A Hobyah by Brian Froud, one of many different types of faeries. According to Brian Froud, a Hobyah feeds off of fear.
Although modern Faeries tend to be portrayed as happy little winged people who grant wishes to good little children and are individually referred to as a "Fairy" instead of the original "Faerie", traditional Folklore Faeries were much more complicated than that. Some Faeries are benevolent and kind, and have wings, but some can be cruel. While some faeries are mischievous and funny, some can be harsh and malicious. Faeries also vary greatly in size, and also often include creatures such as trolls and goblins.
Relation to Slender Man[]
Some Faeries have been known:
- To kidnap children
- To appear different to different people
- To have many names (keeping their true name secret)
- To disguise themselves and other things using faerie glamor (E.G. Kelpies typically disguise as horses)
- To eat people in some cases (E.G. Kelpies, trolls, possibly Baba Yaga)
- To cause disease to those they encounter
- Being capable of changing their form at will
- To put people in a trance or put a person completely under their control
- Have odd features (such as oversized or non-existent facial features such as noses or mouths, or lack of emotion)
- Don't always have wings (and do not require them for flight)
- To be visible only to certain people
- To seemingly teleport
- Trick humans into trusting them before leading them into some sort of trap
All of the above have also been reported in various Slender Man sightings. E.G. In the original mythos, Slender Man appeared to have a face, but it never appeared on film. This could be the result of an illusion caused by "faerie glamor" that only appears to the human eye, but does not appear on film. Both the original and contemporary mythos share similarities with traditional folklore faeries.
According to Brian Froud, a leading expert on faerie lore, a Faerie's appearance tends to be symbolic of their nature.
Some have even claimed that past accounts classified Slender Man as a faerie.
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