In European folklore and folk belief, a changeling is the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature, left secretly 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.

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.

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.^[1]

In one Swedish changeling tale^[2], 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^[3] (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 a 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 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 were 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 Arthur stories.

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 1994 - directed by Abel Ferrara).
• An episode of Blake's 7 (Star One).
• The Slitheen in the 2005 series of Doctor Who.

Gaming:

• Changeling: The Dreaming. The game in White Wolf Game Studio's "World of Darkness" role playing game line that stresses beauty and whimsey. Based on traditional tales from various world cultures.

Other:

• There are also the reptile people posited by David Icke.

Notes

See also

• Corrigan (Breton folklore)

External link

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

de:Wechselbalg es:Niño cambiado no:Bytting