Omake: Myth and Folklore

Mara and Sinmara in Norse Mythology.
Timotheus writes: "Mara may have been inspired by Mr. Fujishima's research into Norse mythology. Saxo, in his Pagan Danish Histories (which I think may be what Kosuko-san used), includes a Jotun named Mara/Sin-Mara in a couple of stories. She's a dark dis, a sister of the Jotun Nott, the goddess of night, and a daughter of Mimir. She seems to have an agressive personality as she basically is seen helping Mimir in a capacity similar to a ninja. The name Mara by the way means "One who maims" and Sinmara would translate as "One who maims their enemies by hamstringing their legs (cutting their tendons or sinews)." A real nice girl our Mara. She also shown as being given assignments such as finding people and guarding important objects (like the "Ultimate Sword of Victory", which she helps her father, Mimir, steal from the dwarf, Voland, who just finished forging it in order to help destroy the gods, and then crippling said dwarf to keep him from trying to get it back and continuing his revenge against Odin). Eventually a mortal hero gets the sword away from her and wreaks havoc in the mythological world with it before the (enemies-of-the-gods) Jotuns get it back from him in trade for the Jotun maid Gerd whom the god Frey has fallen in love with. (Whoo! Don'tcha love mythology?) Anyway, the salient points are that Mara, or Sin-Mara is a Jotun who lives in the dark part (Niflhel) of the underworld (Niflheim) and has a reputation that could be considered Demonic. I don't think our Mara in the story is supposed to be her per-say, but she might be where Mr. Fujishima got the name."

Mara in Hindu mythology.
In Sanskrit, mara means "death" or "evil." There is a story about Valmiki, the saint who wrote the epic story Ramayana. Valmiki was a thief who preyed upon both saints and kings. One day he tried to rob a holy man named Narada. But Narada was a renunciant who owned nothing but a cloth wrapped around his loins, and he had nothing to give the thief Valmiki. Valmiki threatened to kill Narada, so Narada said, "I will give you a mantra that will make you the richest man in the world, if only you will repeat it constantly, day in and day out." Narada told Valmiki to repeat the word mara over and over again, and Valmiki agreed. Holy men like Narada could not lie, and Valmiki knew that mara was an evil word, which agreed all too well with his greedy personality. Valmiki sat beneath a tree and began to chant, "Mara mara mara mara..." However, Valmiki did not realize that he had been tricked - as the syllables of "Mara mara mara" began to run together, Valmiki instead found himself chanting "Rama, rama, rama"! As he chanted Rama, the divine name of God, over and over again, Valmiki's heart became purified, and his heart filled with the presence of God - in short, he became the wealthiest man in the world.

Mara in Buddhist mythology.
In Buddhist mythology, Mara is the (male) demon who is often labeled as the personification of all evil. He is alternatively called a lord of darkness, a master magician, a master of illusions, a god of temptation, and a god of death. When Siddhartha, the original Buddha, went to meditate underneath the Bo Tree in order to seek enlightenment, Mara was there waiting for him. Mara tried to tempt Siddhartha into giving up, but when that failed, he sent his three daughters - Lust, Thirst, and Desire - to attack Siddhartha, but Siddhartha resisted their temptations. Mara then sent a horde of his servant demons after Siddhartha, but the arrows and spears that the demons shot at him only turned into flowers that rained down upon him. Finally, Mara was defeated, and fled before the Buddha, who had become Enlightened. Today Mara wanders the Earth, homeless, stealing the souls of the dying.

Mara in Scandinavian folklore.
In Scandinavian folklore, Mara is a type of goblin. Goblins are a twisted, evil version of earth spirits, or gnomes. Mara is said to seize men in their beds and paralyze them, preventing them from moving or speaking.

