Changelings in European Folklore (Part 2)

Plus a book recommendation and building an “Exploring Folklore” archive

Hello!

School is back in full swing, and we are adjusting to having our son off at college. His campus is within an hour’s drive, so he’s close, but can still experience independence. Our daughter is in high school and has a busy schedule this year, but hangs out with her friends (and us, sometimes!) as much as she can. And back-to-school season gives me more time with my writing, which I am grateful for.

Behind the Scenes: Exploring Folklore Archive

Since I last emailed you, I’ve written a few more scenes of my novel, and I’ve been building an Exploring Folklore resource on my website. This will serve as a reference archive and includes topics from the “Exploring Folklore” section of my newsletter thus far. I will add entries after I write about them in the newsletter, so it will develop over time.

Exploring Folklore: Changelings (Part 2)

To jog our memories, the plot of the novel I’m working on is inspired by European changeling legends. Last month we discussed how one of the oldest aspects of faerie folklore is the belief that faeries desire human children and often steal them away from their mortal parents. (If you’d like to read the first post in the series to catch up, you can find it here.)

Almost Fairy Time by Arthur Rackham

This month we’ll explore why people embraced this belief in changelings and what actions they took to get their true children back from the faeries. My dear friend, Joy, left a comment in last month’s newsletter asking some challenging questions. She wrote:

So how many of these changelings would afflict a community, I wonder. And did they find that it was more prevalent in certain families (like families with genetic issues)?

I searched, but was unable to locate any aggregate numbers of changelings. I have tried to answer part of her second question, by addressing common characteristics of changelings, in the paragraphs below. I would like to give you all a head’s up—Part 2 of this subject is a bit darker than Part 1 was last month.

The belief in changelings extended from Pre-Christian to fairly recent times (as late as the 1900s). Changeling stories often describe physical and behavioral changes in the child, leading the parents to believe that their child has been stolen by faeries and replaced with a changeling.

Weight loss, lack of satisfaction with breast milk or food, extensive crying, and delayed or slow development were all considered characteristics of a changeling. With advances in medical science, we now understand that these symptoms were likely due to what is known today as failure to thrive. Johns Hopkins Medicine explains that failure to thrive can result from a medical cause (such as chromosome abnormalities, cerebral palsy, celiac disease) or from environmental factors (such as abuse, neglect, poor nutrition).

If parents discovered such a change in their child and felt their child had been replaced with a changeling, the next step they would often take was to get advice about how to proceed from a third party (like a neighbor, relative, or church leader). The methods for ousting a changeling were often harsh, and people hesitated to take action without backing from their community. As D. L. Ashliman writes in his essay, “Changelings”:

In spite of the general credibility given to changeling accounts, and the support that they received from respected church leaders (Catholics as well as Protestants), there is evidence that many people were uneasy about the cruel treatment that the legends seemed to advocate.

Changeling stories generally take a dark turn around this point in the tale. To encourage the faeries to return the true child to the parents, severe mistreatment of the changeling was often employed. (Please note, if child abuse is a trigger for you, I encourage you to skip to the next section.)

If you recall from last month’s newsletter, the changeling might be perceived to be an unwanted faerie child or perhaps an old, useless faerie. If the changeling was deemed to be a faerie child, the parents were advised to torment the changeling until the faerie parents came to take their own and return the true mortal child. Changelings were often gravely mistreated in these efforts—they might be thrown into water; left unattended in a field; beaten; or laid on a hot stove, griddle, or shovel.

Ousting a changeling that was perceived to be an old faerie required tricking it into revealing its true age (as old faeries typically pretended to be an infant or child). Katharine Briggs relates a common method for how this could be achieved in An Encyclopedia of Fairies:

It was to take some two dozen empty eggshells, set them carefully up on the hearth and go through the motions of brewing [i.e. brewing beer or stew in the eggshell]. Then the constant sobbing and whining [of the changeling] would gradually cease, the supine form would raise itself, and in a shrill voice the thing would cry ‘I have seen the first acorn before the oak, but I have never seen brewing done in eggshells before!’ Then it only remained to stoke up the fire and throw the changeling on to it, when he would fly up the chimney, laughing and shrieking, and the true baby would come to the door. Sometimes the child would not be returned and the parents would have to go and rescue it from the fairy hill.

Her words also point to the fact that in some changeling accounts the child is returned unharmed. In others, an extra step is needed, like going to the faerie hill to retrieve the true child. But in some tales, the changeling is ousted or killed, and the mortal child is never seen again. The last scenario reveals why parents sought out community approval before taking action against a changeling.

This begs the question, were parents ever held accountable for the mistreatment of perceived changelings? During the second half of the 1800s, there are court records which reveal defendants being accused of abuse and murder of changelings. And while there are some records of cases earlier than that, it is suspected that many incidents went uncharged or unaccounted for.

Changeling accounts have found their way into literature over the centuries—from Shakespeare and Yeats to recent novels. In the next section, I’ll give a brief recommendation of a novel inspired by newspaper reports of a changeling court case in Ireland.

Book Recommendation: The Good People by Hannah Kent

Steeped in Irish folklore, The Good People stems from true events, which occurred in nineteenth-century Ireland. Based on a changeling court case from County Kerry, author Hannah Kent blends folklore, the Irish language, and history into a novel that is both compelling and unsettling. Her website states that it is currently being adapted for film. Visit her website to learn more about the novel.

As ever, thank you for subscribing and reading.

All the best,

Steph

PS: If you are a new subscriber (or just simply curious), you can find an archive of all of my past newsletters on my Substack newsletter site.

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