I know there is a Scottish word “bogle” or “bogey” which refers to some type of evil spirit. I know Cecil addressed this awhile back but IIRC it had more to do with the verb getting down to BOOGIE! However most of us as children were afraid of the Boogie Man, and darned if I know what exactly this creature was that we were afraid of. If I’m not mistaken, the Boogie Man is in every culture of the world…so who or what exactly is he? What are his origins?
"Boogey men are just a catch all for imaginary monsters created by parents to scare their children into modifying their behavior. Really, just the negative counterpart to Santa Claus. Be naughty and this creature will “get” (visit, assault, or murder) you, rather than the gentler, “be naughty and you won’t get any presents.” As you noted, parents in all cultures exploit the gullibility of children to get them to behave.
As an interesting slight derail, Krampus, the evil counterpart to Santa Claus, seems to fit the bill nicely.
The AntiSanta?!?
When I was a boy we called the beings in question Boogies - the “man” part was unknown to us. And I had a definite idea of what they looked like. They had dark fur on their bodies, with hands and feet connected directly to the torso with no arms or legs. Their heads were long ovals, with big googly saucer eyes, with big pupils that looked like fried eggs with yolks. Heavy eyebrows. Lips like sausages or pieces of liver. They danced and laughed with a deep “hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo hah haah haaaah” sort of laugh.
Years later, I discovered an old cartoon from the 40s on YouTube. I wish I could name it now, but it almost certainly was the source for the Boogies of my childhood.
Eyes the size of the kind of saucer that’s 8 inches across?
I totally cut the corners when I was telling my kids about Santa’s beneficient relationship with good children, and the delivery of toys made by elves. When asked about how Santa handles naughty children I simply asked, “Well where do you think the elves come from?” And I wonder why my kids are all screwed up…
Finding Bigfoot, one of my guilty pleasures, did an episode in Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and the “Sasquatch” in that area is called “Wood Booger”
**What exactly IS the Boogie Man?
**
More importantly, where exactly is he? That’s all I need to know.
I’m your boogie man. That’s what I am.
Right behind you, of course.
When kids stop believing in their imaginary friends, the abandoned friends become Boogiemen. Except for the girls, they become Boogie Persons.
(Why, yes, my kids were tweens in the late 90s, why do you ask?)
Donald Westlake wrote a story called “Knackles” about an Anti-Claus. It was later adapted by Harlan Ellison into a Twilight Zone episode which CBS wouldn’t produce, calling it ‘too dark’. Harlan talks about it in the “Slippage” collection.
Years ago I watched a documentary on PBS that claimed that Indonesian pirates are the original boogey men. Their name is very similar to that.
I find that a little hard to believe.
Some say that demons are the spiritual remains of giants, the offspring of angels and humans. Because the giants, and any spiritual elements they possessed, were not of heavenly origin, they have no access to God’s afterlife realm. Therefore, they must roam the face of the planet forever.
Now, for a number of reasons, humans and giants did not get on very well. When the giants died off, the demons’ spirits remained, growing only more bitter and resentful of humanity. The will and wisdom of demons is vastly superior to that of humans given their divine parentage and extraordinary age, but as spirits their ability to interfere physically with us is negligible. They can, however, get at us mentally and can perform such nasty tricks as possession of a body (during which process they essentially subdue the naturally occurring soul and wreak all kinds of havoc), or at other times they can leave us in full control physically but torment us as a second, hidden, mind. As that second mind, all they need do is recall the horrors and grief they experienced in life and channel those emotions into the human mind—which is ill-equipped to endure the eternal suffering of children spurned, through no fault of their own, by an all-powerful God. The latter tactic is that of a boogeyman. With no hope of winning God’s grace or of attaining any sort of meaningful, lasting peace, they live to torment those whom God loves most, and who hated them worst.
Some say.
You think I’m going to turn around, but this is nobody’s fool you’re talking to.
The boogie man hides under your bed.
Someday he will make you dead!
The boogie man is in your head.
Soon he’ll make your blood run red!
Get down, boogie-oogie-oogie!
Get down, boogie-oogie-oogie!