As a neurodivergent woman with a high metabolism and scoliosis so severe that one of my sides literally caves into my body- hearing about these poor victims is HEARTBREAKING!!! They deserve to be remembered, please make another episode on them!!!
I would definitely love to see a video about changeling related crimes. It’s an important part of folklore history, and actually does remind us not to repeat the same mistakes. The sad thing is, I’ve seen people just as stupid nowadays. By the way, I’ve heard that people would sometimes leave their children abandoned on what they believed were fairy hills as a test of whether they were a changeling or not.
Changeling related crimes would be very interesting. We know how belief in witchcraft caused humans to do horrible things. But this was a first time I have heard of changeling belief causing same. Clearly this is something historians should talk and investigate more.
One changeling story I like a lot is The Changeling by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The mother in the story is very aware that she is caring for a changeling, but refuses to torture it even as everyone else around her, including her husband, pressure and intimidate her. Eventually the husband leaves, which undoes the swap - as the mother had sacrificed the love of her life, it meant the trolls no longer had power over her son, and so the changeling leaves, the son returns and he explains that each time the mother treated the changeling with kindness, so too had the trolls treated him, so it was her unwavering maternal love that had saved her child all along.
That sounds amazing. Currently working on a Rumplestiltskin retelling with the miller’s daughter as a changeling. I hope it’ll do great and be great. We’ll have to wait and see though. Sadly only on the first draft.
Infants with Down Syndrome were especially likely to be seen as changelings: they often have 'wizened' faces, slanted almond shaped eyes, small hands and feet, and obvious developmental issues.
Every time this comes up, I'm reminded of the single story where a mother experiences a changeling swap, seeks her own child while caring for the changeling, then finally approaches the offending fae. When the fae expects to have the changeling returned to them, the mother replies: "No; they are BOTH *my* children." I want to believe that somewhere in history, a mother decided to take this stance rather than outright abandoning the suspected child in obvious need.
Thank you for bringing this to reality. Yes, many did it because they feared their child had been taken over or traded out. Some knew full well it was their child and didn't want a child they called defective. There are some theories that many of the stories of forest dwelling fay are actually abandoned deformed children. They act strange because they have developmental disabilities or because they missed out on proper social development.
Also someone could suffer a condition that makes them believe their loved ones are imposters. There are also people who just like torturing and killing.
@@alexiswelsh5821 I remember a case in reddit where an OP's wife suddenly stopped recognising her husband and children and thought they were impostors, she had to be admitted to a mental hospital for a couple weeks. Scariest thing is that it happened out of the blue, she didn't hit her head or anything, something just clicked wrong inside her mind one day and she suddenly couldn't recognise her own family. I imagine on the old days they would think of this as changelings.
@@gabrielabatista6016that's why I say "never trust a human." You can have a best friend, like I do, but you also have to be aware of these situations that at put of your own control or your best friends control...you may want to help them but they may not want it the same way or it will make it worse .....it's tragic
@@nadishkah yeah, the human brain (and body, really) is a weird thing. Like, a head injury or tumor can change your whole personality; sometimes things just click wrong inside there and ta da! You now have a mental disorder! Idk what's worse, the fact that we don't know how or why most of these things happen, or the fact that they might be incurable in some cases.
@@giancarlojacobs9982 they didn't know how genetic diseases, allergies, and neurodiversity worked, they just saw weird stuff that didn't happen to normal people and attributed that to spirits and curses.
Autism can have drastic changes, including speech regression in around two years old. My 5 year old spoke more at 1 than she does now. Communication was the biggest headache. But she knows I will always love my fairy princess.
I think it's crazy that you're speaking about this topic. About a month ago I had a mental break. After about 5 days of being treated it started to dawn on me, had I been born a few hundred years back I probably would have been thrown into a fire. So sad to think about all the people that were probably tortured to death because they had mental health issues.
Same here, except it wasn't my first mental break, and it was called "playing disabled" when I was a kid. And by the time I managed to get help, the worst of it was over, leaving me with some useless advice that wouldn't help next time. And my parents were "only" told that I'm lazy, imagine if they believed in changelings
Fascinating but so sobering that this happened to so many real people. Changelings also could have been an explanation of post partum depression as an explanation for why a good mother would want to harm her child. Without knowledge of hormonal imbalances, it would be a way to explain it away as her instinctually knowing that "wasn't her baby".
Post partum depression was extremely rare back then. It only started being a thing with the formation of the nuclear family around the time proto capitalism formed. Before then families lived in huge extended networks where one woman wasn't given prime care duty. In my country, our changeling stories (related to PPD) are very modern coming in as recent as the 90s when families stopped being so communal and more nuclear. I grew up with one legend that could be considered an urban legend actually that could have only happened in post colonial Kenya that is the 70s going forward. It goes that a woman struggling with infertility got pregnant after seeing a witchdoctor (she did the do with him 🥺) and when she delivered strange things started happening. Things would get lost around the house, more food than for two would be eaten and things would be moved around the house. One day, while washing her family's laundry she peeked in on him to only see an old man moving about her sitting room. She pretended not to notice but when her husband came home from work had him get rid of it. It's said he took it to the witchdoctor, they didn't want that old man newborn.
