Chapter

Mare

During my journey along the barren banks of the Lais River, towards the roots of Nasa Mountain, we came upon a particularly fearful village. As we spent the night at Mrs. Adolfsson's mansion, the maids and farmhands of Hällbacken told of a dark witch in Stormyran. Those who did not put horsehair in their hymnbook at night found themselves breathless and mare-ridden upon the rooster's crow. Maids in the village spoke with particular regret of Erik, the unmarried farmhand at Sten's Stud, who like the stallions in their stall had wasted away to skin and bones. Having put these stories into writing, my partner and I decided to head out into the marsh to seek the truth about the mare of the Lais River.

— Carl Linnaeus, July 5th 1732

Mares are women who unknowingly shapeshift into nightmarish vaesen. The victims are possessed by deceased, unmarried women who seek revenge on the living, or long to see a beloved in the afterlife. There is also talk of a curse passed down from the mother who tried to relieve the pain of childbirth through black magic. At night, the afflicted woman turns into an oily mist that can pass through even the smallest knothole. After taking physical form she crawls onto the chest of the sleeping and squeezes the air and vitality out of them. The victim suffers terrible nightmares, sweats profusely and struggles to breathe. The mare sometimes rides horses as well, who wake in their stall foaming with sweat and with marelocks in their mane. In the morning, the mare returns home and resumes human form.

Ritual

The mare suffers from obsessive thoughts and can be kept away from one's home by placing hair in a bible, spreading flax seeds around the bed, or making her count something until daybreak. But the curse can only be broken by someone who loudly declares that she is a mare just as she is becoming human again. Then the transformation is aborted in that moment and the afflicted woman can wake up with a lost finger or leg.