I was reading about the Crooked Man from *The Conjuring 2* (2016), one of Valak's manifestations, and got curious about the nursery rhyme behind it.

The nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man" first appeared in print in James Orchard Halliwell's *The Nursery Rhymes of England* in 1842, though the rhyme itself is probably older. Some historians believe the "crooked man" refers to the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie, who signed a covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The "crooked stile" supposedly refers to the border between England and Scotland.