@@availanilajust because something wasn’t documented or understood doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Modern medicine has come a LONG way, things that effected women were especially seen as “unknown” because women were never allowed to be a part of the discussion. Post partum depression has always existed, along with all the other illnesses we know today. Just because you’re living with a large group of close family doesn’t mean you can’t experience mental changes due to a personal hormonal imbalance.
@@karanaki_3256 did you not read the "...extremely rare..." part? Do you know that mental illnesses present differently in different cultures? This includes triggering incidences, severity and treatment. When society was stratified differently most triggering incidents weren't present; for example with more than just one person doing primary care work the expectation to bond wasn't so high meaning that lack of immediate ability or lack of ability to bond wouldn't distress the mother and trigger anxieties that cause PPD, also with more than one person fully present with the child the mother wouldn't have a hard line expectation of mastery of maternal skills that cause worry they're harming or neglecting the child which persist to PPD. So yeah, like it or not, the way society is arranged today makes certain mental illnesses more common such as depression and others requiring higher support facilities such as schizophrenia. This society as we've arranged it makes PPD that much more common and made it more severe. But remember this, there are both biological and external cause of behaviour. The same way some people are just wired to have anxieties abused people and people in warzones will be more likely to have anxiety. The biological effects that led to PPD doesn't account for the high rate of it nowadays.
This is so sad. I say sad because even in more recent years people with developmental, mental, or physical disabilities still face Ignorant discrimination today. Thanks Jon for bring us things that are not so far in the past.
Look up the name "Bridget Cleary" she was a woman muerdered by her husband because believe that she was replaced with a Faery, it may interest you! Edit: i commented this before finishing the video, oops.
@@rafaelfigueoa2457 it’s literally called changeling and her son got kidnapped by some r*pist and they tried to tell her they found her son but she knew it wasnt him. It’s a BANGER
This is really sad because most “changelings” were probably children with physical or mental disabilities, illnesses or were neurodivergent. Same goes for the adults, they could have developed early onset dementia or sustained a head injury which changed their personality.
I also wonder if postpartum depression or psychosis could lead to some mothers accusing their children of being changelings, not just the mothers themselves being accused. I doubt that mothers going through postpartum would’ve gotten the help they needed, and it makes sense that they could tie their symptoms to a fairy infesting their house and child in a society where fairies love to cause misfortune.
Honestly, they’re just wasting their time with all those torture methods. Just hold something made of Iron or steel over your baby’s head, and if they don’t react to that, gently tap it with the iron object. Everyone knows that fairies, elves and Trolls hate anything made of Iron, and it in fact burns them!
I knew about the changeling children thing, but it genuinely didn't occur to me that they could use that on adults going through mental and chemical changes, like postpartum, menopause, ptsd, and things like that. Like...wow. And that poor woman: at some point, she KNEW her husband would never be satisfied no matter what she said, and then he doused her kerosene. Like...holy crap.
Imagine being accused of being a changeling, when you’re really not a changeling, though…that’d be horrible. Having your loved ones accusing you of not being you…
I read a book about Bridget. She was hard working, opinionated, stubborn, and the primary breadwinner for her family. she often got on her husband who kept losing work. She was vibrant and independent. And she often questioned the man who was supposed to provide for her but couldn't hold a job for more than a month and he didn't like that. I believe he simply waited until Bridget was ill and vulnerable to abuse her in all sorts of ways because he felt small in his place in society.
It's truth, for many other couples, and their childrwn. Whether one was displeasuring or generally pissed off the other, they used the fae excuse to kill/disfigure/traumatized them most of the time. Ireland is a place of great beauty & inspiration, but horrific suffering & sadness in its whole.
My great grandmother went in for routine surgery in Ireland back in the 70s and ended up with brain damage due to “complications”. She spent most of the rest of her life in an institution believing her family were changelings. You can’t tell me that’s not the most terrifying thing you can imagine? Coming out of surgery believing that and being locked away believing that you were being kept from your real family and that your little children needed you.
Sounds like some of these people could have had crabgrass syndrome. It's a deases usually brought on by head injury that cause people to be one multiple or all of their family members have been swamped out with doubles.
He tormented and tortured her to death. He felt he owned his wife, chose to abuse her and took out all his most disgusting ideas out on her. She was so sick already and then this was allowed to happen. He must have hated her in truth
I wonder if there’s any stories of human children who were suspected of being changelings, who were then rescued and raised by the fae, or a kind human.
I planning a story where when children who are believed to be changelings are abounded by their families the fairies take them in and will either raise them to adulthood or find and a family that is willing to loosen after the child in question. One of the main characters in the story is going to be one.
I'm gonna start drawing a short comic about an old guy trying to kill a "changeling" only for his son to come in bragging about his newborn's unnaturally deep voice and how it'll make him the next big musician.
😂 I wonder if that was why my mom and grandmothers insisted that baby beds stay far away windows even if they didn't say anything like that. They just said because, you just don't. One side was from the British isles and the other side was from Poland. They may have not known why, they probably heard it from their grandmothers and they just did the same. Obviously, I know about safety reasons for when the baby gets bigger but they were against the cradle being near a window too..
changelings were also common in finland and scandinavia, im from finland and studying cultures and religions in uni, here we had legend of trolls changing human children with their own troll children, usually if kid wasnt pabtised or if parents werent careful enough the kid was changed to troll who looked deformed and behaved badly, parents could ask trolls to return the kid
These stories really translate the psych and mindset of the people who lived in those times. So many unrevealed answers and and people trying to handle things they didn’t understand yet. They’re good for history and learning to avoid the mistakes of others. But it’s when they’re taken too seriously that tragedy strikes. My heart goes out to those who experienced being mistaken as a changeling. And I feel an episode on crimes like that is a yes. I’m interested. 👍
Paranoia/delusion that people you know have been replaced as clones or lookalikes(usually evil) is a neurological symptom called capgras delusion. I experienced it when I had autoimmune encephalitis. It was absolutely terrifying.
I’m so glad to be living in the times I am now and not born during the era that many of these stories come from, these are just a taste of how ignorant the world was before advances in medical science and the understanding of genetics made it easier to explain why and how these conditions occur.
I am of Irish decent and have Spina Bifida. I love hearing references to SB but, in this case, I'm glad I was born in The States and in the 80's! Love your content as always!
Ooh, this is so exciting! I love all the different things you can do with changelings! Right now I'm playing a DND character using the Pathfinder 2e system, in which all changeling's are half-hag, and as such feel a 'call' to the wild to run out into the woods and begin a coven. My changeling did this by starting a cult that was later disbanded (due to her not understanding property taxes), and she's now adventuring! She also grew up in a circus, so she didn't learn that her species was weird until leaving home.
Gotta say the part where you talk about irl victims of like superstition and stuff was really interesting. Hard to watch but would definitely be interested in more stuff like that!
My friends grandmother called me a Changeling being the only black child in the bunch. 😐 She had plenty of times told us about Changelings She had only seen black people in magazines. She was very kind to me she would have me cuddle with her .I told you before that she stole the family Station Wagon and had us go to the ends of rainbows .🌈 I remember when we found the end of a rainbow and it ended in the opening of an abandoned mine . She told us us meaning me to jump into the mine. My feet covered in mud living in Las Vegas surrounded by hundreds of abandoned mines. Needless to say 6 hours later after being rescued by firemen and spelunkers !
@@DrDolan2000 Imagine me stuck in the dark with biga$$ spiders rattle snakes 🐍 and Tommy knockers. That scared me crapless. I wasn't cursing at that time I was on the news. I was Black Baby Jessica .👶Except I wasn't a baby or a girl it wasn't a pipe it was a mine that would occasionally collapse as they tried to lower themselves nearly 40 feet inside the cave. I was hungry and I was fed KFC 🍗 That was some of the most delicious chicken I 🐔 ever tasted !😋 I had 5 pieces and a breast was one of the pieces extra crunchy! Grandma said I will see you tomorrow 😁
My son is autistic, he's not ugly but in his three years of life he's had MANY, MANY, MANY things that would have alarmed even neurotyypical people today. Luckily I am more than half way through dealing with and medicating my own variety of issues. So I could see with our relationship I built when he was just being a stubborn toddler and when he was really struggling. But... hitting himself in the head, refusing to eat or speak, acute liver failure at 1 1/2 and continued developmental struggles. Refusing many, many, many normal things toddlers would do, say, eat or enjoy. It really scares me that back then.... ugh. >_< THat's so truly awful! However, I /would/ like to hear more about any changling stuff you have to share!
Have you thought about a Messed Up Origins episode for The Rescuers? The Disney movie's plot is based on the second book, Miss Bianca, which is VERY dark and disturbing.
I feel like the idea behind changeling is based around psychological abnormalities in order to "explain" the odd behaviors people with different disorders had and since at the time therapists and psychologists were minimal they clung to the idea that it was some sort of ethereal creature
Either I’m a changeling, because I was laughing at the eggshell thing, or changelings just happen to have ADHD humor. As for the unworldly laugh, well, my cousins always teased me for my tea whistle laugh. But yeah, even though it’s extremely sad to hear, I still think that it would be very interesting to hear a video on changing-related crimes
A show that was a Disney channel series called So Weird featured an episode about a changeling. The main characters had to make it laugh to get the human baby back.
So Weird was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I watched it again a few years ago, and I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it. I think Jon would really enjoy the show too!
Thanks for the video; I love all the information! Just a little tiny thing, though, which I humbly wish to mention: The term “postpartum” just means “after giving birth.” It Using this term alone does not automatically imply “Postpartum Depression.” Again thanks and I hope that I am not taken offensively, just explaining something I had to learn before as well.
Don't you have an old series about crazy crimes? A video all about changeling related crimes would fit perfectly in that theme! I vote yes to that video.
is like that scene from Monthy Phyton where their coming round to collect the dead but they aren't dead yet except that killing someone is the answer to EVERYTHING. Depressed? Changling. Thyroid Issues? Changling Allergies? Changling
Unrelated: I'm reading Robinson Crusoe atm, and discovered his shipwreck happened while sailing to the African coast to get rich quick via the slave trade. That's a pretty messed up origin story if you ask me. Loved this video too - horrifying stuff.
Yes! Changling related crime! I had a profeesor that related one that took place when he was a child in Germany in the 1940´s. In his area, the "Gauführer" was a farily easy going man who didn´t care about rounding up people with disabilities, citing that most weren´t hereditary. H had the shock of his life when a farmer´s wife came running in with her severely burned baby, demanding justice. It seems the baby had Downs, and the family had neighbors sure that it was a changling. So they waitd until the child was left with a teenaged sister to care for, and lured the girl off so one of thm could steal th baby. They then put this poor child on a red hot shovel to try to force the troll mother to come get it. The old coots were tried and convicted of murder, as far as the professor could remember. The example you gave in Sweden has actually ben used in sermons decrying mistreatment of children (fun facts for fun people!). Thanks so much for your informative and interesting videos!
There’s a few other references to changelings in other childrens media. Such as the Sims having a very blatant one, Frozen having a subtle one with the rock trolls “stealing”Kristoff, and Quasimodo being accused of being a changeling though this one is mostly in the book but one can infer from the movie that he is not only different to society but even to his Romani parents. Though his mother cared for him his Romani father called him an “it”. A few episodes in Goosebumps, Tales from the Crypt, and Creeped Out.
I would’ve been accused of being a changeling back in the day… I was diagnosed with ADHD at 6 and was later diagnosed with autism at the age of 17. I also suffer from depression, GAD(generalized anxiety disorder), PTSD(from childhood trauma) and a few physical issues such as scoliosis.
Awesome video! There was a supernatural/paranormal series on Disney channel called "So Weird" and they had a changeling episode too. First they try the stew in an egg shell trick, then (spoiler) ultimately the "make the changing laugh" approach to successfully get the real baby back.
I love your videos about Irish folklore, I remember when I was young I learned about fairies and I would go to forests with my friends to look for them for hours. Please keep making videos about Irish folklore I find them to be the most entertaining videos on your channel
My dad worked nights when I was a kid, and was fully bearded for as long as I could remember. When I was around 4, he shaved his face clean before work - after I'd gone to sleep. I was terrified of him when I saw him in our house the next morning, and was convinced my mom had gotten rid of my real dad and replaced him, so I was scared of her too. I learned to accept him, but my mom's behavior towards us (due to mental health issues and painkillers) meant I never fully regained trust in her. I pretty much felt it was me and my sis against the world. I frequently had nightmares about the switch, and when I caught Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it only reinforced my fears.
Yeah, I remember hearing about changelings and what people would do to the ones they suspected to be changelings as a kid. Also, logs and I think rocks could supposedly even be glamoured to look like a baby while the fairies/elves/trolls took the real one and wither away really early without any known cause. I would like to see an episode of what you find of 'crimes against changelings' to know the full breath of the situation, since I have mostly just heard about the tales before many were documented. You have me curious now. Awesome video! Keep up the great work!
Oh Jon, you’re always after my heart with these drops. I was just doing a deep dive into changelings & I’m so happy to see you at the top of my TH-cam search on it! ❤
I vote yes for the Changeling episode as well. I've know of the changeling myth and often wondered how many people, especially children, suffered due to this belief.
oh dark and sad, but yes, I would hear more of storys like that. I also think its the svariest think... like illnesses that change the personalities. Bipolar, psychotics, halucinations and so on. Also dream about things like this. scary but important to learn, that we sould be kind to people and not cruel no matter what the fact would be, no matter wich illness it is.
Scary stuff. I probably would have been considered a changling. I had learning issues and couldn't keep up with the other kids on school. I was also prone to violent outbursts. Another kid who went to the Resource Room with me had all the signs of being developmentally disabled. He was larger than other kids, started growing hair on his arms in grade school, and was completely obsessed with trains.
The concerned father is an example of how the word "genius" stemmed all the way back to genie, djinn, and daimon/daemon. Being different has always caused problems, even if the person was just smart.
As your channel gets more and more popular, you should do a few giveaways for these trips so that people who can't afford it, who are huge fans, can go along too
I would love you to make the Changeling crimes episode. As a lover of folklore and mythology, the darker and more macabre the better, this would be right up my street.
I knew Jon would bring up Bridget Cleary. I am a little surprised he didn't mention the nursery rhyme that was sung after "Are a witch or are a fairy, or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?" And yes, I find it morbid and disrespectful, but I found it worth mentioning. Also, I would love it if you did more videos about changelings. I would recommend "The Moorchild" by Eolise McGraw. It incorporates both the mythology and the general attitude towards it.
I resently learned about a fantasy book named The broken sword by Paul Anderson, with one of the main characters being a changeling named Valgard. His story is very interesting as it shows his fall into darkness and his questioning of his actions. He was also one of the inspirations for Elric of Melnibone, the character who inspired Witcher, Game of thrones, Berserk, Marvel and many others.
I'm glad that the Autism reference was made. I've read about the Changeling=Autistic theory and it seems to match uncannily well. It's sad how people think Autism is some newfangled thing when it's always been a thing, people just called it being "quirky" or "odd" when people did things like write long essays to the town hall about how the street lamps were too bright for him at night.
Hi Jon, This is a fantastic video! All of your videos are very good, I really enjoyed this one, so interesting and much information but I was glued to the screen the entire time. I recently watched a video about Bridget C. So having seen that your video was that much more interesting to me. I wish I could afford to go to Ireland with you, you will all have a fantastic time. Keep up the great work, I love it.
One of the most terrifying things about these mfs is you can’t really do anything about it. Even if you do notice and find out the authorities are gonna be concerned about you attacking someone claiming they’re changelings. There’s also the mass hysteria with innocents harmed but when would that ever be a problem irl
Believing an adult was a changeling was probably caused by some sort of psychiatric condition. A person afflicted with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc (these usually manifest in young adults) could be perceived as a changeling. There is a neurological/pscyciatric condition that makes a person think their loved ones have been replaced by a look-a-like because their brains no longer register emotional feelings towards that person or people. It's a pretty rare condition & I suspect that the husband who killed his wife in Ireland probably suffered from it. As for babies, I imagine thinking they are changelings was a coping mechanism when children had deformaties or illnesses or were non neurotypical since they had no other explanations. Infant mortality & crib death was attributed to a demon so....yeah. Humans will make up stories to not feel powerless when faced by the unexplainable.
In my home country we also did have changlings, but the most common belief was that if you happened to have a changeling, you should take good care of it. If you did, the mother of the changeling (they are called 'huldufólk' meaning 'hidden people') would come back and change the child again. If you on the other hand treated the changling badly, the mother would punish you and the household a lot. It was also very common that if you met a 'huldufólk', you should always treat them with respect and help them with their request (often it was the mother asking you to keep an eye on her children for a while). If you did as they requested, they would reward you. But if you refused or did a bad job, they would punish you. There are of course also stories where the changling was treated badly, but I hope most did take care of the child in hopes of a reward than punishing it for something completely out of their control.
I would definitely love to see a video about changeling related crimes. It’s an important part of folklore history, and actually does remind us not to repeat the same mistakes. The sad thing is, I’ve seen people just as stupid nowadays. By the way, I’ve heard that people would sometimes leave their children abandoned on what they believed were fairy hills as a test of whether they were a changeling or not.
15:00 yes definitely what I was thinking. W have similar stories of monsters and avil things that were disproven and came up as just ppl with a disease, visible or invisible disability.
The last example sounds like the murderer was a narcissist gaslighting his family and neighbours while hectortured and killed his wife. The people all sound like either one to me the way they treat the “changelings”. Either gaslit people or psychopaths/narcissists. I suppose you can tell this video made me a little upset.
I hope you continue to offer trips to places like Ireland and Greece even further in the future, it's not something that is possible for me at the moment or even recent future but it sounds really wonderful
There are some cases that, while being identified as more of an alien abduction case, is definitely changeling related. Usually, it's more a clone made by an alien than a faery pretender.
We have an almost similar stories here in my country, but instead of being replaced by other beings, people who died were replaced by an enchanted log from the Balete tree. And the replaced continued to live in an enchanted kingdom. The replaced are sometimes women courted by kapre while they were still alive. It's a Philippine folklore BTW.
I'd say Jordan Peele's 'Us' also borrows from the changeling concept. Because (SPOILER ALERT): The plot of the movie is that the mother of the main family was swapped for her double (or changeling) when she was just a kid, and now wants her life back.
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As a neurodivergent woman with a high metabolism and scoliosis so severe that one of my sides literally caves into my body- hearing about these poor victims is HEARTBREAKING!!! They deserve to be remembered, please make another episode on them!!!
🫡
do The Golem of Prague next pls
I would definitely love to see a video about changeling related crimes. It’s an important part of folklore history, and actually does remind us not to repeat the same mistakes. The sad thing is, I’ve seen people just as stupid nowadays. By the way, I’ve heard that people would sometimes leave their children abandoned on what they believed were fairy hills as a test of whether they were a changeling or not.
