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All over the world, many parents dream of having children, and most of the time, they are eventually blessed with them. For parents, there is a deep joy in looking into their child’s smiling face and hearing their laughter,and watching them grow bigger and stronger every day.

But one day, they peek into their child’s crib and realize something is different. Something doesn’t feel right, yet they cannot quite put their finger on exactly what they sense. The laughter is gone, and their child’s appearance seems strange and uncanny. The child begins to wail for food, yet despite being fed, it continues to wail. The cries are shrill and piercing; it seems like no matter how much the parents feed their child, the wailing will not stop.

The stress of raising this child becomes unbearable, and a horrible thought begins to form: this is probably not their baby at all. It could, in fact, be a changeling. 

This is Aspen-Arts, and today’s topic will be all about changelings. 

Please note that this article discusses torturous methods used on children who were believed to be changelings, as well as a story involving the brutal torture and murder of a woman by her husband, who believed her to be a changeling. If these topics distress you in any way, please feel free to read another one of our blog posts.  

What is a changeling?

The legend of the changeling appears across Europe, but it is most well -known in Irish and Scottish mythology. In those days, there was a strong belief in the fae world, and changelings were part of that world. It was said that if a mother left her child unattended, creatures from the fae realm would come to take the child away. Such creatures included goblins, trolls, or even demons. But the most common were the fairies. Fairies would kidnap the unattended child and leave their own infant in its place for the human family to raise. Sometimes, instead of their own offspring, they would leave a bit of wood shaped like the human baby. Some changelings are said to be not infants but elderly fairies who wish to live their last days in comfort. 

Nobody knows why fairies steal human children away. Some say they kidnap human children to be raised as servants for them. Others say fairies do it for revenge against a human who had crossed them. Another theory is that fairies need new blood to keep their bloodlines strong. Some even say that a fairy would steal a child just to receive love from that child. There are also darker tales of fairies sacrificing children in exchange for the freedom to walk the earth. Perhaps the true reason why fairies steal children will never be revealed.

Because of their shapeshifting abilities, changelings would take on the appearance of the stolen child. Even still, their human family would notice something different about the baby. They would appear to be shriveled, almost as if they were an elderly person in a child’s body. Changeling children are said to have a voracious appetite, eating their human families out of house and home. Even after eating so much, changelings would remain thin and continue to wail for more food. A sudden change in a baby’s personality was said to be a sign that they had been replaced by a changeling. A baby who was happy and laughing one day suddenly becomes quiet and sullen the next, suggesting that there is a good chance the baby is a changeling. A changeling child may be unresponsive and resistant to physical touch. A person might one day be unable to move their limbs, a condition known as being “fairy-struck.” A child who was still unable to walk or crawl when their peers were able to do so was said to be a changeling child.

In our modern-day age, we can easily take a look at the signs attributed to changelings and match them to the traits associated with those on the autism spectrum or those with birth defects. A child who was accused of being a changeling because of their slow development could just be a child on the autism spectrum who needs more time to process information. A child who cries when being hugged by their parents would be suspected of being a changeling, but could, instead, be experiencing sensory overload. Children who were “fairy-struck” and unable to move could have been children with cerebral palsy. We can thank modern medicine for giving us information about child development and neurodiversity, but back when belief in the fae world was strong, people had to come up with other reasons for why their child was so different. The idea that their child had been switched with something else made sense at the time. 

Keeping the Fae Away 

The fear of having your baby stolen away by fairies was so great that parents went to great lengths to keep their babies safe. The most obvious measure taken was to never take your attention away from your child, even for a minute, for a fairy could swap the human child with a changeling in that short amount of time. Fairies were said to have control over unbaptized children, so parents would immediately take their newborn to church in order for them to be baptized for protection against fairies. Fairies were also said to fear iron, so a pair of fire tongs would be placed on the baby’s cradle;sometimes even a crucifix or Bible was used. Some parents would use trickery to expose a changeling and then reclaim their child. 

One tale involves a mother who suspected her child was actually a changeling when she saw that her healthy baby boy had shriveled up to almost nothing and would not stop crying for food. Despite the creature being a changeling, the mother didn’t want to hurt it, so she went to a local cunning woman, a term used for healers at the time. After the mother shared her tale of woe, the cunning woman gave her instructions to expose the changeling. After arriving home, the mother took some eggs, broke them, and began to boil the eggshells in a pot of water. The baby in the cradle watched with interest, and in an old man’s voice, it spoke. 

