etymology - What were nightmares called before "nightmare" was used in that sense?


Apparently the word "nightmare" has only been used in the sense of "bad dream" since c. 1829. Before then the term referred to the agent causing the dreams—a mare < mera, mære 'goblin, incubus'.


What word or phrase was used earlier? I'm interested, in particular, in the meaning "bad dream" as opposed to "creature causing bad dreams" or "medical condition; pavor nocturnus". I'm interested in all time periods: Anglo-Saxon/Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and (modern) Modern English.



Anglo-Saxon


I found swefnes wóma 'sleep-noise' as a possibility. OEME defines this as "dream-tumult, vision", and I can find a few uses in the corpus.


Alain Pannetier suggests wódan dreáme, though this seems to have the primary or exclusive sense of "fit of madness". Dreám/dreáme seems to mean 'song, music' rather than 'dream'.


Middle English


The MED has:


dwelsinge


drēming/drēm/dream/dremme: Apparently not attested with the meaning "dream" but more like "vision" (in sleep); included nightmare-type visions or dreams.


night frai/night drede 'night fear'


incubus: Alain Pannetier suggests this was used from the 18th century on, though this suggests (to me) the agency rather than the condition. It seems to have been used as far back as 1561 in the sense of "night terror", not quite the sense I hoped for.


slēp: Typically meaning "sleep" but also meaning "dream, nightmare".


bicche doughter: Apparently used to refer to a nightmare by at least one source. The modern reflex is obvious, and suggests that this was never its primary meaning.


Ephialtes/ephialtes the more: oosterwal suggests the former and the dictionary mentions the latter. Seems to primarily refer to the cause rather than the condition.


Modern English


Rhodri suggests ill dreams for mid-19th century.


Of course from the early 19th century on nightmare became common and soon pushed all others out of use except for poetic.



Answer



One possibility could be "wodan dreame".


Before getting to this point I'd like to add that whereas the spelling "nightmare" is indeed recent (see the corresponding Google ngram), more archaic spellings are reported in the OED; viz "niȝt-mare" (1290), "nytmare" (1340) and "Nyghte Mare" (1440).


Leaving aside older spelling of "nightmare", I also came across an article on Google books suggesting that when preceded by "wod" or "wodan", then the dream turned out to be a nightmare...


This is in line with Wodan's main domains of death, war and afterlife. The article oldest quote is circa 890 and there are also quotes from Ælfric of Eynsham. Unfortunately the pages after 161 are not available from Google books.


Update
Then, starting with the 18th century the Latin world "incubus" was in use. But that's not Old English any more I'm afraid. It's still used in Italian (under the form incubo) actually.


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