Alp
Imagine living in long-ago Europe, among the Germanic tribes. Long before reading was widespread, before modern science, before the modern world.
Imagine it was still a time when the supernatural was one of the ways people made sense of strange things that happened in the world.
And now… imagine waking up and not being able to move. To feel like someone is standing right there or maybe even holding you down - but there’s nothing you can do about it.
Today, we have explanations for experiences like sleep paralysis, but if you lived in that old world… how then would you explain something like that?
In fact, how would you explain a horrific nightmare, or night terrors?
Well, old Germanic mythology came up with the Alp.
No, not the mountain.
The Alp is something far stranger than a mere geological formation.
It is a creature that is hard to define.
The word “alp” may come from Old High German, where it seems to have referred to something like a faun. The Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch defines it as a “nature-god or nature-demon”.
But the folklore surrounding the creature leans more toward the idea of an elf—more in the European “Fair Folk” tradition than the tall, stately Tolkien-style elves.
Even the German word Alpdruck—literally something like “elf-pressure”—reflects the old idea of being crushed or pressed down by an Alp.
Some have likened it to a vampire, but only in the broadest sense. Like a succubus, it is said to drain a person's vitality rather than leave obvious physical wounds.
It depletes your ‘vitality’, but doesn’t leave any visible marks.
The Alp comes to you at night, using its Tarnkappe—a magical hat, or sometimes a cloak, that makes it invisible—to sneak into the room, sit on your chest…
And feed.
It sits on you, becoming heavier and heavier until the crushing weight wakes you up - and you wake up breathless and terrified.
Or maybe you can’t move at all.
That isn’t all it does. It was said to have some… unsavoury habits.
Like breastfeeding. From anyone.
Yes, even men, children, and women who aren’t lactating.
If there’s no milk, they’re apparently happy to drink blood instead—hence the connection to vampires. But they prefer milk. I mean, they really like milk. They’ll drink it from anyone or anything that is lactating!
However, such attacks are rare.
They also do more mischievous things, like turn milk sour or put dirty nappies (that’s diapers for those in the USA) back on babies. The only way to stop them was to put a cross on the nappy!
They’ll tangle your hair while you're sleeping into “elflocks” - and horses aren’t immune!
According to the Lore, they have also been known to ride horses to exhaustion during the night and have them back in the stall before dawn.
They’ve even crushed smaller livestock - like geese, ducks, and chickens. IIt is believed they use the same “sit on them and get heavier” technique here that they use with people—a “pressing attack”.
Why do they do it?
For funsies, apparently.
Who knows? We mere mortals can’t fathom the minds of the supernatural.
Fun fact: the alp has a female counterpart - the mara.
Or maybe they’re the same creature? Some stories claim they can shapeshift. Into almost anything.
Why do they need to when they have a magical “hat of concealment”? Who knows!
Maybe it’s easier to get into barns that way.
Oh, and the stories of where they come from are just as wild and just as vague.
Some say they’re nature spirits. Others say that they’re demons or ghosts. Still others claim that if a woman bites a horse collar during childbirth, her child will become an Alp.
Yeah, okay. That one isn’t too likely these days.
Things have flipped: once, everyone had a horse, and only the elite had a motor vehicle. Now, nearly everyone has a car, and only the elite can afford a horse!
Maybe that’s why the reports of Alp attacks have dropped off sharply.
Or maybe not, because other ways of creating Alps include:
Being frightened by an animal while pregnant
Being stillborn
Having a monobrow (eyebrows that meet—which begs the question: what happens if they pluck?)
Being cursed
Being summoned by a witch or “evil person”, specifically to harm someone else
Sleeping under the moon… somehow. That one isn't clear.
In other words: no one really knows what they are, or where they come from.
And, as with many such legends of nocturnal menaces, the person who becomes the Alp may not be aware of their nocturnal activities. The only way to identify them is to mark the Alp during an attack—perhaps by injuring it—and then find the person with the matching mark the next day.
Fortunately, it’s easy to defend yourself against an Alp. If you suspect one is around:
Put a broomstick under your pillow. (Comfy!)
Hang iron horseshoes from the bedpost.
Put your shoes against the bed with the toes pointing toward the door.
Sleep with a mirror on your chest.
Later texts say steel and crosses are also effective.
And if all else fails, just politely invite him back for coffee in the morning.
He’ll dash away and return in his true form the next day… and then you can turn him away. Oh, he’ll weep and wail and beg, but you must be stern.
Or… just shove a lemon in his mouth. According to the Lore, that should immobilise him.
Or at least shut him up. 😏
Ah… folklore. So many regional variations.
Anyway, once you’ve banished him, you must plug all the holes in your house, especially keyholes, to keep him out.
You can’t kill an Alp, and turning one away is… risky. Sometimes they just come back years later, in a bad mood.
And, oh boy, are you in for it then.