the Tree man myth
The ‘Tree Man’ legend, is one based in England around the early 18th century, making subtle excess appearances as time moved on. It follows the similar storyline as other myths encountered, as parents would tell this story to keep their kids from going out to the woods after noon.
The base legend, while varying slightly by source, describes a creature that hunts down misbehaving children in its forests (misbehaving of course, because the parents warned them NOT to go in the forest). While not describing exactly what happens to the victims of this creature (a seemingly common theme among these myths), some stories do describe the Tree Man to eat its victims or dismember them, as bones and articles of clothing are left behind.
Moving on to variations, few say that the Tree Man will target adults who have possibly done wrong, but not taking on those in large groups. In this same variation, the Tree Man would sometimes let “good doers” go, unless particularly hungry.
The description of the Tree Man may vary slightly among sources, but they all describe particularly similar features. As the name implies, the creature is described to be thin and tall with arms and legs like branches. These features correlate in the majority of sources, but there is slight controversy on what the face of this creature looks like. Some say it has glowing white eyes while others describe it to have no eyes or mouth at all.
Without going into recent-like accounts (since this is supposed to be the historic end of the project), we can see many similarities come up between this myth and others we have encountered. The forest of course, goes with German, Romanian, Scottish, American, Canadian, and modern myth. The slender body structure can be seen in German, Canadian, Scottish, and modern myth. Again, the height correlates to German, Romanian, American, Canadian, and modern myth. The victims fate is somewhat revealed in the variation version as in Romanian, Canadian, and American myth.
As a difference, like in the variation version, this is the only entity so far known to let “good doers” go by. All other myths encountered are relatively cruel and vicious.
The base legend, while varying slightly by source, describes a creature that hunts down misbehaving children in its forests (misbehaving of course, because the parents warned them NOT to go in the forest). While not describing exactly what happens to the victims of this creature (a seemingly common theme among these myths), some stories do describe the Tree Man to eat its victims or dismember them, as bones and articles of clothing are left behind.
Moving on to variations, few say that the Tree Man will target adults who have possibly done wrong, but not taking on those in large groups. In this same variation, the Tree Man would sometimes let “good doers” go, unless particularly hungry.
The description of the Tree Man may vary slightly among sources, but they all describe particularly similar features. As the name implies, the creature is described to be thin and tall with arms and legs like branches. These features correlate in the majority of sources, but there is slight controversy on what the face of this creature looks like. Some say it has glowing white eyes while others describe it to have no eyes or mouth at all.
Without going into recent-like accounts (since this is supposed to be the historic end of the project), we can see many similarities come up between this myth and others we have encountered. The forest of course, goes with German, Romanian, Scottish, American, Canadian, and modern myth. The slender body structure can be seen in German, Canadian, Scottish, and modern myth. Again, the height correlates to German, Romanian, American, Canadian, and modern myth. The victims fate is somewhat revealed in the variation version as in Romanian, Canadian, and American myth.
As a difference, like in the variation version, this is the only entity so far known to let “good doers” go by. All other myths encountered are relatively cruel and vicious.