The bogeyman is a legendary ghost-like monster. The bogeyman has no specific appearance and conceptions of the monster can vary drastically even from household to household within the same community; in many cases he simply has no set appearance in the mind of a child, but is just an amorphous embodiment of terror. This list looks at 15 bogeymen from around the world.
The Namahage visits each house on New Year’s to ask if any misbehaving children live there. If the parents are able to report that their children are not lazy and do not cry, he moves on to the next house.
The Korean bogeyman is called Kotgahm, which is the word for persimmon. The legend is that a mother told her crying child that she would feed him to a tiger if he did not behave. A passing tiger, hearing the threat, waited outside the door for his meal. Instead, the mother gave the child a persimmon, a kotgahm, and the crying stopped. The tiger thought the kotgahm must be a terrifically fierce creature to be more frightening than a tiger. Today, the kotgahm is most often visualized as an old man with a mesh sack who carries naughty children away.
Duérmete, niño, duérmete ya.
Que viene el coco y te comeráGo to sleep child, go to sleep now.
The coconut man will come and eat you.
If you think of a coconut as a head, with the three holes the features of a face, you can see how El Coco might be transformed in the mind of a child to a hairy little man. During the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain, there were orphan collectors, who took children away in sacks. The misbehavior? Refusing to go to bed and sleep.
One of the most unusual of the world’s bogeys is Groke, a giant blue blob who is so lonely and sad that the ground beneath her feet freezes as she walks. She is not malevolent, just lonely. But she frightens people, and they run from her.
There are many theories about the origin of the word “bogeyman.” One is that it devolved from “buggy man,” the driver of the cart picking up corpses during the Black Plague that decimated Europe. As in the United States, the bogeyman may be nothing more clearly defined than a mist or fog, scratching at windows, or he is sometimes thought of as a tall, gaunt, scarecrow-like man.
The boggart is a malicious fairy who causes personal calamities, small and large. It sometimes puts a cold hand on people’s faces at night. You must not name it, or it will become unreasonable and follow your family wherever you go. A horseshoe over the doorway will protect you from boggarts.
The Small Man has a rolling cart and captures children who are out after sundown. If he gets you, you will become a Small Person yourself, and ride in his cart forever.
The anti-Santa Claus, Baba Yaga’s evil partner, Torbalan lurks in the shadows in Bulgaria, waiting to snatch misbehaving children and carry them away in a sack.
Bubak is a scarecrow-like man who hides on riverbanks, making sounds like a lost baby to lure adults as well as children. He drives a cart driven by cats and weaves clothing for the souls he has stolen.
The Bolman has claws and fangs. He hides under your bed or in your closet waiting to grab you and put you in the basement if you don’t sleep.
Pugot Mamu is a gigantic, headless shape-shifter who lives in trees and deserted houses. Self-beheaded, he eats children through the hole in his neck.
The Bonhomme Sept-Heures – the seven o’clock man – may have been taken from the English “bone setter,” an old name for a traveling medicine man. The seven o’clock man steals children, but can only get you if you are awake.
The Nokken, a lake monster, will get you if you don’t come in when called.
The Jumbies live here, post-death misbehavers. They are shape-shifters, so children are taught not to play with random animals. There are several ways to defeat Jumbies, however. You can leave your shoes outside; Jumbies have no feet and will spend the night trying to get the shoes on. You can leave a container of sand or rice outside the door; Jumbies will have to count each grain. You can cross a river; Jumbies won’t cross water. You can leave a rope with many knots; Jumbies will have to untie each one.
Italy has l’uomo Nero, a tall man with an unseen face, a heavy coat and a black hat. He hides under the table and parents knock on the table to warn their children that l’uomo Nero is present and will take them away if they don’t eat their dinner.
EcoPhD Interesting Bogeymen: Over here in Australia we also have a Whompus (though we spell it without the ‘h’ – Wompus).
However, our Wompus isn’t a Bogeyman – it’s a snake (a fantasy snake). Locals will often regale ‘New Chums’, Tourists and/or gullible city dwellers with tales of the dreaded “Wompus Python” which will hold its tail in its mouth and roll after victims, drop on them from trees and swallow them whole (or eat cattle/sheep/kangaroos etc whole), or it’s flaming ruby-red eyes and tongue which can impale small animals – and of course it’s the ONLY snake in the world with six little legs at the back end (that’s how you can really tell a Wompus Python from any other).
The big purple one is the freakiest
The name of the boogeyman in my house had two names,during the day her name was mama, and at bed time the boogeyman came out and her name was “THE BELT”, and I can tell you it worked. The guy living under my bed was even scared.
The Groke is a character from the Moomin stories (created by Tove Jansson)…not Finnish bogeyman ‘history’.
@winchestre (64):
Stupid atheist. Satan is real. He is what you call the father of all the bogeymans in the list (except for the Groke, of course). I mean, If there is good then there is evil. Just like if there is male, there is female. The universe is balanced because of opposites. Most people still cling to God & the devil because most people believe in them more than the bogeyman. Why, do you like the thought of somebody out there who helps you in your problems everyday (that’s God) & someone out there who causes those problems (that’s Satan)? The bogeyman is just something from the imagination, a superstition. God is something that is eternal & good & NOT superstition. Religion is not superstition (Evidence for this: The Roman Catholic Church said that believing in superstition is a sin.). Look, I don’t want a debate with you, okay? That debate would sound off-topic to what we are supposed to talk about.
