Content area
Full Text
The changeling narrative, whereby fairies - or elves, or pixies, or trolls - steal a human baby and leave one of their own infants in its place, is found throughout Western European folklore, dating back to pre-Christian times. Tellingly, it is classified by scholars as a folk legend rather than a fairy tale, according to the distinction set out by the brothers Grimm themselves: "The fairy tale is more poetic, the legend is more historical ... While it is children alone who believe in the reality of fairy tales, the folk have not yet stopped believing in their legends."
In other words, changelings were widely believed to be a real phenomenon, such that changeling tales are commonly set in a specified place and time, rather than the "once upon a time" of fairy stories. In some rural areas, these beliefs cast their influence well into the...