsters in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf: there's Grendel, who's some sort of a troll or a giant. There's a dragon, who shows up at the end to give the hero a big dramatic finish.

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 anAlp, 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, andAlpdruck (alp-pressure) or Alptraum (alp-dream) inGerman.

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The Alp

Germany

Even though windows and doors may be tightly closed and locked to keepout the alps, they can still get in through the smallest holes, which theyseek out with special pleasure. In the still of the night one can hear thesound that they make in the wall while getting in. If one gets up quicklyand 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, onemust make them promise to never disturb the place again. On such occasionsthey have complained pitifully that they have little children at home whowill perish if they do not leave.

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

The herdsmen, however, after observing this for several nights, andallowing it to happen, decided to take the boat away. When the alpreturned, he began to complain bitterly, and threatened the herdsmen thatthey would have to bring the boat back immediately if they wanted to havepeace, and that is what they did.

Anglo Saxon Monster Names Generator

Some people have laid a hackle [an iron-toothed comb for thepreparation of flax] on their bodies in order to keep alps away, but analp 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 thebed, so that the hooks and the laces are next to you.

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

Anglo Saxon Monster Names List

Alps often ride your horses during the night, and the next morning youcan 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 rideit during the night. They like to give people hair-snarls (calledwhole-grain braids or mare braids), by sucking on their hair then braidingit.

When a nurse diapers a child, she must make the sign of the cross andopen 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 comethe 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 theperson who sent him will have to come.

According to Prätorius, such a person's eyebrows grow togetheralong one line. Others claim that such a person's eyebrows grow togetheron their forehead. There are others who can send an alp to those they hateor are angry with merely with their thoughts. He comes out of theireyebrows, looks like a small white butterfly, and sits on the breast of asleeping 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 thatthey 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 ableto call for help. Later, she therefore asked her sister to call out hername in the night, and then the alp would go back out through thekeyhole.

In Zwickau they claim that the alp will go away if one invites him forcoffee 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 thealp crushed them to death. If rabbits die, and it appears that they havebeen crushed, a broom is placed in their pen, which protects them againstthe alp.

• Source: Joh. Aug. Ernst Köhler, Sagenbuch des Erzgebirges(Schneeberg and Schwarzenberg: Verlag und Druck von Carl MoritzGärtner, 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 shoeswith the toes facing the door, and then getting into bed backwards one canprotect oneself against nightmares or 'Mortriden.' [mare rides].
2. Further, one can put something made from steel, for example an oldpair of scissors, in one's bed straw.
3. A person suffering from nightmares should urinate into a clean, newbottle, hang the bottle in the sun for three days, carry it -- withoutsaying a word -- to a running stream, and then throw it over one's headinto the stream.

• Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche ausMeklenburg (Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1880), vol. 2, p. 3.
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The Mårt

A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, Germany

Anglo Saxon Monster Names A-z

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' isrecognized as well.
2. All of these names are used to designate the spirit being that sitsupon a sleeping person's chest, thus depriving him of motion and speech.The approaching being sounds like the gnawing of a mouse or the quietcreeping of a cat. The mårt can be captured by grasping it with aninherited glove or by closing up all of the room's openings as soon as thesleeping person begins to groan.
3. Mårt-pressure (also called a mårt-ride) can be preventedby crossing one's arms and legs before falling asleep.
4. In the Oldenburg district, in Saterland, and in East Friesland, thealp 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 ceaseuntil it gets light in the room.
6. Some pine trees have twigs that grow together in curls until they lookalmost like nests. During a rain storm, one must be careful to not standbeneath such a twig, because if rain drops fall on a person from such anest, 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 onSunday. If they are pressing against you, you should say that you want togive 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 youfeel her weight on your feet, next on your stomach, and finally on yourchest, and then you cannot move a muscle. However, if you think that youknow 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 anacquaintance, you need only call him by name, and he will have to appearin his physical form. Once a mårt was pressing against a man. Hecalled out the name of his beloved, and in an instant she was standingbefore him. From Elm.
11. It helps to prevent being ridden by a nightmårt when in theevening one places one's shoes next to the bed with the toes pointingoutward. Varneitze near Winsen on the Aller.
12. If there are seven boys or seven girls in one family, then one of themwill 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, Märchenund 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 bya mahrt so often that he finally asked his comrade the next time ithappened to stop up the knothole in the door so they could capture themahrt.

