Post #24: Pondering - There is Always an Origin

Majority of my time, I spend inside my hiding place, conducting experiments and trying my best to learn about the seemingly impossible to explain creatures that inhabit our world, where they came from, what's their purpose, how do they function, etc. However, in order to learn, I must venture out, usually to stock up on aliments, to collect samples and many other things of that nature. And during those leaves of absence, Hannah is left on her own and to her credit, she doesn't complain about it, on the contrary, she uses that time to learn about the predicament she is in, the predicament we all are in.

And one day, whilst reading through another batch of notes my past self preserved in case of memory loss, she posed a curious question in front of me: "Is all of this actually real?"

She was specifically hinting at some of the blogs and other forms of media involving the creatures we are all stalked by, which were revealed to be works of fiction, I'm sure if you're reading this blog at any point in time, can figure out which forms of media out there online she is referring to. I mean, the most common, credited origin for the modern day characterisation of "Slender Man" comes from a certain forum where a photo editing contest took place. Naturally, Hannah expressed her slight doubt at the situation we find ourselves in and I felt like my explanation to her would make for a good post, considering I had to take a break from conducting experiments for a few weeks.

Let's start off on an easy note: Is all of it a work of fiction? You certainly can believe so, however, from my personal experience, I simply can not hold that same belief, a statement which will brand me as some sort of delusional internet user in the eyes of many, I'm sure. Were some of these internet blogs and vlogs confirmed to be works of fiction? Yes, and it is quite annoying, because every time something gets confirmed to be a work of fiction, I must go back to my findings and cross out everything that I would note down whilst observing said works of fiction, presuming at the time that they were real documentations, but that's how it goes, nobody said tracking down the truth would be easy. However, does that mean that all of these documentations are false? No, an answer I can give without a shadow of a doubt, again, due to my experiences with all of this. Honestly, it would be foolish to not expect the human psyche to get inspired by all of this at some point and create your own work of fiction based, on what you assume, was also a work of fiction.

But here's the conundrum, the sightings of these creatures date back hundreds of years, if not millennia. Which is going to be the purpose of this post, to show you, the reader, my findings in regards to potential, historical references to the creatures that stalk us to this day, for this post I will concentrate on the most popular creature "Slender Man". If none of this will seem to convince you, that is all right, the purpose of this post is not to convince anyone, however, it should still make for an interesting read.

However, before we begin, let's get works of fiction, that could "muddy the waters" so to say, further on, out of the way. Der Großmann is a red herring, created in order to give the validity and sense of realism to the work of fiction which was utilising this red herring. How can we tell? Because there is no mention of Der Großmann prior to the supposed invention of "Slender Man", whenever Der Großmann is brought up, it is always brought up alongside the "Slender Man", to top it off, the drawing which presumed to depict Der Großmann was edited.

Another famous red herring at the time, concerning the "Slender Man" is the "Three Ages of Woman" painting by Hans Baldung. At some point, somebody claimed that the painting had an X-Ray done on it, revealing that prior to the finalised version of the painting we see today, Baldung attached 4 additional arms to the depiction of Death within the painting. I'm 98% convinced this is false, because a basic information search of the painting and the supposed X-Ray scan done on it, finds us nothing, which, you'd think several news websites would report on such an important discovery.

Germany:
So now we ask the question as to why Germany? If you, as a writer, are creating a point of origin for your fictional creature, why Germany specifically? My hunch is because they might have been inspired by German Folklore, specifically by The Erlking. A poem depicting a father and his infant son, who, whilst riding through the night, encounter The Erlking. The description of Erlking is scarce, in the poem it is depicted as wearing a crown, which has no resemblance to the way the "Slender Man" is perceived today. However, the behavioural patterns do seem to fit the "Slender Man" in a few ways, for example: In the poem, The Erlking is only seen by the son, when the son tries to warn his father, the father dismisses all of his warnings claiming that it's just the fog, or the wind and etc. In other blogs, there are several accounts of people claiming that they could see "Slender Man" but nobody else could, "Slender Man" is also, obviously known for blending in with nature perfectly. Another interesting aspect of The Erlking is that he was able to whisper to the child within the Father's vicinity without the Father hearing anything. "Slender Man" as we know according to a few proxy blogs is capable of relaying forms of information to other people through their thoughts, the nature of information, however, is always different.

