Although found in many cultures, the Celtic changeling is a faerie that has been exchanged with a human child by other nefarious faeries. The motives for such a swap range from punishment, revenge, and jealousy to a complicated hoax in which the changeling is an elderly faerie who needs to live out his years in comfort, coddled by human parents. Meanwhile, the human child is enslaved.
Appearing feeble, the changeling is sickly and does not grow like a normal child. Yet he has unnatural insight and intelligence beyond his apparent age. He may grow a beard or long teeth. And when he’s alone, he may inadvertently disclose his true identity by jumping around, dancing, or playing an instrument.
Most notably, he has a ravenous appetite. Since this could threaten the sustenance of the entire family, the presence of a changeling could lead to infanticide.
Unknown artist, circa 1612. Public domain.
Faeries also take adults, especially new mothers, to nurse faerie babies, or young adults to marry faeries. In these cases, the faeries would cast a spell on a log or similar object to look like the person.
Eventually, in two to three years, the changeling shrivels up, dies, and is buried by the family. Meanwhile, the human stays with faeries.
If the faerie is driven out, however, the human child returns.
To prevent an abduction, parents often used charms like an inverted coat or open scissors made of iron where the child slept.
Bridget Cleary
Bridget Cleary is a true story of an adult thought to have been a changeling. Born in County Tipperary, Ireland, she married Michael Cleary in 1887. Michael made barrels; Bridget made dresses and hats.
Courtesy of The Irish Place.
In 1895, after a brief illness, Bridget disappeared. Michael claimed that she had been abducted by faeries and replaced with a changeling, whom he killed in an attempt to force the faeries to return his wife. Bridget’s burnt corpse was found in a shallow grave a few days later.
Michael Cleary was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years in prison. After his release in July 1910, he emigrated to Canada.
An Irish nursery rhyme keeps the story alive by asking, “Are you a witch, or are you a faerie / Or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?”
The Stolen Child
by Arthur Rackham, from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906).
Public domain.
“The Stolen Child” is an 1889 poem by William Butler Yeats. Published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, it tells of a child who is lured away to the land of the faeries, far from the troubles and sadness of the human world. The poem, which is in the public domain, features the haunting refrain,
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
The Canadian musician Loreena McKennitt released her version of the poem on her 1997 multi-platinum album The Book of Secrets. Enjoy her rendition here.
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