Changeling related crimes would be very interesting. We know how belief in witchcraft caused humans to do horrible things. But this was a first time I have heard of changeling belief causing same. Clearly this is something historians should talk and investigate more.
The way most of history tried to make sense of mental health issues, nuerodivergence, and invisible illness is just heart breaking.
Woah
So, according to some old beliefs, I do not have autism. I am instead a changeling.
@@spacekid9680 no, you are an anunaki
@@michaelpacinus242 what
@@spacekid9680 google it
One changeling story I like a lot is The Changeling by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The mother in the story is very aware that she is caring for a changeling, but refuses to torture it even as everyone else around her, including her husband, pressure and intimidate her. Eventually the husband leaves, which undoes the swap - as the mother had sacrificed the love of her life, it meant the trolls no longer had power over her son, and so the changeling leaves, the son returns and he explains that each time the mother treated the changeling with kindness, so too had the trolls treated him, so it was her unwavering maternal love that had saved her child all along.
That sounds amazing. Currently working on a Rumplestiltskin retelling with the miller’s daughter as a changeling. I hope it’ll do great and be great. We’ll have to wait and see though. Sadly only on the first draft.
@caitlyncarvalho7637 I don’t watch Star Trek. So, I wouldn’t know
Oh my god sounds amazing
son returns then what?
How wholesome
Infants with Down Syndrome were especially likely to be seen as changelings: they often have 'wizened' faces, slanted almond shaped eyes, small hands and feet, and obvious developmental issues.
Not to mention children who are neurodivergent than the average child is an early evidence of autism.
Every time this comes up, I'm reminded of the single story where a mother experiences a changeling swap, seeks her own child while caring for the changeling, then finally approaches the offending fae. When the fae expects to have the changeling returned to them, the mother replies: "No; they are BOTH *my* children." I want to believe that somewhere in history, a mother decided to take this stance rather than outright abandoning the suspected child in obvious need.
Oh I like that! I'd love to read the story. 🖖✌
I’m gonna switch them up on u
❤
Wasn't it a book by Holly Black?
@@KarolinaPetursdottir Dunno. I hope it's a book ☺️
Thank you for bringing this to reality. Yes, many did it because they feared their child had been taken over or traded out. Some knew full well it was their child and didn't want a child they called defective. There are some theories that many of the stories of forest dwelling fay are actually abandoned deformed children. They act strange because they have developmental disabilities or because they missed out on proper social development.
Also someone could suffer a condition that makes them believe their loved ones are imposters.
There are also people who just like torturing and killing.
@@alexiswelsh5821 I remember a case in reddit where an OP's wife suddenly stopped recognising her husband and children and thought they were impostors, she had to be admitted to a mental hospital for a couple weeks. Scariest thing is that it happened out of the blue, she didn't hit her head or anything, something just clicked wrong inside her mind one day and she suddenly couldn't recognise her own family.
I imagine on the old days they would think of this as changelings.
@@gabrielabatista6016that's why I say "never trust a human." You can have a best friend, like I do, but you also have to be aware of these situations that at put of your own control or your best friends control...you may want to help them but they may not want it the same way or it will make it worse .....it's tragic
@@nadishkah yeah, the human brain (and body, really) is a weird thing.
Like, a head injury or tumor can change your whole personality; sometimes things just click wrong inside there and ta da! You now have a mental disorder!
Idk what's worse, the fact that we don't know how or why most of these things happen, or the fact that they might be incurable in some cases.
@@gabrielabatista6016I believe she might had been abit tad more paranoid due to some trauma or something like that.
My vote is yes for Changeling related crimes. I had definitely heard the Cleary story before. Such a sad tale.
My vote is kiss Jon Solo while cosplaying as Golem!!
I’m in for more changeling related crimes
I am voting yes as well!!
Early signs of autism or illness were considered as a child being replaced by a changeling
Really? That's awful!
Sexual killings is another sign
can confirm, as a changeling with ADHD, this is true
@@giancarlojacobs9982 they didn't know how genetic diseases, allergies, and neurodiversity worked, they just saw weird stuff that didn't happen to normal people and attributed that to spirits and curses.
Autism can have drastic changes, including speech regression in around two years old.
My 5 year old spoke more at 1 than she does now.
Communication was the biggest headache. But she knows I will always love my fairy princess.
I think it's crazy that you're speaking about this topic. About a month ago I had a mental break. After about 5 days of being treated it started to dawn on me, had I been born a few hundred years back I probably would have been thrown into a fire. So sad to think about all the people that were probably tortured to death because they had mental health issues.
I think love is above all else * sucks you *
Same here, except it wasn't my first mental break, and it was called "playing disabled" when I was a kid. And by the time I managed to get help, the worst of it was over, leaving me with some useless advice that wouldn't help next time.