Anyway, I have researched & the Gorke is not something from Finnish folklore. It’s from the Moomin book series.
And as I stated above, I have never heard of the “Pugot Mamu”, whatever that is. Here in the Philippines, we have the Kapre, which I think is more famous than that “Pugot Mamu” crap. I have also read in some of the comments that most of the “bogeyman” were never heard of.
Québec made the list yes!!!!
@Karl:
Lol, you say that you don’t want to discuss, yet you start your post by calling him “stupid”.
Either way, he’s right, there’s as much evidence for the Groke (or any of these bogeymen) as there’s for Satan or the Devil. If that fact hurts you, then it’s your problem.
As for the topic:
I’m Mexican and “El Coco” has nothing to do with Coconuts. There’s also “La Llorona” (the weeping woman) and “el Viejo del Costal” (the man with the sack)…
What about the Chupacabra? I think it’s a “monster” that kills goats in Peurto Rico, Mexico and the USA. Has anyone heard of that one? Every once in a while you read about a sighting of one on the cover of that horrendous tabloid, The Weekly World News.
Yes, in Mexico – around the year of 1994 – the Chupacabra was a popular story. However, it wasn’t a “bogeyman”… its stories didn’t revolve around attacking children that didn’t obey their parents. It was more like a mystical creature that attacked animals… specially goats… and was vampire-like…
However, there wasn’t any evidence of it. At the end, most of the people in Mexico concluded that the Chupacabra was a story created by the Mexican government to divert attention from an economic crisis that was about to start.
A couple of things-don’t know what country the rat tail mother is from but it is another bogey creature.I read the story as an adult and it scared the bejeezus out of me.My ex-husband’s dad hated the kids sitting on the heating vents in the floor during the winter-he was sure it ran up the heating bill-so he told the kids if they did it the monster in the vents would come up and eat them.His mom also told him that his bellybutton was a plug.If he misbehaved she could unscrew his bellybutton,deflate him,put him in the box he came in and return him to the store.needless to say he has issues.
Jajajaja “El Coco” or “cucuy” like I was told, certainly scared me. I was sung that song that was mentioned. But I remember it sounded so sweet, like a lullaby.
Mexico’s folklore is so good. I mean La Llorona, El Cupacabras, ghosts, etc. I really wonder why I am not traumatized. And now with the “Day of the Dead” coming up I’ll hear enough stories to make me have at least a tiny light on or my phone close by.
Damn all those Halloween marathon movies & Paranormal Activity that aren’t really scary but make you stop and think that things like that can ocur.
hmm.. Pugot Mamu? Never heard of it.. Maybe it’s a regional belief, y’know with the Philippines having thousands of islands and so many regions…
Nice list btw…
this is a really cool list!! the Jumbie sound like a person with OCD…i might be a Jumbie!!!!! I do have a hard time puttin on shoes…
this was a great list concept (especially so close to halloween), but the entries were just way too short, i would have liked to have had more of the details of the various legends.
so, thank goodness our excellent commenters were able to fill in the blanks and even tell better stories about other “boogiemen” too
and what’s up with the apparently world-wide theme of stuffing naughty children into sacks?
i’m pretty sure the english equivalent of the groke is eeyore -he’s blueish/purplelish, from a story book, and oh-so-sad! let’s hug them both!
Your entry reminded me alot about this entry: http://tinyurl.com/yjn47zg
Wow! Fantastic list. The Coconut man reminds me of El Burlon, a bogeyman who lives on the moon and comes down to maniacally laugh in the face of a child who stays up too late. I’m not too sure if it was a story my sisters made up or if it’s an actual legend.
@amo (39): He appears as number 3 for me.
“Pugot Mamu” (ano yun?) What’s that! I’m scared! Waaaahhh! lol. (not real)
Hey you are really scaring me. It looks like real monster.
Number one is just horrible. Italy should be ashamed of itself.
@Freddy (120):
=O My mother also used the “mano peluda”..but I think it came from a radio show from the 70s, “dr. mortis” …I think…
Cool List…But I live and was raised in the Bahamas and never heard of #9, could you tell me where you got that one??
The Groke is Mörkö in Finnish.
Funny thing is, Mörkö is also the Finnish name for Hobgoblin from Marvel’s comic universe.
I know several friends and other kids who are terrified at Groke. My childhood friend could not sleep if someone mentioned her.
Her voice was pretty freaky (she only had one actual line in the series) and in one episode it was shown that her touch is freezing… She even puts out fires with the cold aura around her. Her first appearances in the series were pretty damn scary in the eyes of a small child so no wonder she can be used to scare kids.
As a kid I thought she was a he though – we refer to men and women with the same word and I don’t think her gender was mentioned separately. Personally I liked the character, one of my favorites.
