Changelings

Changeling is a term that has found its way back into the English langauge with the rencent release of a film by the same name, where a woman is asked to accept that a child that she knows is not hers is returned to her in place of her own. But what did it mean in fairylore?

A 'changeling' is the term used to describe a sickly, wizened fairy child who had been left in place of a healthy, happy human child. Stories about changelings often involve efforts to get the child back from the world of fairy and include heroic effots by family members and community members to do so.

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What is a Changeling?

A 'changeling' often referred to a sick child, or to be more specific, a sick fairy child who had been who had been left, while the healthy child was taken to the otherworld of fairy folk. People in country areas sometimes believed that if they didn't take care of their children properly that the child might be spirited away to the otherworld by the fairies. Families often called young babies "an seanduine" (the old man) when referring to a small baby or child for fear that the fairies might hear that a young child was in the house and want it for their own. On the one hand, this might seem a little strange, but it also encourages the family to value and look after the child with the reminder that there are others who would treausure and wish for to have their bundle of joy!

It's easy enough to discount these practices and pass them off as superstition, however, for a woman who was about to lose a child to a childhood illness in sociities where child mortaility rates were very high, these ideas did serve a sociological function. In fact, wherever a 'supersticion' exists it's often a good idea to take a closer look as to what function it might have served within the community.

The idea that the child was 'taken' (by the fairies, and replaced with a sick fairy child not truly her own), was a means of preparing the mother psychologically for what was to come. Further, the idea that the child was 'taken' with some possible hope of return, could be easier to bear than the reality that the child was 'gone.' This thinking was not so much for assistance during daylight hours when people tended to rely on more formal religious thinking. However, in the dead of night, when logical thinking deserts us all - it had its place of comfort.

The changeling explanation was often applied to adults also, particularly if they were returning to normal life after a period of mental illness. "He wasn't himself." It gave the community member a dignified means to re-enter society without being labelled. It was a face saving mechanism that, in retrospect, seems wise and kind. It is hard for us to see how these ideas might have been helpful, but in a pre-psychology world, they had their place.

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