Mare

And under the floor of a not small number of them there is a very small set of bones in a position that no animal ever chose.

Tale 2 The Mare Now we go inside and we lock the door, which will not help.

There is a word in English that you use all the time and have almost never certainly looked at.

Nightmare.

This folk explanation for bad dreams and nighttime paralysis mirrors many elements of Hat Man encounters.

The Mara.

The word nightmare itself comes from the Old Norse Mara, a malicious entity often described as a goblin or spirit that sits on sleepers and rides them through the night, bringing bad dreams.

Traditions in Scandinavia and Germany Described the Mara as a shadowy presence that could slip through keyholes and press upon a person's chest, much like the classic image of a heavy weight pinning someone down in bed.

Across so many cultures and eras, the pattern is striking.

People have always sensed that something malevolent might lurk in the darkness while they sleep.

These historical legends suggest that the Hat Man could be the modern embodiment of a fear as old as humanity itself, the primal fear of a shadowy predator we cannot quite see or fight off.

His wide-brimmed hat and coat may be modern touches, but the role he plays is timeless.

There is a very high association between sleep paralysis and witchcraft in Europe.

In Germany, the hallucinated entities were called Hexadruken, in Scandinavia, the Mare or Mara, or in other places, the Old Hag.

During the Renaissance, witches were the most common explanation for sleep paralysis experiences.

Records from witchcraft trials, including those at Salem in 1692, revealed that people complained of being physically oppressed by witches or their familiars at night.