A Conversation for Common Childhood Fairies

Changelings

Post 1

BigAl Patron Saint of Left Handers Keeper of the Glowing Pickle and Monobrows

Ref. "They offer a magical world of make-believe: an innocent time of childhood or an escape from the pressures, worries and stress of everyday life."

This has not always been the case.

In the current Channel 4 TV series, 'Gods and Monsters' they discuss the case an Irishman, Michael Cleary who, in 1895 came to believe that his wife, Bridget was a 'changeling' - a being substituted for a human by fairies. In order to burn the demons out of his changeling wife, he held her over an open fire. Unfortunately, her dress caught fire and she burned to death. Cleary then went to a remote part of the countryside where he believed fairies gathered, in the hope that they would return his real wife. Unsurprisingly, this did not happen! He was tried for manslaughter and imprisoned.
Simon Raikes, Exectutive Producer of the series says that, 'In those times, fairies were seen as evil, demonic creatures who extracted revenge for insults by stealing people's children. It is only more recently that fairies have acquied a more benign image as little girls with wings and wands. These days the only things they steal are [children's] teeth.'


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