Nice list – there was a couple of new ones for me ;D
I’m from the Netherlands and I’ve never heard from that Bolman!
@ Chicle (143)
Oh good so my family isnt as crazy as I thought. Good to know the origin as well.
Here in the USA, we have the tooth fairy. She sneaks in your house at night and rips your teeth out.
Lol. So many monsters to make children behave!
I was always told by my brother and sister that the Bogeyman (American) lived in the closet and came out at night to make noises, like floor creaking, pounding on the door, etc. “He” always came out to make noises in our rooms so that our parents would yell at us to get to bed, even though we already were. After growing up I realized it was either my sister making noises so that me and my brother got blamed, or the wind from our window. My sister was mean…
I always pictured the Bogeyman as a small green-skinned hunched-over man in a black hooded druid robe, and he had a long green nose and his face looked like the comic book version of the Green Goblin from Spider-Man, complete with wide sinister smile.
@BooRadley (128): Here’s a little ditty about the chubracabra, hope it helps.
D’oh! it’s chupacabra
Hey I’m so glad to see Bonhomme Sept-Heures. My mother used that guy to get me to go to sleep.
Bogeyman??
It’s Boogeyman.
Everyone knows the real Boogeyman lives under my bed.
hahahah Number 12 is the best!!!
@Shifty (151): Thanks, Shifty! That was great! The chorus is so catchy that I can’t stop singing it:
There’s a buggy-eyed creature that we call the Chupacabra
Four feet tall like a mutant winged Chihuahua
In Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua,
HEY! Chupacabra!
I am a Filipino but I have never heard of Pugot Mamu (5). Haha.
It’s “el cuco” not “el coco”. And “el cuco” is present in every single Spanish speaking country.
I think God should be number one on this list.
except its not to keep just children in line, its to keep an entire species under wraps.
“Believe in me, or you will go to the big bad guy under the earth!”
” dont cuss or i will send you there as well!”
“question anything i say and you are a sinner and will burn forever”
I dont think there is a boogey man more feared than god
I remember my parents always telling me about the jumbies, since we are trinidadian.
Haha, the one from Finland looks like Grimace.
Like an earlier commenter mentioned, it’s probably “El Cuco” instead of “El Coco”. Though from what I’ve heard from my parents, “El Cuco” or “Don Cuco” is the devil.
And regarding another commenter who mentioned Australian Aboriginal boogeymen, would the Bunyip also count as a boogeyman? If anyone’s ever seen the animated film “Dot and the Kangaroo”, that thing’s freaky the way they drew it.
What about the jackofasaurus?
Where’s no face? XD
I agree with Segues (98) – I think it’s interesting that despite thousands of miles and huge cultural differences, there is a strong commonality among the boogeymen. The collective consciousness is alive and well!
I enjoy the lists where a common theme is represented from various parts of the world. Good list. Thanks.
I was raised to think that Ted Bundy was the bogeyman, before he was caught and fried. I’d be playing with a friend in the yard and my mom would always shout “Come inside or Ted Bundy will get you!”
I never really heard of the Pugot Mamu. But we have many bogeymen(and women) here. One that really freaked me out(when I was a kid) was the Babaeng Uling(The Charcoal Woman).
A woman with charcoal painted on her face, she carries a sack filled with charcoal. My mom told me that when children doesn’t follow their parents’ orders, the Babaeng Uling will drag you from your bed at 12MN. You can’t escape her even if you hid under the blanket. She would just freakin’ show up your bed and you’ll see long black fingers with dirty fingernails stroking your feet. That’s the last thing you’ll ever remember because the next thing you know, well, I don’t know. Hahaha.. Some say she’ll eat them but I think she’ll burn you and put your charred body in the sack. SCARYYYYY….
In Mexico we also have “El Viejo Bichi” That means “The old naked bad man” Jejeje
where’s Pocong from Indonesia?
uhm… never heard of Pugot Mamu… what is it again?
For more about the African TOKOLOSHE, see http://www.vanhunks.com/tokoloshe1.html. Very interesting!
In the Netherlands we do have the bogeyman (boeman) but our Santa Claus (sinterklaas) is also a bogeyman.
He comes every year to bring presents but he has a book with all the good and bad children’s names in it. The bad children will be put in a sack and taken back to Spain.
So a mix of Torbalan and Baba Yaga in one.
Wow. The Pugot Mamu stuff isn’t well known here. I, from the Phil. And that certainly means BULL*****
South Africa has the Thokoloshi, read more at http://www.tokoloshe.tk/ if interested.
In SA we got Tokoloshe that plays with children who don’t get indoors after dark. He will no allow you to go back into the house
No Banshee? (It’s an Irish messenger of death)
What about the Leyak from Bali – a female, floating disembodied head (with entrails intact) that eats babies out of pregnant women? It’s in the movie “Mystics in Bali”
Im from the Netherlands and i never heard of the Bolman.
Looks to me this list is bull *****.
#14 is wrong. Kkotgahm is just a dried persimmon. It has nothing to do with bogeyman. Dokkaebi should be Korean bogeyman.