A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found in folklore throughout Europe. A changeling was believed to be a fairy that had been left in place of a human (typically a child) stolen by other fairies.
Description
A changeling is typically identifiable via several traits, which vary from culture to culture.
In Irish legend, a fairy child may appear sickly and will not grow in size like a normal child, and may have notable physical characteristics such as a beard or long teeth. They may also display intelligence far beyond their apparent years and possess uncanny insight. A common way that a changeling could identify itself is through displaying unusual behaviour when it thinks it is alone, such as jumping about, dancing or playing an instrument – though this last example is found only within Irish and Scottish legend.
"A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice. Most often, it was thought that fairies exchanged the children. In rare cases, the very elderly of the fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby so that the old fairy could live in comfort, coddled by its human parents. Simple charms such as an inverted coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps were thought to ward them off; other measures included a constant watch over the child."
Folklorist D. L. Ashliman proposes in his essay 'Changelings' that changeling tales illustrate an aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. A peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon the productive labour of each member, and it was difficult to provide for a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources. "The fact that the changelings' ravenous appetite is so frequently mentioned indicates that the parents of these unfortunate children saw in their continuing existence a threat to the sustenance of the entire family. Changeling tales support other historical evidence in suggesting that infanticide was frequently the solution selected."
Fairies would also take adult humans, especially the newly married and new mothers; young adults were taken to marry fairies instead, while new mothers were often taken to nurse fairy babies. Often when an adult was taken instead of a child, an object such as a log was left in place of the stolen human, enchanted to look like the person. This object in place of the human would seem to sicken and die, to be buried by the human family, while the living human was among the fairies. Bridget Cleary is one of the most well-known cases of an adult thought to be a changeling by her family; her husband killed her, attempting to force the fairies to return his 'real' wife.
Function
In medieval Scandinavia, it was believed that trolls considered it more respectable to be raised by humans than by their kind and would consequently seize the opportunity to give their children a human upbringing. Some believed that trolls would only take unbaptised children, since once a child had been baptized – and therefore received into the Catholic faith – the trolls were powerless to abduct it.
Beauty in human children and young women, particularly traits that evoke brightness or reflectivity, such as blonde hair and blue or silver eyes, are said to attract fairies, as they perhaps find preciousness in these traits.
In Scottish folklore, the children might be replacements for fairy children in the tithe to Hell; this is best known from the ballad of Tam Lin. According to common Scottish myths, a child born with a caul (part of the amniotic membrane) across their face is a changeling and will soon die (is "of fey birth").
Other folklore says that human milk is necessary for fairy children to survive. In these cases, either the newborn human child would be switched with a fairy baby to be suckled by the human mother, or the human mother would be taken back to the fairy world to breastfeed the fairy babies. Human midwives were also thought to be necessary to bring fairy babies into the world.
Some stories tell of changelings who forget they are not human and proceed to live a human life. However, in some stories, changelings who do not forget return to their fairy family, possibly leaving the human family without warning. The human child that was taken may often stay with the fairy family forever. Feeling connected to a changeling's fate, some families merely turn their changeling loose to the wilderness.