And my parents were "only" told that I'm lazy, imagine if they believed in changelings
Fascinating but so sobering that this happened to so many real people.
Changelings also could have been an explanation of post partum depression as an explanation for why a good mother would want to harm her child. Without knowledge of hormonal imbalances, it would be a way to explain it away as her instinctually knowing that "wasn't her baby".
Changlings up in the candy aisle like whaaaaaaat
Post partum depression was extremely rare back then. It only started being a thing with the formation of the nuclear family around the time proto capitalism formed. Before then families lived in huge extended networks where one woman wasn't given prime care duty.
In my country, our changeling stories (related to PPD) are very modern coming in as recent as the 90s when families stopped being so communal and more nuclear.
I grew up with one legend that could be considered an urban legend actually that could have only happened in post colonial Kenya that is the 70s going forward.
It goes that a woman struggling with infertility got pregnant after seeing a witchdoctor (she did the do with him 🥺) and when she delivered strange things started happening. Things would get lost around the house, more food than for two would be eaten and things would be moved around the house. One day, while washing her family's laundry she peeked in on him to only see an old man moving about her sitting room. She pretended not to notice but when her husband came home from work had him get rid of it. It's said he took it to the witchdoctor, they didn't want that old man newborn.
@@availanilajust because something wasn’t documented or understood doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Modern medicine has come a LONG way, things that effected women were especially seen as “unknown” because women were never allowed to be a part of the discussion. Post partum depression has always existed, along with all the other illnesses we know today. Just because you’re living with a large group of close family doesn’t mean you can’t experience mental changes due to a personal hormonal imbalance.
@@karanaki_3256 did you not read the "...extremely rare..." part?
Do you know that mental illnesses present differently in different cultures? This includes triggering incidences, severity and treatment. When society was stratified differently most triggering incidents weren't present; for example with more than just one person doing primary care work the expectation to bond wasn't so high meaning that lack of immediate ability or lack of ability to bond wouldn't distress the mother and trigger anxieties that cause PPD, also with more than one person fully present with the child the mother wouldn't have a hard line expectation of mastery of maternal skills that cause worry they're harming or neglecting the child which persist to PPD.
So yeah, like it or not, the way society is arranged today makes certain mental illnesses more common such as depression and others requiring higher support facilities such as schizophrenia. This society as we've arranged it makes PPD that much more common and made it more severe.
But remember this, there are both biological and external cause of behaviour. The same way some people are just wired to have anxieties abused people and people in warzones will be more likely to have anxiety. The biological effects that led to PPD doesn't account for the high rate of it nowadays.
As a diagnosed autistic, I am fascinated and horrified by changeling. I would love to see another episode about them!
Same here xxx
Me too!
This is so sad. I say sad because even in more recent years people with developmental, mental, or physical disabilities still face Ignorant
discrimination today. Thanks Jon for bring
us things that are not so far in the past.
This is so krunk. I say krunk because I’m using it as a stand in for sad
Changeling related crimes would be sick hope Jon makes one
Look up the name "Bridget Cleary" she was a woman muerdered by her husband because believe that she was replaced with a Faery, it may interest you!
Edit: i commented this before finishing the video, oops.
Have you seen that movie w Angelina Jolie?
@@misssosweet513 Nope which one? What's it called?
@@rafaelfigueoa2457 it’s literally called changeling and her son got kidnapped by some r*pist and they tried to tell her they found her son but she knew it wasnt him. It’s a BANGER
@@misssosweet513it’s based on a true story
This is really sad because most “changelings” were probably children with physical or mental disabilities, illnesses or were neurodivergent. Same goes for the adults, they could have developed early onset dementia or sustained a head injury which changed their personality.
It's sad , glad we treat people better
I agree. All it really was was just another Salem Witch trials
I also wonder if postpartum depression or psychosis could lead to some mothers accusing their children of being changelings, not just the mothers themselves being accused. I doubt that mothers going through postpartum would’ve gotten the help they needed, and it makes sense that they could tie their symptoms to a fairy infesting their house and child in a society where fairies love to cause misfortune.
In very extreme cases Mothers suffering have been known to believe their child is not theirs or possesed/demon.
Honestly, they’re just wasting their time with all those torture methods. Just hold something made of Iron or steel over your baby’s head, and if they don’t react to that, gently tap it with the iron object. Everyone knows that fairies, elves and Trolls hate anything made of Iron, and it in fact burns them!
I knew about the changeling children thing, but it genuinely didn't occur to me that they could use that on adults going through mental and chemical changes, like postpartum, menopause, ptsd, and things like that. Like...wow. And that poor woman: at some point, she KNEW her husband would never be satisfied no matter what she said, and then he doused her kerosene. Like...holy crap.
Imagine being accused of being a changeling, when you’re really not a changeling, though…that’d be horrible. Having your loved ones accusing you of not being you…
The ultimate gaslighting.
