Changeling

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In European folklore and folk belief, a changeling is the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child. The apparent changeling could also be a stock, an animated piece of wood that would soon appear to die. Other claimed changelings would be identified by their wizened appearance, voracious appetite, malicious temper, inability to move, and other unpleasant traits.^[1] Medieval chronicles record instances of this, which is one of the oldest known pieces of folklore about fairies.^[2] The motivation for this conduct stems from the desire to have a human servant, the love of a human child, or from malice.^[3] Some people believed that trolls would take unbaptized children. Beauty in children and young women, particularly blond hair, attracted the fairies.^[4] In Scottish folklore, the children might be replacments for fairy children in the tithe to Hell^[5]; this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin.^[6] Some folklorists, who held that the fairies were memories of inhabitants of various regions in Europe who had been driven into hiding by invaders, held that changelings had actually occurred; the hiding people would exchange their own, sickly children, for the healthy children of the invaders.^[7]

The reality behind many changeling legends was often the birth of deformed or retarded children. Among the diseases with symptoms that match the description of changelings in various legends are spina bifida, cystic fibrosis, PKU, progeria, homocystinuria, William's syndrome, Hurler's syndrome, Hunter's syndrome, and cerebral palsy. The greater proneness of boys to birth defect correlates to the belief that boy babies were more likely to be taken.^[8]

Most often it was thought that faeries exchanged the children, and simple charms, such as an inverted coat, were thought to ward them off.

According to some legends, it is possible to detect changelings, as they are much wiser than human children. When changelings are detected in time, their parents have to take them back. In one tale of the Brothers Grimm, there's an account of how a woman, who suspected that her child had been exchanged, started to brew beer in the hull of an acorn. The changeling uttered: "now I am as old as an oak in the woods but I have never seen beer being brewed in an acorn", then disappeared.^[9]

Contents 1 Scandinavia 2 Wales 3 Ireland 4 German 5 Changelings in the modern world 5.1 Neurological differences 5.2 Failure to thrive 5.3 In popular culture and the arts 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Scandinavia

Since most beings from Scandinavian folklore are said to be afraid of steel, Scandinavian parents often placed a steel item such as a pair of scissors or a knife on top of an unbaptized infant's cradle. It was believed that, if a human child was taken in spite of such measures, the parents could force the return of the child by treating the changeling cruelly, using methods such as whipping or even inserting it in a heated oven. In at least one case, a woman was taken to court for having killed her child in an oven.^[10]

In one Swedish changeling tale^[11], the troll child grows up at a farm while the human child grows up among the trolls. Everyone advises the human mother to brutalize the changeling so that the trolls would change children once more. However, the woman refuses to treat the innocent but maladapted troll child cruelly and persists in treating it as if it was her own. In the end, her husband tries to burn the young troll, but the woman rescues it, so the man takes him on a walk to kill it in the forest. Somehow, he regrets his decision and saves the life of the troll. Suddenly, his own son returns and tells his father that his kindness broke the spell and liberated him. Every time someone tried to be cruel to the troll, his troll mother was about to treat the human child in the same manner.

In another Swedish fairy tale^[12] (which is depicted by the image), a princess is kidnapped by trolls and replaced with their own offspring against the wishes of the troll mother. The changelings grow up with their new parents and both become beautiful young females, but they find it hard to adapt. The human girl is disgusted by her future bridegroom, a troll prince, whereas the troll girl is bored by her life and by her dull human future groom. By coincidence, they both go astray in the forest, upset with the conditions of their lives, and happen to pass each other without noticing it. The princess comes to the castle whereupon the queen immediately recognizes her, and the troll girl finds a troll woman who is cursing loudly as she works. The troll girl bursts out that the troll woman is much more fun than any other person she has ever seen, and her mother happily sees that her true daughter has returned. Both the human girl and the troll girl marry happily the very same day.

[edit] Wales

In Wales the changeling child (plentyn newid) initially resembles the human it substitutes, but gradually grows uglier in appearance and behaviour: ill-featured, malformed, ill-tempered, given to screaming and biting. It may be of less than usual intelligence, but again is identified by its more than childlike wisdom and cunning.

The common means employed to identify a changeling is to cook a family meal in an eggshell. The child will exclaim, "I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never saw the likes of this," and vanish, only to be replaced by the original human child. Alternatively, or following this identification, it is necessary to mistreat the child by placing it in a hot oven, by holding it in a shovel over a hot fire, or by bathing it in a solution of foxglove.

(Wirt Sikes. British Goblins: The Realm of Faerie. Felinfach: Llanerch, 1991.)

[edit] Ireland

In Ireland, looking at a baby with envy -- "over looking the baby" -- was dangerous, as it endangered the baby, who was then in the fairies' power.^[13] So too was admiring or envying a woman or man dangerous, unless the person added a blessing; the able-bodied and beautiful were in particular danger. Women were in especially danger in liminal states: being a new bride, or a new mother.^[14]

Putting a changeling in a fire would cause it to jump up the chimney and return the human child, but at least one tale recounts a mother with a changeling finding that a fairy woman came to her home with the human child, saying the other fairies had done the exchange, and she wanted her own baby.^[15] The tale of surprising a changeling into speech -- by brewing eggshells -- is also told in Ireland, as in Wales.^[16]

Two Victorian cases reflected the belief. In 1826, Anne Roche bathed Michael Leahy, a four-year-old boy unable to speak or stand, three times in the Flesk; he drowned the third time. She swore that she was merely attempting to drive the fairy out of him, and the jury acquitted her of murder.^[17] In the 1890's, Bridget Cleary was killed by several people, including her husband and parents; she had apparently developed a mental illness, and they grew convinced that she had been taken by the fairy and the apparent woman was a changeling. The killers were convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, as even after the death they were convinced that they had killed a changeling, not Bridget Cleary.^[18]

In parts of Ireland, left handed people are sometimes thought to be changeling fae.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] German

Changelings were also noted in German folklore. Martin Luther asserted that he himself had seen a changeling, twelve-year-old, that did nothing but eat, and recommended that it be drowned. When the local prince rejected this, he recommended repeating the Lord's Prayer, and reported that the changeling died within a year.^[19]

[edit] Changelings in the modern world

[edit] Neurological differences

As noted, it has been hypothesized that the changeling legend may have developed, or at least been used, to explain the peculiarities of children who did not develop normally, probably including all sorts of developmental delays and abnormalities. In particular, it has been suggested that children with autism would be likely to be labeled as changelings or elf-children due to their strange, sometimes inexplicable behavior. This has found a place in autistic culture. Some high-functioning autistic adults have come to identify with changelings (or other replacements, such as aliens) for this reason and their own feeling of being in a world where they don’t belong and of practically not being the same species as the "normal" people around them.^{[citation needed]} In the book The Stolen Child, Keith Donohue talks about the life of a changeling from the point of view of two boys.

[edit] Failure to thrive

Infants diagnosed with Failure to thrive that have no history of neglect also fit the description of changelings. This can be a devastating diagnosis, and it is easy to see how people would have taken comfort in placing the cause outside their influence. The stories of kindness and care being rewarded with the return of the child also fit the nursing needed to restore an infant's health.

[edit] In popular culture and the arts

Meanwhile term changeling has undergone semantic drift in modern fantasy and science fiction and can equally mean a kind of shapeshifter, i.e., one who changes. like the alien race, the Changelings featured in Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Many works, however, feature changelings which fit the original definition of the word.

For examples of changelings and changeling-like themes in modern works see changelings in popular culture.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Brood parasite
• Corrigan (Breton folklore)

[edit] External links

• D. L. Ashliman's Changelings page at University of Pittsburgh