Talk:Changeling

Why is "See also contemporary artists collective - www.changelings.com.au" included in the body of the article? Shouldn't it be in external links? 152.3.75.165 04:18, 18 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I reorganized the page, the intro was way too long. I promise I DID NOT remove or change ANY information, but merely reorganized the format. I hope no one is offended. Brina700 04:17, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Consider adding Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child to the literature listing.

What about the tales of the faery replacing infants with elderly and ailing faeries, so that the changeling child soon sickens and dies? This is the version I’ve heard most often and it’s also been posited that this form of the changeling myth was an early explanation for cot death or SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).OzoneO 20:24, 8 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

one wonders why they steal babes, if it doesn't work out anyway? --Yak 13:09, Mar 15, 2004 (UTC)

I guess the reason is that our ancestors considered children born with Down's syndrome to be changelings. In this way changelings were a reality and the possibility of having one's child replaced was something that instilled fear. I know from the rural area in south central Sweden, where I grew up, that there was once a "changeling" in the neighbourhood who lived to an old age. Children have always been born with Down's syndrome and people needed a name for it. --Wiglaf 10:56, Mar 25, 2004 (CET)

I've heard that one reason trolls want to trade children is because they want the troll child to have a proper upbringing. Dustin Asby 06:28, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

In my experience from reading Scandinavian fairy tales for my daughter, the main reason is jealousy. In the fairy tales, the trolls are dark and swarthy and are fond of the blond beauty of human infants.--Wiglaf 21:55, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In the story "The Corpse" from Mike Mignola's Hellboy, it is suggested that the Fair Folk, for an unexplained reason, can no longer reproduce, and thus must take human children and raise them. It is implied that a child raised among the Fair Folk from infancy would become one of them. I'm going to add "The Corpse" to the list of references to Changelings in literature as well. Marksman45 08:21, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cleanup

Re: Salleman's request: the article needs cleaning up to improve layout, writing style (esp: formality) and grammar. A few references wouldn't hurt. The term "fae" needs linking and explaining. Exploding Boy 20:42, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

Copyvio

I have reverted the changes of an anonymous user -- see [1] -- because it was text copied from [2] in violation of copyright. FreplySpang (talk) 3 July 2005 13:09 (UTC)

Removed

Removed the following from the article:

In one Swedish changeling tale, the troll child grows up at a farm while the human child grows up among the trolls. Everyone advises the human mother to brutalize the changeling so that the trolls would change children once more. However, the woman refuses to treat the innocent but maladapted troll child cruelly and persists in treating it as if it was her own. In the end, her husband tries to burn the young troll, but the woman rescues it, so the man takes him on a walk to kill it in the forest. Somehow, he regrets his decision and saves the life of the troll. Suddenly, his own son returns and tells his father that his kindness broke the spell and liberated him. Every time someone tried to be cruel to the troll, his troll mother was about to treat the human child in the same manner.
In another Swedish fairy tale (which is depicted by the image), a princess is kidnapped by trolls and replaced with their own offspring against the wishes of the troll mother. The changelings grow up with their new parents, and both become beautiful young females, but they find it hard to adapt. The human girl is disgusted by her future bridegroom, a troll prince, whereas the troll girl is bored by her life and by her dull human future groom. By coincidence, they both go astray into the forest upset with the conditions of their lives, and happen to pass each other without noticing it. The princess comes to the castle whereupon the queen immediately recognizes her, and the troll girl finds a troll woman who is cursing loudly as she works. The troll girl bursts out that the troll woman is much more fun than any other person she has ever seen, and her mother happily sees that her true daughter has returned. Both the human girl and the troll girl marry happily the very same day.
These entries are just not encyclopaedic enough; at the very least we need to give a name to these stories, and the entries need paring down and rewriting. Exploding Boy 01:41, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Well, Exploding Boy, if tales like these aren't relevant, the article is neither. The changeling legend exists through this kind of tales. I am impressed with you Salleman. I added the tales, but you instantly found references when needed. Good work!--Wiglaf 08:18, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

If you read what I wrote carefully you'll see that I never said the stories weren't relevant, just that the entries as they stood weren't encyclopaedic. Honestly. What is it with this article? People seem to ignore it completely until someone criticizes it. The cleanup tag was there for weeks and nobody bothered, and when I finally got around to doing something about it there's nothing but complaining. The entries still need cleaning up, by the way, since they seem to have been C&Pd wholesale with the simple addition of a link, which isn't really what was needed. Exploding Boy 08:24, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Well, I have ignored your "cleanup tag" because I thought it unwarranted, and would rather leave it to YOU. If you really think the article needs cleanup, clean it up yourself.--Wiglaf 08:33, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

I did clean it up myself, and it was sorely needed. Do you read the article at all or just get upset when it's criticized? Now I suppose I'll have to clean up the section you and Salleman restored as well. Exploding Boy 08:36, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

No, but there are some people around at Wikipedia who seem to get a powertrip from adding cleanup tags on articles (I am not thereby saying that you're one of them). If you check the edit history, you'll see that I have restored nothing. Please, go ahead.--Wiglaf 08:39, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Replacement people in modern literature and films

I have included this section - which is a stub - here as it covers a topic which relates indirectly to changelings. It requires some further development, and then could be a separate page. Jackiespeel 16:57, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

references

I have added a few fact tags at the "skeptical" explanations of changelings, but those are not the only places where refs are needed. The whole article suffers from a lack of refs and while much of the stuff comes from folklore etc. there still needs to be some indication of where it is reported and by whom.

non-changeling "Changelings"

There's no need to discuss non-traditional uses (e.g. in science fiction) of the word "changeling" in this article, as that is adequately covered by the other uses redirect. RandomCritic 03:13, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Removed: "In the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, chief security officer Odo is a changeling." as being misleading, and probably misinformed. The related DS9 wiki sites talk about the Star Trek shapechanging race called Changeling. Mourdrydd 05:27, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

potential addition to literature list?

Magic Street by Orson Scott Card (Mack, child of the fairy Puck, is discovered abandoned in a plastic bag and raised in the human world.) 74.74.251.190 (talk) 00:54, 25 April 2008 (UTC)