A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. According to folklore, a changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. Although sometimes it was a "stock" (a piece of wood made magically to resemble the kidnapped human), more often the changeling was a supernatural being made magically to look like the kidnapped human.
Supernatural beings blamed for stealing children included fairies, demons, trolls, nereids and many others. Usually, the kidnapped human was a child; but there were cases, particularly in Scandinavia and Ireland, where adults were taken.
Some modern scholars have argued these stories of replaced children originated as folklore explanations for autism or other developmental conditions.
Description A changeling is typically identifiable via several traits, which vary from culture to culture.
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. They may also display intelligence far beyond their apparent years and possess uncanny insight. 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.
A human child might supposedly be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice.Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures "Changelings" (Pantheon Books, 1976) p. 71. Most often, it was thought that fairies exchanged the children. 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.Briggs (1979) 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.
Folklorist D. L. Ashliman proposes in his essay 'Changelings' that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. 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. "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. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide was frequently the solution selected."
Fairies were also believed to 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. 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.Katherine Briggs, A Dictionary of Fairies "Changelings" 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. 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.
Function
In medieval Scandinavia, it was believed that trolls considered it more respectable to be raised by humans than by their kind and would consequently seize the opportunity to give their children a human upbringing. Some believed that trolls would only take unbaptised children, since once a child had been baptized – and therefore received into the Catholic faith – the trolls were powerless to abduct it.
Beauty in human children and young women, particularly traits that evoke brightness or reflectivity, such as blonde hair and blue or silver eyes, are said to attract fairies, as they perhaps find preciousness in these traits.Briggs (1976) "Golden Hair", p. 194
In Scottish folklore, the children might be replacements for fairy children in the tithe to Hell;Silver, Carole G., Strange & Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, (1999) p. 74 this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin.Francis James Child, ballad 39a "Tam Lin", The English and Scottish Popular Ballads According to common Scottish myths, a child born with a caul (part of the amniotic membrane) across their face is a changeling and will soon die (is "of fey birth").
Other folklore says that human milk is necessary for fairy children to survive. In these cases, either the newborn human child would be switched with a fairy baby to be suckled by the human mother, or the human mother would be taken back to the fairy world to breastfeed the fairy babies. Human midwives were also thought to be necessary to bring fairy babies into the world.
Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not human and proceed to live a human life. However, in some stories, changelings who do not forget return to their fairy family, possibly leaving the human family without warning. The human child that was taken may often stay with the fairy family forever. Feeling connected to a changeling's fate, some families merely turn their changeling loose to the wilderness.
Some folklorists believe that fairies were memories of inhabitants of various European regions who had been driven into hiding by invaders. They held that changelings had occurred; the hiding people would exchange their sickly children for the healthy children of the occupying invader.Silver (1999) p. 73
In folklore
Cornwall The Mên-an-Tol stones in Cornwall are said to have a fairy or pixie guardian who can make miraculous cures. In one case, a changeling baby was passed through the stone for the mother to have her real child returned to her. Evil pixies had changed her child, and the stones could reverse their spell.Wentz, W. Y. Evans (1911). The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Reprinted 1981. Pub. Colin Smythe. p. 179.
Germany In Germany, the changeling is known as Wechselbalg,Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Wiesbaden 2007, p. 364. Wechselkind,Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. Wiesbaden 2007, p. 1039. Kielkopf or Dickkopf (the last hinting at the huge necks and heads of changelings).
Several methods are known in Germany to identify a changeling and to return the replaced real child: confusing the changeling by cooking or brewing in eggshells. This will force the changeling to speak, claiming its age and revealing its position beyond synchronicity. attempting to heat the changeling in the ovenLudwig Bechstein: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Meersburg, Leipzig 1930, pp. 142 f. – perhaps a lie by capacity to endure present. hitting or whipping the changeling The changeling must sometimes be fed with a woman's milk before replacing the children.
In German folklore, several possible parents are known for changelings. Those are: the devil, a belief shared by Martin LutherAshliman, D. L., "Changelings", 1997. Frenken shows historical pictures of the topic (newborn and the devil): Frenken, Ralph, 2011, Gefesselte Kinder: Geschichte und Psychologie des Wickelns. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Bachmann. Badenweiler. pp. 146, 218 f, 266, 293. who advocated for baptism of changelings.WA TR 4: 358, No. 4513 a female dwarf the Fenixmännlein Leander Petzold: Kleines Lexikon der Dämonen und Elementargeister. Munich 1990, p. 73. a water spiritJacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsche Sagen. Hamburg 2014, pp. 126 f. a Roggenmuhme/Roggenmutter ("Rye Aunt"/"Rye Mother", a demonic woman living in cornfields and stealing human children)Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: Deutsche Sagen. Hamburg 2014, pp. 134 f.
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.W. B. Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, in A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore (1986), p. 47, New York : Gramercy Books, 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 especially in danger in liminal states: being a new bride or mother.Silver (1999) p. 167
Putting a changeling in a fire would cause it to jump up the chimney and return the human child. Still, 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. The tale of surprising a changeling into speech – by brewing eggshells – is also told in Ireland, as in Wales.Yeats (1986) pp. 48–50 Various legends describe other ways to foil a would-be fairy kidnapper. One was to shout "Gairim agus coisricim thú " (I bless you) or "God bless you," which would cause the fairy to abandon the child it was trying to steal. Another possible tactic was to insert oneself into an argument over who would keep the child; shouting "Give it to me" would trick the fairy into releasing the child back to a human.
In some instances, changelings were regarded not as substituted fairy children but as old fairies brought to the human world to die.
Irish legends regarding changelings typically follow the same formula: a tailor is the one who first notices a changeling, the inclusion of a fairy playing bagpipes or some other instrument, and the kidnapping of a human child through a window.
The modern Irish girl's name, Síofra, means an elvish or changeling child, deriving from Síobhra(í), meaning fairy(/fairies). The Aos sí, siabhra (commonly anglicised as "sheevra"), may be prone to evil and mischief.MacKillop, James (2004) Dictionary of Celtic MythologyJoyce, P.W. A Social History of Ancient Ireland, Vol. 1, p. 271 However, the Ulster folk song 'The Gartan Mother's Lullaby' also uses "sheevra" simply to mean "spirit" or "fairy"."The Gartan Mother's Lullaby" published 1904 in The Songs of Uladh, lyrics by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil (Joseph Campbell)
The Isle of Man The Isle of Man had a wide collection of myths and superstitions concerning fairies, and numerous folk tales have been collected concerning supposed changelings. Sophia Morrison, in her "Manx Fairy Tales" (David Nutt, London, 1911), includes the tale of "The Fairy Child of Close ny Lheiy", a story of a child supposedly swapped by the fairies for a loud and unruly fairy child. The English poet and topographer George Waldron, who lived in the Isle of Man during the early 18th century, cites a tale of a reputed changeling that was shown to him, possibly a child with an inherited genetic disorder: