Mystical Mythology of the World

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BOOGEYMAN

The boogeyman is a legendary ghost-like monster that children often believe is real. The boogeyman has no specific appearance. It is said that the boogeyman takes the shape and form of a child's worst fear in order to feed on them. Oftentimes, a parent will use this fear as a way to control their misbehaving children by telling them made-up stories about the boogeyman hiding in the walls.

The boogeyman is sometimes said to be neither woman nor man, and is in the form of a shadowy figure. The term bogeyman is also used metaphorically to mean a person or thing of which someone has an irrational fear.

The commonest childhood fears that the boogeyman's associated with is that of someone (usually a monster) hiding in one's room (such as behind the door or under the bed). The boogeyman is said to lurk like this and then attack the sleepers (though usually only in order to scare them and is harmless otherwise).

The etymology of the word "bogeyman" is uncertain, as is when it first appeared in the English language. Some sources date it to the 16th century, while others to around 1836, as a term for the Devil.

The roots of the word might ultimately derive from the Middle English bugge, meaning a "frightening spectre". Similar derivations include boggart, bogy, bugbear, the Welsh bwg and the German bögge, all referring to goblins or frightening creatures. "Bogey" may also come from the Scottish bogle, meaning "ghost", dating to around 1505 and popularised in English literature around the 19th century through the works of Scottish poets like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.

Some derivatives of boogeyman include:

BRITISH BOGEYMAN: A malevolent creature from British folklore. Some of them are merely troublesome and rather harmless, but others are truly evil.
E:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Webs\graphics\clipart_mystical\britishfaery\boggarttiny_standing.gif 
(48 x 77 x 256) (3374 bytes) BRITISH BOGGART: Mischievous spirits responsible for mishaps and poltergeist activity within the home and in the countryside.
 
Variants: boggart, bögge, bogeyman, bogle, bogy, boogeyman, boogyman, bogyman, bugbear, bugge, bugis, bugisman, bwg.

hey cheap!
what sorrows do you reap
from sleeping deeps

I keep
a candle by my bed
so I can burn your silly head

be fleet!
my nimble dreaming feet
lest sleep
forever more repeat

Thief of Souls (A child's rhyme about the boogeyman/sandman)


 

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