“What are you doing, Mommy?” 

“I’m brewing some eggshells,” she answered calmly.

The child then stood and laughed. “I am fifteen hundred years old, and I’ve never seen a brewery of eggshells before!”

The mother turned around to plunge a red-hot poker into the changeling, yet she slipped and fell. When she got back to her feet, her real baby boy was back in the cradle, sleeping peacefully as if nothing had happened. 

Grim Consequences

Unfortunately, some parents resorted to extreme measures out of desperation to reclaim their true child, which resulted in many deaths. Some would abandon their children near rivers, believing that the fairies would hear their child’s cry and take them back while returning the human baby. Many babies suspected of being changelings died due to exposure to the elements. Some suspected changeling children were dunked in rivers or were even bathed in water made from poisonous foxglove. Along with iron, fairies also have a great fear of fire, and unfortunately, it was one of the measures taken against children suspected of being changelings. There are horrific accounts of children being held above fire or placed on hot coals in the belief that it would make the changelings flee through the chimney or that fairies will come to rescue their own and return the human child. Of course, no changeling fled through the chimney, but many children died because of these desperate measures. Some would wonder why the parents of these children would go so far as to cause pain and death. To the parents, these were not children, but wicked fairies who had stolen their real child. It was justified in their mind, even if the consequences resulted in the death of a child. 

Not all suspected changelings were children. In 1895, a twenty-six-year-old woman named Bridget Cleary became ill with bronchitis. Her illness was so severe that a priest was called to perform last rites. Her husband, Michael Cleary, had a different idea. Their home was rumored to have been built on top of a fairy ring. After speaking to one of his friends who was well-versed in fairy lore, Michael Cleary came to the conclusion that this was not his wife, but a changeling instead. Michael went to the local “fairy doctor,” who gave him some herbs and told him to force the changeling out so that Bridget could come home.  Bridget was force-fed a bitter mixture of the herbs and milk. When this  did not work, a red-hot poker was held up to her face, and she was held over a fire while being asked again and again, “Are you Bridget Cleary?” 

When Bridget was unable to answer, Michael Cleary poured lamp oil over her body and set her alight. Bridget Cleary died of her injuries. After setting his wife on fire, Michael went to the fairy fort and waited for the real Bridget to appear; Obviously, she never came.  Bridget’s husband was convicted of only manslaughter on the account that he truly believed in the righteousness of his actions. Michael firmly believed he did not kill his wife, and instead destroyed an evil changeling fairy who had stolen his Bridget away.  

Changelings today

As time passed, tales of changelings became less frequent but persisted in modern fiction. The 1981 book Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak tells the tale of a girl searching for her sister after she is taken by goblins and replaced with a block of ice. In both the book and the film versions of Coraline, the changeling narrative is inverted: instead of a child being stolen from their home, they are lured into a fantastical, seemingly perfect dream world that ultimately proves to be a trap laid by a monstrous, fae-like creature. 

In an episode in Season three of Supernatural the brothers Sam and Dean Winchester investigate a changeling that steals children and replaces them with her own children, which then feed on the human mother. 

Perhaps the most well-known example of a similar story is Jim Henson’s 1986 film Labyrinth. In the film, sixteen-year-old Sarah Williams, frustrated with her infant brother, wishes for goblins to take him away— and they do. Regretting her wish, Sarah makes a deal with the Goblin King, Jareth, to retrieve her brother from the Labyrinth in thirteen hours, or else her brother will be transformed into a goblin. 

A changeling among us? 

It may be difficult to believe, but the stories of changelings can be interpreted as inspirational and hopeful. They reflect the idea that disabled children have always existed, even if they were once misunderstood and feared. While changelings were historically framed as sinister, neurodivergent people today can reclaim these myths as a means of telling their own stories.

While researching this topic, I found myself wondering about my own experiences. As someone who is neurodivergent, I often felt like an outsider or oddball among peers and even within my family. I wonder whether I would have been considered a changeling child. With my interest in folklore and mythology, the idea seems strangely fitting. Perhaps I am actually a Changeling. Or perhaps not. After all, like all myths and folklore, changelings are just stories to explain the unexplainable. 

Still, a changeling child growing up with a love of all things folklore and now sharing those tales to others carries a certain magic.