Mara in Scandinavian folklore, take two.
Aster wrote to me in an email: "First, Mara does appear in the Scandinavian folklore tradition as a variation of a succubus, who came to the sleeping men and sent them terrifying dreams and feeding off their fear. (Hence the word nightmare). In some regions vampire-like qualities such as fangs and facination with drinking blood of the sleepers were also ascribed to mara. Furthermore, in Denmark word mara was actually used to refer to female vampires. Judging by the fact that Mara does indeed first appear to Keichi in a nightmare, I think that Kosuke Fujishima was actually aware of Scandinavian mara when naming this character. I'm not sure whether Mara's fangs, habit of sleeping in a coffin and other slightly vampiric attributes are also dictated by the Scandinavian mythology, or just by the author thinking a vampire-like villian is cool. I do wonder why Fujishima chose a non-mythological name Marller in the end, especially if he was (very likely) aware that Mara would actually fit into his pseudo-Norse world better."

Mara in Russian mythology.
Aster also writes: "Mara is also the 'unwilling' queen of the underworld in Russian mythology, with her story being basically a copy of the Greek myth about Persephone. Just a random trivia fact, really."

Mara in Latvian mythology.
Aster also writes: "There is another mythological trivia about which Fujishima is almost guaranteed to have no clue, but I'm going to share it anyway, because gives a peculiar parallel with the norns. There is a goddess called Mara (pronounced closer to 'Maara') in Lavtian mythology, who had slightly ambiguous position in the pantheon. In some regions she was just a high-ranking goddess of the material world, especially the land, cattle and trade. In many other regions, especially in the western Latvia, Mara was generally perceived to be the highest-ranking goddess in the pantheon and she took over the duties of Laima, the goddess of fate and luck, who was also the main on the three fate deities. (Basically, Latvian norns). For some reason I find the idea of Mara and Verthdandy having basically the same roles in different mythologies rather amusing. However, I do strongly doubt that Fujishima is aware of this coincidence."

A quick note about the mythology of Mara...
Aster also comments: "I hope other people will find [this information] interesting as well, even though it is slightly counter-productive in a sense of providing evidence in support of a name that was obviously not chosen by the author. (Although, Marller might be just a slight modification to make it sound more masculine or evil or European. I don't know...)"

Nidhogg.
In the Oh My Goddess! manga, Hild mentions that Nidhogg is the computer system that runs Hell, and is opposed to Yggdrasil, the system of Heaven. It is assumed that Mara is dependant on Nidhogg for her powers, the same way that the Goddesses are dependant on Yggdrasil. In Norse mythology, Nidhogg ("tearer of corpses") is a monstrous serpent who gnaws at the bottom root of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Nidhogg also devours the corpses scattered around Nastrond, the Shore of Corpses, in order to sustain itself. Nidhogg, Nastrond, and Helheim (the realm of the dead) are all contained within Niflheim, the lowest level of the universe, the realm of darkness and cold located beneath the third root of Yggdrasil. Nidhogg lays himself across Nastrond and continues gnawing at the third root of Yggdrasil, threatening to one day destroy it.

Omake: Other References

Image: the genie and the urn. Hakusshon Dai Maou.
The evil urn that Mara uses to summon the Lord of Terror is almost an exact copy of the smiley-faced urn from the anime series Hakusshon Dai Maou. Produced by Tatsunoko Productions, and aired on Fuji TV from 1969-1970, the series tells the story of a little genie who is summoned whenever somebody sneezes near the urn.

Image: Ramune soda bottle. Ramune Soda.
The bottle that Senbei lives inside looks exactly like a bottle of Ramune soda, a sweet, lemon-lime-melon flavored carbonated drink sold in Japan. Ramune soda is actually based on a traditional recipe over 200 years old, but, well, now it's apparently mass-marketed as a commercialized soft drink. The unique thing about Ramune soda is its bottle. The extreme carbonation of the soda holds a marble stopper in place at the bottle's neck, and in order to open the bottle and drink the soda, you need to unwrap the top of the bottle and then push the marble down, unsealing the neck. The marble stays floating in the bottle as you drink, so you have to be careful not to drink too fast, or the marble will get stuck in the bottle neck again.

Artwork blooper!
On page 91 of volume 22 of the Japanese manga, Mara is drawn with five-pointed stars on her cheeks, the markings that Hild normally wears. You can see an image of the blooper here (image courtesy of Ah! My Galaxy). I have no idea whether this was done intentionally or not, but it could very well have been a deliberate "mistake" on Fujishima's part, considering that chapter 139 is filled with plenty of other self-referential jokes and puns.

