Bridget Cleary is one of the most well-known cases of an adult thought to be a changeling by her family her husband killed her, attempting to force the fairies to return his 'real' wife.įunction The devil steals a baby, leaving a concealed changeling. This object in place of the human would seem to sicken and die, to be buried by the human family, while the living human was among the fairies. Often when an adult was taken instead of a child, an object such as a log was left in place of the stolen human, enchanted to look like the person. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide was frequently the solution selected." įairies would also take adult humans, especially the newly married and new mothers young adults were taken to marry fairies instead, while new mothers were often taken to nurse fairy babies. "The fact that the changelings' ravenous appetite is so frequently mentioned indicates that the parents of these unfortunate children saw in their continuing existence a threat to the sustenance of the entire family. A peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon the productive labour of each member, and it was difficult to provide for a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources. Ashliman proposes in his essay 'Changelings' that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. Simple charms such as an inverted coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps were thought to ward them off other measures included a constant watch over the child." įolklorist D. In rare cases, the very elderly of the fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby so that the old fairy could live in comfort, coddled by its human parents. Most often, it was thought that fairies exchanged the children. "A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice. A common way that a changeling could identify itself is through displaying unusual behaviour when it thinks it is alone, such as jumping about, dancing or playing an instrument – though this last example is found only within Irish and Scottish legend. They may also display intelligence far beyond their apparent years and possess uncanny insight. In Irish legend, a fairy child may appear sickly and will not grow in size like a normal child, and may have notable physical characteristics such as a beard or long teeth. A changeling is typically identifiable via several traits, which vary from culture to culture.
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