A more specific sighting of the "Slender Man" in Germany can be documented during World War I, in the paintings of a known artist, Käthe Kollwitz. Death was a major theme in her paintings, mainly because she was opposed to the war and the loss of life it brought, however, it is her depictions of death itself that remind us of a familiar entity:
 (Death Grabbing at a Group of Children)  
 (Death Seizes a Woman)

This is the closest we get to anything depicting the "Slender Man" in German culture and even these paintings don't necessarily have anything to do with it, apart from practically nailing down the appearance (One could argue, that based on appearance, this also fits The Rake). Nothing in Kollwitz' biography states that she ever suffered from some forms of paranoia or delusions, her death isn't shrouded in mystery, there is nothing to imply that Kollwitz was inspired to depict "Death" in such a manner by "Slender Man"

The British Isles:
The Clutchbone is a relatively recent addition to the library of folklore creatures, although even that is very debatable, mainly because there is no trace of origin to it. I honestly wouldn't even include it, because all of my searches for any information on it, always come with "Slender Man" attached to it, which is usually a good indication of something being false. But let's get through it's description first, between 190 and 230cm tall, is black, skin is leathery and has a lantern for a head. Seems to fit the "Slender Man" apart from the lantern bit, but that could have easily been misconstrued at the time for it's pale, faceless visage we are familiar with today, some blogs even state that it's head is so pale, it tends to shine when light falls upon it, which could have easily been misconstrued for a lantern. Especially, if we were to believe the reports, the origin of "Clutchbone" dates back all the way to 18th and 19th centuries. There is also an explanation as to why there is practically no evidence for this folktale's existence, as there were no depictions of it in any media throughout that time, which is hard to believe considering during the centuries that it is claimed to date back to, the English were extremely fond of publishing newspapers about Jack The Ripper and Spring-heeled Jack, since those sold like candy, no way would Clutchbone not have any publishing's of it's own. So why am I even including it?

Well, because this folktale seems to originate back to a Wikipedia article, which, if we were to believe this website, was taken down because the article was taken to some sort of in-house court, to decide it's validity and after confirming that it lacked any merit, was taken down, which is bizarre to me, considering you can find far more outlandish articles on Wikipedia still being up, but this specific one, was not just taken down, but was a subject of a court session?

Well, we can still view the page, despite it being taken down, thanks to StateMaster, a website that seemingly used to be dedicated to publishing various statistics within the US. They happen to house more info on the "Clutchbone" including, if we were to believe this website, an eye witnesses depiction of the creature:

                             (Source: http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/The-Clutchbone)

Some of the things this article states though are very questionable, for example: The notion that the Swedish singer's, Monika Zetterlund's, death was connected to Clutchbone. Despite the fact that there is no information that would suggest that, Monika didn't seem to have any issues with paranoia, or any other signs we associate with "Slender Man". The only reason I include this folk tale, is because I find it extremely strange that, again, Wikipedia would take down an article concerning this creature, after taking it to an in-house court, which might not be true, however, the traces of the "Clutchbone" article can be found on Wikipedia:

Which means that there was an article posted on the creature at some point and was then taken down, for some reason, which strikes me as bizarre, mainly because Wikipedia houses plenty of pages which hold barely any detail to them, just like this one, so why take this one down?

The United States:
This one seems to be the most accurate to the way we all seem to perceive Slender Man today. According to Robert R. Lyman, Sr. a chronicler who spent decades on writing down various stories and accounts of bizarre creature sightings within the Black Forest located in Pennsylvania. One of such accounts was dubbed the "Hide-Behind", a creature that thrived on the paranoia of various forest travellers, never being identified in appearance specifically, because it was able to perfectly hide among the trees and catch it's victims off guard. Reportedly, if a victim was caught by the "Hide-Behind" they would then get dragged off into it's lair and get devoured. The methodology of this creature seems to perfectly fit that of The Slender Man, induce paranoia in it's victims, then proceed to abduct them.

These are the folklore accounts, I can remember off the top of my head, but just like Mr. Lyman stated in his documents whilst chronicling the various creatures of the Black Forest: "During the long, winter evenings story-tellers would yarn away for hours about all these, and more, impossible creatures. Mothers would tell these tales to wide-eyed children to make them fear the forest, so they would not wander away and get lost. They grew up half believing that the strange animals were an ever present hazard." Which is absolutely true, these don't necessarily have to connect to The Slender Man, they could have been just folktales made up by the villagers to protect their children, the question isn't whether these are true, or if they connect, it is to show you that creatures similar to the Slender Man have been sighted before and were, most likely, believed to be real by the people who purported these tales back then, how many of them do you think would go out and investigate, and how many of them would actually disappear without a trace?

All of this is there to make you (And mainly Hannah, since she's the one who posed the query to begin with) ask further questions, if you feel like it.