Credits for research, info, and images used on this page are here.

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	Omake: Myth and Folklore Mara and Sinmara in Norse Mythology. Timotheus writes: "Mara may have been inspired by Mr. Fujishima's research into Norse mythology. Saxo, in his Pagan Danish Histories (which I think may be what Kosuko-san used), includes a Jotun named Mara/Sin-Mara in a couple of stories. She's a dark dis, a sister of the Jotun Nott, the goddess of night, and a daughter of Mimir. She seems to have an agressive personality as she basically is seen helping Mimir in a capacity similar to a ninja. The name Mara by the way means "One who maims" and Sinmara would translate as "One who maims their enemies by hamstringing their legs (cutting their tendons or sinews)." A real nice girl our Mara. She also shown as being given assignments such as finding people and guarding important objects (like the "Ultimate Sword of Victory", which she helps her father, Mimir, steal from the dwarf, Voland, who just finished forging it in order to help destroy the gods, and then crippling said dwarf to keep him from trying to get it back and continuing his revenge against Odin). Eventually a mortal hero gets the sword away from her and wreaks havoc in the mythological world with it before the (enemies-of-the-gods) Jotuns get it back from him in trade for the Jotun maid Gerd whom the god Frey has fallen in love with. (Whoo! Don'tcha love mythology?) Anyway, the salient points are that Mara, or Sin-Mara is a Jotun who lives in the dark part (Niflhel) of the underworld (Niflheim) and has a reputation that could be considered Demonic. I don't think our Mara in the story is supposed to be her per-say, but she might be where Mr. Fujishima got the name." Mara in Hindu mythology. In Sanskrit, mara means "death" or "evil." There is a story about Valmiki, the saint who wrote the epic story Ramayana. Valmiki was a thief who preyed upon both saints and kings. One day he tried to rob a holy man named Narada. But Narada was a renunciant who owned nothing but a cloth wrapped around his loins, and he had nothing to give the thief Valmiki. Valmiki threatened to kill Narada, so Narada said, "I will give you a mantra that will make you the richest man in the world, if only you will repeat it constantly, day in and day out." Narada told Valmiki to repeat the word mara over and over again, and Valmiki agreed. Holy men like Narada could not lie, and Valmiki knew that mara was an evil word, which agreed all too well with his greedy personality. Valmiki sat beneath a tree and began to chant, "Mara mara mara mara..." However, Valmiki did not realize that he had been tricked - as the syllables of "Mara mara mara" began to run together, Valmiki instead found himself chanting "Rama, rama, rama"! As he chanted Rama, the divine name of God, over and over again, Valmiki's heart became purified, and his heart filled with the presence of God - in short, he became the wealthiest man in the world. Mara in Buddhist mythology. In Buddhist mythology, Mara is the (male) demon who is often labeled as the personification of all evil. He is alternatively called a lord of darkness, a master magician, a master of illusions, a god of temptation, and a god of death. When Siddhartha, the original Buddha, went to meditate underneath the Bo Tree in order to seek enlightenment, Mara was there waiting for him. Mara tried to tempt Siddhartha into giving up, but when that failed, he sent his three daughters - Lust, Thirst, and Desire - to attack Siddhartha, but Siddhartha resisted their temptations. Mara then sent a horde of his servant demons after Siddhartha, but the arrows and spears that the demons shot at him only turned into flowers that rained down upon him. Finally, Mara was defeated, and fled before the Buddha, who had become Enlightened. Today Mara wanders the Earth, homeless, stealing the souls of the dying. Mara in Scandinavian folklore. In Scandinavian folklore, Mara is a type of goblin. Goblins are a twisted, evil version of earth spirits, or gnomes. Mara is said to seize men in their beds and paralyze them, preventing them from moving or speaking. Mara in Scandinavian folklore, take two. Aster wrote to me in an email: "First, Mara does appear in the Scandinavian folklore tradition as a variation of a succubus, who came to the sleeping men and sent them terrifying dreams and feeding off their fear. (Hence the word nightmare). In some regions vampire-like qualities such as fangs and facination with drinking blood of the sleepers were also ascribed to mara. Furthermore, in Denmark word mara was actually used to refer to female vampires. Judging