A Changeling is a humanoid-like entity that has appeared in European folklore and has also traditionally gone by the names Auf or Oaf. A Changeling was said to be a fairy that other fairies had abducted and replaced with a person (usually a youngster). A changeling can be recognized by a number of characteristics; in Irish mythology, a fairy child may appear sickly, would not develop normally, and could have distinguishing facial attributes like a beard or long fangs. Additionally, they could exhibit intellect much above their seeming years and have extraordinary intuition. Whenever a Changeling feels it is alone, it frequently exhibits strange behavior, such as bouncing around, dancing, or playing a musical instrument; however this latter instance is only seen in Irish and Scottish folklore. A human baby may be kidnapped for a variety of reasons, including servitude, affection again for the human baby or even evil intent. Most frequently, it was believed that fairies traded the kids. Rarely, a very old fairy would be swapped for a human infant in order for the elderly fairy to live comfortably and be pampered by its human parents. Ordinary protective charms like an overturned coat or an opened-pair of iron scissors left where the infant slept were believed to scare them off. Other precautions included keeping a close eye on the youngsters. In particular, newlyweds and new- mothers were frequently stolen by fairies to feed their fairy offspring while young adults were frequently taken to marry fairies. Fairies would even abduct adult humans. An object, such as a log, was frequently placed in place of the abducted human, enchanted to seem like the person, when an adult was taken instead of a youngster. While the living human would be among the fairies, this object in the place of the human would appear to fall ill, die and to be buried by the family of the human. [Info and Image Credit: Changeling, Wikipedia] [Image: Der Wechselbalg by Henry Fuseli, 1781] [Image Availed Under Public Domain Work of Art (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)][Original Source Image URL : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%BCssli_-_Der_Wechselbalg_-_1780.jpeg ] #Mythology
MythoSphere
.jpg)
