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Author
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Comment
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Terri
Registered User
(10/1/02 10:30:19 pm)
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Changelings and Stolen Children
For an article I'm writing on this topic, I'm trying to list literary (rather than folkloric) renditions on this theme:
for instance, William Butler Yeat's poem The Stolen Child (and the various musical adaptations of it), J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Theodore Sturgeon's changeling story Brat, etc. Can people think of others? I recall that there is a Nicholas Stuart Gray changeling story, but I can't remember the name -- my collections of Gray's tales are in my other house. And didn't Nancy Springer right a story about modern teenagers in which one turned out to be a changeling?
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(10/2/02 2:34:34 am)
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Got it!
Terri--guess where I found the Grey (I knew I remembered it), called "Lullabye for a Changeling"--in your anthology FAERY! Right next to "Brat"!
My son Adam and I are working on a changeling trilogy, he wrote a changeling short story, and Midori and I are working on a short story that has a changeling in it. Must be in the air.
Jane
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Munin
Registered User
(10/2/02 8:11:00 am)
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*thinks*
I remember reading a novel revolving around the changeling nature of Robin Goodfellow(Puck) a while back. I can't for the life of me remember the name or title.
Nikolodean also had a series called "gnomes" that was adapted from a series of books. In that series trolls were mentioned as stealing children and replacing them. Nick had some really interesting shows in the last 80s including a grimms animated series that was interesting.
Last of all would be the White Wolf fiction and rpg based on Changeling the Dreaming. Some of it is related but not as much as you would think. =P
Thats all I can think of atm. *grin*
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Don
Registered User
(10/2/02 9:34:11 am)
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The Elves
See Ludwig Tieck's literary fairy tale, "The Elves," which was published as "Die Elfen" in 1812 and which can be usefully compared/contrasted to one of the tales published by the Grimms under no. 39.
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BlackHolly
Registered User
(10/2/02 10:40:22 am)
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Re: Changelings and Stolen Children
If you're accepting relatively modern books, there's Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw and there's my book, Tithe.
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Heather
KT
Registered User
(10/2/02 11:23:22 am)
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Re: Changelings and Stolen Children
Also, in _Great Swedish Fairy Tales_ you'll find "The Changelings" by Helena Nyblom. It has wonderful illustrations by John Bauer, who was mentioned in a recent discussion. What I especially like about this story is how glad the troll mother is to get her own wild daughter back.
Heather
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Helen
Registered User
(10/3/02 9:10:02 pm)
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Recent works ...
Mmm ... well, I'd recommend Robin McKinley's "Touk's House," from _A Knot in the Grain_. It's an interesting sort of a conglomerate between "Rapunzel," the myriad tales of healers who get half the kingdom and the heirs' hand in marriage, and "Beauty and the Beast." Here, the changeling child decides that she prefers her uncanny household to humanity ...
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anotherboyforpele
Registered User
(10/3/02 9:48:19 pm)
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Re: Changelings and Stolen Children
Terri,
I'm not sure if this would be a literary rendition in the sense you're looking for, but A.S. Byatt has this wonderful story called, you guessed it, "The Changeling", in her collection, Sugar.
Christopher
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(10/4/02 5:51:06 am)
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Changelings and Stolen Children
Terri,
Another modern retelling is Ethel Johnson Phelps's "The Fair Exchange," which is in her collection The Maid of the North. The Fair Exchange is based on a very small tidbit of a changeling story in Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends of Ireland. Phelps has definately expanded it for her collection. And you did mention stolen children, though now I can't see your post so I'm not sure this is approrpriate, so maybe also The Perilous Guard by Elizabeth Pope. It is, as you know, a Tam Lin retelling, but initially a child is stolen for the annual fairy sacrifice.
Laura Mc
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swood
Unregistered User
(10/4/02 7:03:49 am)
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Orphans
What about stories about orphans or bastards who grow up not knowing of their glorious heritage? Like Arthur? This is almost a non-faery changeling (where as the term 'changelling' almost always refers to a faery switch.) The 19C is rife with such tales, but I thought I would ask before brainstorming any further examples.
Sarah
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fherman1
Unregistered User
(10/4/02 7:07:11 am)
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changeling-ish story
I'm sure this is way too recent for your purposes, but I feel I should mention that the current issue of TEAR magazine (#4) includes a very changeling-ish story, "Lullaby," by new writer Theresa Delucci. (Who's a co-worker, and yeah, this is a plug. Bad me.)
Fred
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swood
Unregistered User
(10/4/02 4:17:37 pm)
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Foundlings
The word I was looking for in the earlier post was "foundling." Would you be looking for stories on children who are found as well as stolen?
Sarah
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Terri
Registered User
(10/4/02 11:11:48 pm)
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Re: Foundlings
Yes, foundling stories are of interest too. And it was specifically modern versions I was looking for, as I wanted to mention some modern changeling stories or novels that readers can seek out.
P.S. Jane: Yes, it is in the air. Ellen D. and I have seen so many changeling stories lately.
Edited by: Terri at: 10/4/02 11:14:52 pm
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Anna
Unregistered User
(10/6/02 9:40:57 am)
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Changelings
What about Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There?
It's interesting that you're seeing a lot of changeling tales recently. I've seen some speculation that the old tales may have been inspired by children that today would be labeled autistic, and I've been saddened to read that these types of disorders are on the rise. I wonder if there's any connection?
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(10/7/02 2:32:03 am)
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foundling
The first book of my Young Merlin trilogy (PASSAGER) is all about the child Merlin, having been raised in a convent till he was 7, being left in the woods., He is there for a year till he is discoverd, captured, tamed by a falconer.
And of course Tarzan and Mowgli are the most famous foundlings of them all.
Jane
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Jessica
Unregistered User
(10/7/02 1:51:40 pm)
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changeling
"Moorchild" by Eloise McGraw is a must-read if you want to explore more recent changeling literature. The main character, Moql/Saaski, is, literally, a changeling in the classic sense. The references to folkloric "remedies" for changeling children are chilling. The story is one of those really good ones.
If we're talking foundlings, Taran from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series. Wasn't he an orphan foundling child? I can't remember if the mystery of his parentage was ever truly revealed.
--Jessica.
(New to the boards.)
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Colleen
Unregistered User
(10/7/02 1:54:41 pm)
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Changelings and Foundlings
A wonderful changeling story is The Last Born of Elvinwood by Linda Haldeman. I think it was printed (paperback) in 1983, which is when I came across it. It's rather hard to find but worth it if you do.
I wonder if The Princess Diaries would count as a type of modern changeling story, since the main character didn't know she was the heir to the throne until she was 15 years old - she grew up thinking she was a normal American teenager. (Though I think that's not true in the actual novels, only in the movie.)
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