Changelings

Well, seeing as we have been asked to blog on an aspect of fairytales that interests us, I've decided to blog about Changelings as they combine two key things in fairy tales- fairies and children.

Fairytales are meant to convey moral messages to their readerships. They are essentially a collection of folklore tales amalgamated from a variety of different sources across Europe. A lot of the now famous tales were very dark when they were composed as they were told mainly to adults, not children. It was only in the Victorian era that fairytales were deemed to be more appropriate for a child audience and their content was tuned down. Interestingly, the sexual nature of fairy tales was reduced, an example of this is in Rapunzel when the witch notices the Prince's visits because Rapunzel's clothes have become tighter (she's pregnant!!) not because Rapunzel remarks that the witch weighs more than the witch.

I think that we now teach fairytales to a child audience, albeit usually via the media of Disney, because in the 21st Century adults cannot suspend their disbelief to the same extent that a child who believes in fairies can. It also provides a great medium for conveying morals to children, learning through storytelling. However, going back in time many people were very superstitious. Back in medieval times it would not be uncommon for people to believe in witches, fairies or ogres- partially because of the lack of travel that people did, they never fully explored their worlds.

How does this all lead me on to Changelings? Well children are a recurrent theme in fairytales, they often play the lead roles and a lot of the strife that occurs in the stories results from children leaving home. Back in t'olden days people would try and explain the disapperances of children as being the work of the fairies. In some circumstances the fairies would take the children without replacing them, this might be used to explain a child disappearance. In other circumstances, the fairies would switch the children with fairy children- hence changelings. Changelings helped to explain things that medical science at the time couldn't, many parents who had children with disabilities both physical and mental believed that their original child had been switched. Unfortunately, the rejection that is also associated with changelings would mean that some parents wouldn't acknowledge the child and would leave it outside untill it died. :(. I'm not sure whether the concept of changelings is derived from people hearing fairytales or vice versa but either way it is a sad, albeit mystical explanation for the feeling of or actually losing a child. Examples in literature of changelings are huge, one famous example is that when Titannia and Oberon are fighting over a human child (which Titannia has presumably switched) in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I also mentioned that my dad often played a song about fairies taking children last lesson. I knew it was a poem put to music but couldn't remember who wrote the poem, what it was called and who put it to music. The poem/ song is called "The Stolen Child" and was written by W.B. Yeats in 1889 (ok- famous poet, should have known him really). It is based on Irish legend and folklore. The poem was put to music by The Waterboys and here is the video below, enjoy!