The next time he was miserably moaning and groaning in his sleep, hiscomrade did what he had been asked, then called his friend by name.Awakening, he quickly reached out and grabbed a piece of straw in hishand. Although it twisted and turned, he held it tightly until his comradehad 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 nearlyparted ways disputing whom she belonged to. The one who had stopped up theknothole said that she should be his, because if he had not done that, shewould have escaped. The other one said that she belonged to him, becausehe had captured her.

Finally the one who stopped up the knothole gave in, and the other onemarried the girl. They had children and lived together quite happily.

However, the woman often begged her husband to show her the knotholewhere she had entered the room. She said that she would have no peaceuntil she had seen it. The man resisted her pleas for a long time, butonce she begged him especially earnestly, saying that she could hear hermother in England calling the pigs, and asked him to allow see her againjust once.

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

• Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, 'Mahrt gefangen,' NorddeutscheSagen, 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 theBaltic 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. Severalnights in a row something laid itself onto his chest and pressed againsthim until he could hardly breathe. After talking the matter over with afriend, the next night he lay awake in bed. At the stroke of twelve a catslipped in through a hole. The cabinetmaker quickly stopped up the hole,caught the cat, and nailed down one of its paws. Then he went tosleep.

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 marriedher.

One day, after she had borne him three children, she was with him inhis workshop, when he said to her, 'Look, that is where you came in!' andhe opened the hole that had been stopped up until now.

The woman suddenly turned into a cat, ran out through the opening, andshe was never seen again.

• Source: Bernhard Baader, 'Alp,' Volkssagen aus dem Lande Baden undden angrenzenden Gegenden (Karlsruhe: Verlag der Herder'schenBuchhandlung, 1851), no. 136, p. 126.
• Bühl is a town in southwest Germany. The closest larger city isBaden-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 ausWestfalen und einigen andern, besonders den angrenzenden GegendenNorddeutschlands (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1859), vol. 2, p. 191.
• This charm comes from from Wilhelmsburg in the vicinity of Paderborn.
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Anglo Saxon Monster Names Meanings

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 andNursery Tales (London: John Russell Smith, 1849), p. 213.
• Halliwell-Phillipps' source is 'Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584,p. 87.'
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Nightmare Charm or Spell against theMara

Shetland Islands (Unst)

Pulling from my head the longest hair it possessed, and then goingthrough the pantomime of binding a refractory animal, the nurse slowlychanted 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 PrintedFolk-Lore Concerning the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected byG. 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 aNaturalist, (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 PrintedFolk-Lore Concerning the Orkney & Shetland Islands, collected byG. 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 WitchWoman

From the Ynglinga Saga of Snorri Sturluson

Svegdir's son was named Vanlandi, and he took the kingdom after him andruled over the Wealth of Uppsala. He was a great warrior and went far overthe land. He had stayed one winter in Finland with Snæ the Old, andthere married his daughter Driva. In the spring he went away, whilst Drivastayed behind, and he promised to come back after three winters, but hecame 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 todraw Vanlandi to Finland with sorcery or else to kill him. When the spellwas being furthered, Vanlandi was in Uppsala, and he had a longing to goto Finland, but his friends and advisers forbade him, and said that itcertainly was Finnish witchcraft which caused his wanderlust. Then hebecame sleepy and said that the Mare was treading on him. His men sprangup and would help him, but when they came to his head she trod on hisfeet, so that they were nigh broken; then they resorted to the feet, butthen she smothered the head, so that he died there. The Swedes took hisbody and burned it near a river which was called Skuta; there was hisstanding-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 ofthe Norse Kings, edited with notes by Erling Monsen and translatedinto 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 andwriter. His best-known work is the Prose Edda, one of the bestsources 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 bethe result of evil spirits, and the supernatural creature called Baku isknown as Eater of Dreams.

The Baku, like so many mythological beings, is a curious mingling ofvarious animals. It has the face of a lion, the body of a horse, the tailof 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 twosnakes twined together, a fox with the voice of a man, blood-stainedgarments, 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 Bakuwere hung up in Japanese houses and its name written upon pillows. It wasbelieved that if the Baku could be induced to eat a horrible dream, thecreature 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 artistHenry Fuseli (1741-1825). Notice the demon seated on the dreamer's chestin this famous painting.
• Germanic Myths,Legends, and Sagas.
• D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
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Revised May 23, 2005.