Writings and Literature
The Slender Man entity has been mentioned in many poems and stories throughout the centuries. One of the earliest known mentions of the being comes from the 16th century seer Nostradamus. A number of his prophecies seem to mention a being eerily similar to that of the Slender Man.
II 9:
Nine years the lean one will hold the realm in peace,
Then he will fall into a very bloody thirst:
Because of him a great people will die without faith and law
Killed by one far more good-natured.
II 10:
Before long all will be set in order,
We will expect a very sinister century,
The state of the masked and solitary ones much changed,
Few will be found who want to be in their place.
IV 24:
Beneath the holy earth of a soul the faint voice heard,
Human flame seen to shine as divine:
It will cause the earth to be stained with the blood of the monks,
And to destroy the holy temples for the impure ones.
IV 25:
Lofty bodies endlessly visible to the eye,
Through these reasons they will come to obscure:
Body, forehead included, sense and head invisible,
Diminishing the sacred prayers.
VIII 81:
The new empire in desolation
will be changed from the Northern Pole.
From Sicily will come such trouble that
it will bother the enterprise tributary to Philip.
VIII 82:
Thin tall and dry, playing the good valet
in the end will have nothing but his dismissal;
sharp poison and letters in his collar,
he will be seized escaping into danger.
XI 19:
Six hundred and five, six hundred and six and seven,
It will show us up to the year seventeen,
The anger, hatred and jealousy of the incendiary,
For a long enough time hidden under the olive tree,
The Crocodile has hidden on the land,
That which was dead will then be alive.
XI 20:
He who several times has
Held the cage and then the woods,
He will return to the first state
His life safe shortly afterwards to depart,
Still not knowing how to know,
He will look for a subject in order to die.
Another early mention of the creature comes from an old German folk song, "Schlankwald". The translator was unable to be found for comment.
Schlankwald
by: Unknown
Translated by: James Rossi
They say that monsters come only at night,
That light will drive them away.
But not all creatures follow this rule,
Safety not certain during the day.
He hides on the fringes of your vision,
Brief glimpses of the distorted.
He slithers and writhes behind your eyes,
Reaching for you, limbs contorted.
Before you know it your children are taken,
And now it's come down to you.
His breath is oppressive, his presence acidic,
He feels pity is undue.
Suddenly, trapped in his grasp so tight,
You struggle to break yourself free.
He laughs and he gurgles and he screeches with glee,
He turns your head for you to see.
Your children are crying though their eyes are removed,
They collapse, still and silent.
His arms and legs bend pulling you closer,
The man's eyes dark and violent.
He strikes and he cuts, your skin flays open,
Your soul to weak to resist.
This should not have happened, if only you had listened,
Never go into his forest.
The following was written by philosopher Nathaniel V. in his writings The Observations. The time period of his career is under much debate, as not much is known of him in general. Even the 'V' in his name is not known for certain to be a letter or a roman numeral.
On the Expressions of Those Outside
I have mentioned the Outside and the Things that swarm around our fragile existence, paying us little mind.
I have mentioned that some men, fools above all, seek to calculate the angles and formulæ needed to make themselves known.
What of a success?
If such a fool were able to peer into these impossible places, and maintain his sanity, what would he gain?
He would likely gain nothing yet lose everything.
A mere brush of the cheek from an Outside Thing would consume fleshform and mindform, birthing an abomination of alien countenance and wisdom.
A direct stare would obliterate such a man completely, adding his essence to the Outside and dispersing him across time-space.
We do not care about such a destruction. It is for the best to remove such foolish men from reality.
What of the Changed? The Transformed?
Would a man be turned from good to evil? No. These terms are labels for human behavior. Do we consider a lion evil for catching its prey even if that prey be men?
No. We hold a different set of expectations and morals to an animal as we must hold a different set to a Transformed.
Such a Transformed man would exist among us but no longer of us. His appearance may be human or merely human-like, but his thought forms are unintelligible.
The tall man with shadowed face who bumps into you at market, the laughing child who points at you when you pass, the whispering woman who sparks your interest but disappears before you even catch her name.
But these are human, yes? Perhaps.
What of the liquid darkness that pools itself in dim corners and gives itself weight, observing you with pale eyes and glimmering teeth, transfixing you as a cobra, reaching slowly from behind with tentacles of frigid ethereal mass?
What of the reflection in the mirror that lags behind or the movement seen on one side but not the other?
What of nightmares that plague even the magician versed in such things?
A wise magician would avoid such a Transformed man when possible.
If a magician must face a Transformed man, all logic, honor, and fairness must be tossed aside. The Transformed does not follow any rules that can be known by men.
To decipher them is to risk becoming one of them.
The following excerpt was taken from the book British Myths, Legends and Unsolved Tales by Jean Adair, who reportedly died under mysterious circumstances two years after the book was published.
In the winter of 1809 the English industrial town of Blackburn, Lancashire was victim to a spate of child disappearances. Over the course of several months 12 children vanished from their homes and authorities mounted a search of the (then) dense countryside and farmlands. The only evidence found was of several dozen uprooted trees, with no discernable pattern to this trail adverse weather is blamed for the uprooting.
During their investigation the mother of one of the children, Joanne Cowling, reported seeing a well-dressed, unusually tall and emaciated looking man in the area around her house for several nights previous to the young Cowling’s disappearance. Investigations into the scene of the abduction turned up no traces of foul play.
On December 1st that year a local farmer Paul Henshall reports seeing the body of a child hanging from a tree on his grounds. Police are called to the scene but find no body and no evidence to support Henshall’s claim. He is questioned and released shortly after with no evidence against his name.
When any evidence or hint to the location of the children had failed to show up by the following summer the pace of the investigation (and local interest in it) began to slow down as town interest began to turn towards the ever growing industrial presence. All children are declared dead.
It isn’t until 1856 that the case takes its next step forward. During the landscaping of Corporation Park (now the main formal park in Blackburn) workers uncovered a burrow with the incomplete skeletons of 11 small children inside. One worker (Nathan Kay, an Accrington resident and recreational hunter) described the inside of the cavity as resembling an animal’s burrow used for hibernation. It appeared to be recently vacated.
The grisly discovery however was widely ignored by the local media with a concerted effort being made not to tarnish the opening the new recreational area.
The skeletons were all missing their left hand and the second and third ribs on the right side of the rib cage. Several of them were also missing their humerus and left scapula. The exact cause of death and reason for the precise removal of certain body parts has never been ascertained although a form of ritualistic murder and practice is one of many official theories passed around. The location of the 12th skeleton to this day remains a mystery. (Jean Adair, 1989: 117)
Adair, J. (1989) British Myths, Legends and Unsolved Tales, London: Pan Books.