by the fact that Mara does indeed first appear to Keichi in a nightmare, I think that Kosuke Fujishima was actually aware of Scandinavian mara when naming this character. I'm not sure whether Mara's fangs, habit of sleeping in a coffin and other slightly vampiric attributes are also dictated by the Scandinavian mythology, or just by the author thinking a vampire-like villian is cool. I do wonder why Fujishima chose a non-mythological name Marller in the end, especially if he was (very likely) aware that Mara would actually fit into his pseudo-Norse world better." Mara in Russian mythology. Aster also writes: "Mara is also the 'unwilling' queen of the underworld in Russian mythology, with her story being basically a copy of the Greek myth about Persephone. Just a random trivia fact, really." Mara in Latvian mythology. Aster also writes: "There is another mythological trivia about which Fujishima is almost guaranteed to have no clue, but I'm going to share it anyway, because gives a peculiar parallel with the norns. There is a goddess called Mara (pronounced closer to 'Maara') in Lavtian mythology, who had slightly ambiguous position in the pantheon. In some regions she was just a high-ranking goddess of the material world, especially the land, cattle and trade. In many other regions, especially in the western Latvia, Mara was generally perceived to be the highest-ranking goddess in the pantheon and she took over the duties of Laima, the goddess of fate and luck, who was also the main on the three fate deities. (Basically, Latvian norns). For some reason I find the idea of Mara and Verthdandy having basically the same roles in different mythologies rather amusing. However, I do strongly doubt that Fujishima is aware of this coincidence." A quick note about the mythology of Mara... Aster also comments: "I hope other people will find [this information] interesting as well, even though it is slightly counter-productive in a sense of providing evidence in support of a name that was obviously not chosen by the author. (Although, Marller might be just a slight modification to make it sound more masculine or evil or European. I don't know...)" Nidhogg. In the Oh My Goddess! manga, Hild mentions that Nidhogg is the computer system that runs Hell, and is opposed to Yggdrasil, the system of Heaven. It is assumed that Mara is dependant on Nidhogg for her powers, the same way that the Goddesses are dependant on Yggdrasil. In Norse mythology, Nidhogg ("tearer of corpses") is a monstrous serpent who gnaws at the bottom root of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Nidhogg also devours the corpses scattered around Nastrond, the Shore of Corpses, in order to sustain itself. Nidhogg, Nastrond, and Helheim (the realm of the dead) are all contained within Niflheim, the lowest level of the universe, the realm of darkness and cold located beneath the third root of Yggdrasil. Nidhogg lays himself across Nastrond and continues gnawing at the third root of Yggdrasil, threatening to one day destroy it. Omake: Other References Hakusshon Dai Maou. The evil urn that Mara uses to summon the Lord of Terror is almost an exact copy of the smiley-faced urn from the anime series Hakusshon Dai Maou. Produced by Tatsunoko Productions, and aired on Fuji TV from 1969-1970, the series tells the story of a little genie who is summoned whenever somebody sneezes near the urn. Ramune Soda. The bottle that Senbei lives inside looks exactly like a bottle of Ramune soda, a sweet, lemon-lime-melon flavored carbonated drink sold in Japan. Ramune soda is actually based on a traditional recipe over 200 years old, but, well, now it's apparently mass-marketed as a commercialized soft drink. The unique thing about Ramune soda is its bottle. The extreme carbonation of the soda holds a marble stopper in place at the bottle's neck, and in order to open the bottle and drink the soda, you need to unwrap the top of the bottle and then push the marble down, unsealing the neck. The marble stays floating in the bottle as you drink, so you have to be careful not to drink too fast, or the marble will get stuck in the bottle neck again. Artwork blooper! On page 91 of volume 22 of the Japanese manga, Mara is drawn with five-pointed stars on her cheeks, the markings that Hild normally wears. You can see an image of the blooper here (image courtesy of Ah! My Galaxy). I have no idea whether this was done intentionally or not, but it could very well have been a deliberate "mistake" on Fujishima's part, considering that chapter 139 is filled with plenty of other self-referential jokes and puns. Credits for research, info, and images used on this page are here. << Home