First legend on my list is the slender man. A lot of nay sayers tell us the slender man came into existence was on June 10, 2009, on a thread in the Something Awful Internet forum. It was a Photoshop contest to come up with something creepy.
The Grossmann from Germany. He is also called The Tall Man. The first stories of this creature came out around the 16th century. What was going on in Europe in the 16th century? The inquisition was still raging across the continent and people were being burned at the stake for saying the wrong things. There may have been more sighting reaching back centuries but folks didn’t talk about them not wanting to be suspected of having visions of the devil which could win you a one way trip to the local dungeon.
Sterling City in Butte County, CA has had several Slender Man sightings and some activity folks say is being caused by him. In 1986 the Sterling City Library caught fire. During the clean up a number of photographs were recovered, including one that had been taken only a week earlier on June 1st, 1986. This was the date 14 children disappeared, which was odd but then the photographer vanished as well.
Just because the name was invented in 2009 doesn't mean the creature was invented at the same time.