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その人間が最も恐れる罪の具現が悪夢なのだと悪夢は語った。

I really can't parse this. I know the meaning of the words but I do not understand the meaning of the sentence.

Can someone explain? The bold part is what is confusing me the most.

Shouldn't it be

その人間が最も恐れる罪の具現が悪夢なのだと語った。

The fantranslation is:

The person said that the things one fears the most becomes his nightmare.

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    I wouldn't know how to parse this either, but I'll give it a noob-try. Does the context make sense with the following translation? The nightmare was about: "This person is the very embodiment of fearful sins, a true nightmare"
    – thz
    Dec 11, 2015 at 11:55
  • It can make sense, but I am not sure since the fantranslation is different. I am gonna add it now.
    – Splikie
    Dec 11, 2015 at 12:44
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    Personification like 悪夢が語る doesn't seem to be a natural Japanese sentence to me, unless 悪夢 actually has some will and can speak in this context. I feel the second 悪夢 can be a typo for something else, such as 悪魔.
    – naruto
    Dec 12, 2015 at 4:22

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Without more context, I would say that 悪夢は is indicating what did the verb 語った, and その人間 is not the one saying the quote but is instead part of the quote. That would make the sentence equivalent to 悪夢は、その人間が最も恐れる罪の具現が悪夢なのだと語った。

その人間が最も恐れる罪の具現が悪夢なのだと悪夢は語った。
The nightmare showed that the embodiment of the sins that that person most fears is the nightmare.

The parsing:

(((その人間が最も恐れる)罪の具現)が悪夢なのだ)と悪夢は語った。

If it's safe to assume that 悪夢 is the same nightmare, then the English could be shifted around a little to make it more simple:

The nightmare showed that it is the embodiment of the sins that that person most fears.

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