Helvetica's Indie Horror Stories: Slender Man in Different Cultures (latest report)

Bundle

Bundle is a North American/European myth dealing with a boogeyman-type entity. Bundle is a sort of monster with generic traits that are generally inconsistent. Bundle Stories are tales or stories written about Bundle. The SCP Foundation claims that Bundle is a real “shadowy humanoid” that propagates through people’s awareness of it, like a Tulpa. Simply writing about it, through a Bundle Story, makes it appear in that situation.

Windigo

The Windigo is a Algonquian North American legend about thin, skeletal, cannibalistic spirit that are linked to famine and decay. Acting in cannibalism would condemn a person to becoming a Windigo. Some interpretations of the Windigo describe it as a tall, thin creature with sharp, elongated arms and legs, sharp teeth, and no eyes. Others describe it as a tall monster who ate people, who got taller with each meal.

Swamp Legends

In North America, some legends claim that there are “giant spiders” in the swamps that grab victims with their legs and drag them into the depths of the water.

Ghost Stories of the American South

The book "Ghost Stories of the American South" by W.K. McNeil details the story of a tall, skinny, tree-like man who abducts a child from a family in the American South. The story was collected from a 72-year-old man in Berea, Kentucky, in 1963, meaning that the story could date back to the early 20^th century.

Taíno

The Taíno culture, a civilization of pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Carribean, legends often speak of the hupia, or op'a, a nocturnal humanoid without a face that stalks, paralyzes its victims, and drives them insane. The hupia was considered the spirit of the dead in the Taíno religion.

Eastern Europe

The Tall Man

The Tall Man is a Romanian fairy tale with limited popularity during its time. The fairy tale centers on a girl, Sorina, and her mother, who kills her family under control of the Tall Man. The Tall Man is described as being dressed as a nobleman, in all black, with multiple arms like snakes and sharp like swords.

Russia

In Russia, folklore existing at least since the early 20^th century seems to place a “tall, slender man” in the role of a “corrector”, who would hunt those who existed through strange means- for instance, those who were born without a father.

Japan

In Japan, the noppera-bō, also known as zumbera-bō, or nopperabou, is a faceless ghost, or yōkai, whose legendary appearance is described as "deeply terrifying," and which takes delight in terrifying humans. As John Waters notes in Was It For This?:

The Noppera-bō, or faceless ghost, is a legendary creature of Japanese folklore, a kind of hobgoblin known primarily for frightening humans. The Noppera-bō appears at first as an ordinary human being, sometimes impersonating someone familiar to the victim of the scare, before causing his features to disappear, leaving a blank, smooth sheet of skin where the face ought to be. The archetype of the faceless man relates at once to hope and terror.

A similar Japanese yōkai is the ashinaga-tenaga, a spirit with extremely long arms and legs. Another, more obscure, yōkai, known as the Mikoshi-nyudo, also bears a striking resemblance to Slenderman, having a tall and maleable body and killing humans in wooded areas.

China

Chinese legend involves a deity known as the hundun, a faceless creature without human senses. Hundun was sometimes described as a wicked humanoid with multiple limbs, the "personification of chaos."

Ancient Civilization

Babylonian

Babylonians, such as the Akkadians and Sumerians, believed in a specific demon called the alû, a "half-man, half-devil" creature without a face. The alû creeps into its victim's bedrooms and terrifies them as they sleep. The alû demon was said to cause loss of consciousness, fixation of the eyes in a stare, and loss of speech.

Biblical

Antioch, an ancient, magnificient Roman city, was a chief center of early Christianity, as reported in Acts 11:26. South of the city, a citadel at the foot of Mount Silpius displayed a huge carving of a faceless head, which pagans held was Charon, a deity who damned souls to the Underworld.

Brazilian Cave Paintings

The earliest argued reference to the legend is within the cave paintings found in the Serr da Capivara National Park in the Northeast of Brazil, which are believed to date from as far back as 9000 BC. These paintings show a strangely elongated character leading a child by the hand, but make no reference to the extra appendages.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Some Egyptian hieroglyphs seem to portray what could be multi-armed men among other, more usual hieroglyphs.

Aztec Priests

Some Aztec art appears to depict priests removing hearts of sacrifices with three or more arms. Some Mayan art also depicted Mayan priests as such.

Ceiba Trees

In Mayan mythology, Ceiba trees (huge with long branches) are considered sacred. Legends often link the Ceibas with scary tales and the devil. One tale concerns the story of an evil spirit, disguised as a Ceiba, who would lure drunk men to it. The ya’axche’ wíinik (the Ceiba Man) was a Mayan god who lived in the Ceiba tress who would receive sacrifices by ancient Mayans.