Mora
Also called Mahr, Zmora, Mara, Morava, Murawa.
The mora of Slavic and wider European folklore is the nightmare made creature — a night visitor, often a sleeping person's wandering soul, that crushes sleepers and drinks their vitality.
At a glance
- Tradition
- European folklore (general)
- Region
- Europe (place of origin)
- Trait family
- The Child-Frighteners
Near this figure
Traits
Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.
Behaviour
- Causes nightmares and sleep paralysis
why
The compendia describe a vampiric being, typically female, that causes nightmares and steals vital energy from sleepers; a mora that falls in love with her victim drinks his blood as well.
Offensive powers
- Strangles or molests sleepers
why
Male moras are known by a physiognomy — bushy black eyebrows meeting over the nose — and one major strand of the folklore makes the mora not a demon at all but a living person, man or woman, whose soul leaves the body in sleep, takes any of countless forms, and travels to press, suffocate, and feed on a chosen sleeper.
- Blood drain
why
The compendia describe a vampiric being, typically female, that causes nightmares and steals vital energy from sleepers; a mora that falls in love with her victim drinks his blood as well.
Roles
Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.
- Shadow carries both readings
4 citations
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Trickster carries both readings
4 citations
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Hero meets
4 citations
- Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."
- Carol Rose, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons, s.v. "Alp (Alp)."