Changeling

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For other uses see Changeling (disambiguation)

Trolls with the changeling they have raised, John Bauer, 1913.

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 exchange for a human child. The motivation for this conduct stems from the desire to have a human servant, the love of a human child, or from malice. Some people believed that trolls would take unbaptized children. The reality behind many changeling legends was often the birth of deformed or retarded children. Most often, it was thought, that it was the faeries who exchanged the children, and simple charms, such as an inversed coat, were thought to ward off these beings.

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.

Changelings are mentioned in the book 'TITHE' by Holly Black. Kaye is a changeling. She finds herself in a muddle. It explaines how changelins suffer, but get through in the end.

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.^{[#endnote_Svenska_Folksagner]}

painting by John Bauer

In one Swedish changeling tale^{[#endnote_Bortbytingen]}, 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^{[#endnote_Bortbytingarna]} (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.

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.)

Ireland

In parts of Ireland, left handed people are sometimes thought to be changeling fae.

Replacement people in modern literature, film, and gaming

Replacement people, also known as substituted people, shapeshifters, and/or changelings, appear in a number of modern works of fiction - books, films, television, games, and elsewhere.

Literature:

• Refer to Brothers Grimm numerous fairy tales.
• Uther Pendragon took on the appearance of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall in the King Arthur stories.
• In "Pickman's Model" by H.P. Lovecraft, it is implied that Ghouls sometimes exchange their young with human children in a similar manner, and that Pickman himself may be one of these Changelings.
• "The Corpse" from Mike Mignola's Hellboy begins with Hellboy investigating what turns out to be a Changeling.
• Keith Donohue's novel, "The Stolen Child," (Nan Talese/2006) (see http://www.keithdonohue.com) deals with the boy Henry Day and the faery changeling who replaces him.
• In Stephen King's book Christine, Roland LeBay's brother says his mother used to say that "Rollie was a changeling" and that Puck took her good baby.
• Many references to the legends and folklore of faerie changelings are made throughout Raymond E. Feist's popular 1988 fantasy novel, Faerie Tale.
• Antonio in Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's "The Changeling" (1622), is listed in the dramatis personae as The Changeling
• Jane, the heroine of Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter, is a changeling who was stolen by the fairies to work in a factory.
• The Body Snatchers, novel which was the basis for several adaptations (see "movies and television")

• Roger Zelazny, Changeling (1980). Movie depicting the adventures of both changelings, maladapted in their respective new worlds.
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 - directed by Don Siegel, 1978 - directed by Philip Kaufman, and Body Snatchers (1993) - directed by Abel Ferrara).
• An episode of Blake's 7 (Star One).
• The Slitheen in the 2005 series of Doctor Who.
• Labyrinth, a 1986 movie.
• "The Changeling" was a Star Trek episode, a title referring to this legend. At the end of the episode Captain Kirk refers to the legend to compare what occurred to Nomad.
• In the spin-off series [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]], the character of Odo is referred to as being of a race of shapeshifting Changelings.
• In [[Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones]], Zam Wesell is a Changeling Clawdite who works for Jango Fett by trying to assassinate Padmé Amidala.
• In one episode of the Disney Channel show "So Weird," Annie, the girl who replaced Fi, is babysitting when the child is replaced by a changeling. She notices the change almost immediately, and has to make the changeling child laugh, by cooking stew in an eggshell, which forces its parents to return the child, and take back the changeling.

• [[Changeling: The Dreaming]]. A game in White Wolf Game Studio's "World of Darkness" role playing game line that focuses on a struggle between glamor and banality. Based on traditional tales from various world cultures. The players take the role of different Changelings, fairies and other fantastic creatures who were forced to incarnate themselves into human bodies in order to survive in a modern and dreamless world. Character types include, but are not limited to; Sidhe, Redcaps, Pooka, Trolls, Nockers, Boggans, Eshu, Selkies, Piskies, and Chulrchaun. Antoganists represent or are pawns of banality, such as Autum People, Duantain, Nightmares, Nurvosa, other Fae, mortals, Mages, Vampires, and Werewolves.
• In the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, changelings are a separate race, who are capable of assuming a variety of forms, even duplicating and replacing other people.
• In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, the Changeling is offered as a possible choice as a race. Though not in a traditional sense, the race shares the name with the figure of folklore.

• There are also the reptile people posited by David Icke.
• 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.
• The Doors' album L.A.Woman opens with a track called The Changeling, which includes the lyrics "I'm a Changeling. See me change".

• 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. Faerie stories as ancient medical texts??

Notes

See also

• Corrigan (Breton folklore)

External link

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

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