The first time I heard the term Changelings, I was watching an episode of CW’s Supernatural.
I’ll be completely honest I can’t remember if there is an episode of Supernatural that involves Changelings, if they are ever mentioned, or if I am making this up. As soon as I thought of Changelings, my mind just had flashes of Sam and Dean Winchester so I just assume that where I heard the term before.
My love for all things supernatural and paranormal probably grew more with my childhood being full of Charmed and my teenage years being engulfed by Supernatural, however, for some reason I never looked into anything to do with faeries. I always pictured the fae as Tinkerbell, no matter what I did, I could never get that image out of my head. For years, I believed that faeries were like Tinkerbell – cute, glowing, and very jealous people. It wasn’t until I got really into the Shadowhunter series (Cassandra Clare) that I realised that faeries can be evil creatures. For some reason, I was drawn to the dark – and evil – aspect of them. This is when I stumbled across Scotland’s vast lore of faeries and discovered the dark and devastating real-life consequences of them.
A Changeling is a creature related to the Fae, or Fair Folk, in various European Folktales.
The tale of Changelings is sick or deformed fae children would be swapped with a healthy human child. Some say the human child would be given to the Devil or used to strengthen the faery stock. This ideology was used during the medieval to explain what we now know today to be illness and disabilities. Specifically, illness and disabilities that make children appear and act differently from what is considered “normal”.
There was said to be a way to return the original child by making the changeling laugh. Or by torturing the changeling. The qualification for a changeling being so closely link with attributes that are common with illness and disabilities, the sad truth is obvious. It is clear that not every single child that was declared a changeling was one. Rather they suffered through the torture at the hands of their parents who believed in doing so would result in their child’s return. The parents never truly understanding that the child they were harming was their own.
In Irish tales, changelings would appear very sick and wouldn’t grow like a normal human child.
It is also mentioned that they may have a beard and long teeth; may be very intelligent for their age. In Scottish tales, changelings would show characteristics by jumping around, dancing and/or playing instruments. Looking at these characteristics of changelings from Irish and Scottish lore, I can identify some characteristics that could be explained by some disabilities.
Going back to the lore. Human children would either be used to improve stock, mainly females, or used as slaves, male children.
In some rare tales instead of the sick infants of the fae being swapped with a human child, an elderly fae would exchange places with the human and live the rest of their days out being coddled by their human parents.
In folklore, children aren’t the only ones taken, occasionally nursing women are taken so they could nurse the young fae. This is said to be because human milk is essential for fae young to survive. This is another reason for faeries trading their child’s places with a human child’s. Human midwives are apparently also essential to the fae to help bring the fae child into the world. Though fae being fae, couldn’t just take any nursing women, they had specific physical characteristics that they liked. They liked bright/reflective features – blonde hair and blue/silver/grey eyes are said to be among the preferred characteristics.
Trolls are also said to be changelings, like faeries, but for a different reason.
The reasons are not much better. However, for them being raised by humans is more respectable. Therefore they would give their own children to human parents to raise them, and take the human child. The trolls, however, seem to be a bit pickier than the faeries as trolls are said to only take unbaptised children. Once baptized and part of the church the child could not be taken.
Sometimes changelings who forget that they were fae and not human would live their life as a human. Never knowing their true self. On the other hand, those changelings who didn’t forget would often return to their fae families, leaving their human families without warning. This could have came about as a way to cope with the disappearance of a child with no evidence of where the child may have gone.
In these stories, the human child that was taken would stay with the fae forever. Even if the child returned, it would be believed that the changeling counterpart had returned. This is said to be due to the human child feeling like they have a connection between themselves and the changeling. In other cases, the human family who figured out their “child” was in fact a changeling, would release the changeling into the wild, allowing them to find their own way back to their fae family.
It is common in Scottish myths that children born with a caul (which is part of the amniotic membrane) across their face are said to have been of fae birth or a changeling, and that they would soon die.
On the other hand, some stories say that changelings weren’t faeries at all. Rather the sick children of people who invaded the country and hid. They would leave their sick child with a family and take that family’s healthy child. This was probably for similar reasons as the fae, they wanted to swap their sickly for healthy, to improve their stock.
As changelings were unwanted, one of the said ways to have the original child returned was to torture the changeling, there was a lot of children abused and/or murdered due to superstitious parents.
This resulted in some horrid crimes being committed throughout the years. One case from the 19th century is that of Bridget Cleary, who was murdered for being a changeling. However, Bridget was not in the usual age group for such accusation as she was an adult. She was murdered by her husband along with other close family and friends who said he believed the woman he killed wasn’t his wife but a faery imposter. This belief started when Bridget fell ill with what is stated to possibly have been pneumonia. The people close to her took this bout of illness as a sign she had been replaced with a sickly faery.
Following on from Bridget Cleary it can be deduced that many children born with disabilities would be passed off as being a changeling, this then would then open up the opportunity for abuse and/or murder to go unnoticed if the majority shared the same superstious beliefs.
Spina bifida, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, Hunter syndrome, and autism are some of the disabilities that share similar traits to what is said to have been traits shown by a changeling. Some studies have shown that boys are at a higher chance of being born with “birth defects” which correlates with the stories of changelings where male babies were taken more than female babies.
Something I found interesting is the reason some believe faeries are often said to be impulsive and obsessive, like if you drop seeds or salt, a faery must count every seed or grain, is because this was a way of explaining children who had autism.
The idea of a changeling can sound like a way for superstitious parents to explain away their abuse, and in some cases murder, but the act of swapping children can be found in nature. There are certain species of arthropods, birds, and fish who leave their eggs in the nests of others, and leaving the unsuspecting parents to raise these new children. Most of the time this will result in the original offspring will be killed by the imposter offspring due to the imposters being bigger, or born earlier. This would be accomplished by the imposter offspring eating all the food, starving the original offspring, or simply by throwing the original offspring out of the nest.
As much as I believe in faeries, the paranormal, and the supernatural, I find myself struggling to believe that changelings, as they are described in folklore, hard to believe.
I do think that changelings could be real but in a different form, maybe as shapeshifters or as I really like to believe them as being related to a different myth called The Black Eyed Children. For me, there are too many similar traits between changelings and disabilities that we understand today to conclude that changelings are real as my ancestors may once have believed.
Facts At A Glance
- Changelings is a creature related to the Fae, or Fair Folk, in various Europian Folktales.
- There was said to be a way to return the original child by making the changeling laugh or by torturing the changeling.
- In Irish tales, changelings would appear very sick and wouldn’t grow like a normal human child. It is also mentioned that they may have a beard and long teeth, and may be very intelligent for their age.
- In Scottish tales, changelings would show characteristics by jumping around, dancing and/or playing instruments.
- Human children would either be used to improve stock, this is said to have been mainly females, or used as slaves, which is normally what would happen to male children.
- In some rare tales instead of the sick infants of the fae being swapped with a human child, an elderly fae would exchange places with the human and live the rest of their days out being coddled by their human parents.
- Occasionally nursing women are taken so they could nurse the young fae. This is said to be because human milk is essential for fae young to survive.
- Trolls believed being raised by humans is more respectable therefore they would give their own children to human parents to raise them, and take the human child.
- The trolls, however, seem to be a bit more picky than the faeries as trolls are said to only take unbaptised children, once baptized and part of the church the child could not be taken.
- Sometimes changelings who forget that they were fae and not human would live their life as a human. On the other hand, those changelings who didn’t forget would often return to their fae families, leaving their human families without warning.
Sources
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