Just like women named Karen who aren't Karens.
Like, and KNOWING IN YOUR SOUL you'll never convince them, no matter what you say or do? I just...that's such a horrifying concept.
@@j.a.shawkins7640 good thing there's nothing like that exists in the real world 😉🖖✌
Likely for adults the "changling" is just someone who got a concussion while in the woods alone
I read a book about Bridget. She was hard working, opinionated, stubborn, and the primary breadwinner for her family. she often got on her husband who kept losing work. She was vibrant and independent. And she often questioned the man who was supposed to provide for her but couldn't hold a job for more than a month and he didn't like that. I believe he simply waited until Bridget was ill and vulnerable to abuse her in all sorts of ways because he felt small in his place in society.
It's truth, for many other couples, and their childrwn. Whether one was displeasuring or generally pissed off the other, they used the fae excuse to kill/disfigure/traumatized them most of the time. Ireland is a place of great beauty & inspiration, but horrific suffering & sadness in its whole.
My great grandmother went in for routine surgery in Ireland back in the 70s and ended up with brain damage due to “complications”.
She spent most of the rest of her life in an institution believing her family were changelings.
You can’t tell me that’s not the most terrifying thing you can imagine?
Coming out of surgery believing that and being locked away believing that you were being kept from your real family and that your little children needed you.
That's incredibly sad holy moly :(
Nowadays people spend our lives comparing us to aliens but I still relate strongly to changeling folklore as a neurodivergent person myself
Sounds like some of these people could have had crabgrass syndrome. It's a deases usually brought on by head injury that cause people to be one multiple or all of their family members have been swamped out with doubles.
Capgras not crabgrass.
He tormented and tortured her to death. He felt he owned his wife, chose to abuse her and took out all his most disgusting ideas out on her. She was so sick already and then this was allowed to happen. He must have hated her in truth
I wonder if there’s any stories of human children who were suspected of being changelings, who were then rescued and raised by the fae, or a kind human.
I wonder if Jon Solo will *FINALLY* hook up with Golem!
Modern stories yes, even fanfiction. We don't have the same outlook as the ones who created these stories centuries ago.
I planning a story where when children who are believed to be changelings are abounded by their families the fairies take them in and will either raise them to adulthood or find and a family that is willing to loosen after the child in question. One of the main characters in the story is going to be one.
Literally Moses lmao
I'm gonna start drawing a short comic about an old guy trying to kill a "changeling" only for his son to come in bragging about his newborn's unnaturally deep voice and how it'll make him the next big musician.
😂 I wonder if that was why my mom and grandmothers insisted that baby beds stay far away windows even if they didn't say anything like that. They just said because, you just don't. One side was from the British isles and the other side was from Poland. They may have not known why, they probably heard it from their grandmothers and they just did the same.
Obviously, I know about safety reasons for when the baby gets bigger but they were against the cradle being near a window too..
it's just not safe to have babies or kids by windows. cold, break ins, storms, etc, not a good idea at alllll
changelings were also common in finland and scandinavia, im from finland and studying cultures and religions in uni, here we had legend of trolls changing human children with their own troll children, usually if kid wasnt pabtised or if parents werent careful enough the kid was changed to troll who looked deformed and behaved badly, parents could ask trolls to return the kid
This was very hard to watch but super interesting! I’d definitely love to see a part 2 for changelings!
Recently read a paper asserting that changelings were a historical way to explain autistic traits that become evident in young children. 🌻
These stories really translate the psych and mindset of the people who lived in those times. So many unrevealed answers and and people trying to handle things they didn’t understand yet.
They’re good for history and learning to avoid the mistakes of others. But it’s when they’re taken too seriously that tragedy strikes. My heart goes out to those who experienced being mistaken as a changeling.
And I feel an episode on crimes like that is a yes. I’m interested. 👍
Paranoia/delusion that people you know have been replaced as clones or lookalikes(usually evil) is a neurological symptom called capgras delusion. I experienced it when I had autoimmune encephalitis. It was absolutely terrifying.
I’m so glad to be living in the times I am now and not born during the era that many of these stories come from, these are just a taste of how ignorant the world was before advances in medical science and the understanding of genetics made it easier to explain why and how these conditions occur.
That's just terrifying to think about. I can't even image what kind of horror the victims of these stories went through 😟
I am of Irish decent and have Spina Bifida. I love hearing references to SB but, in this case, I'm glad I was born in The States and in the 80's! Love your content as always!
Ooh, this is so exciting! I love all the different things you can do with changelings! Right now I'm playing a DND character using the Pathfinder 2e system, in which all changeling's are half-hag, and as such feel a 'call' to the wild to run out into the woods and begin a coven. My changeling did this by starting a cult that was later disbanded (due to her not understanding property taxes), and she's now adventuring! She also grew up in a circus, so she didn't learn that her species was weird until leaving home.
I get it!
That is awesome. I’m delighted to hear we are taking changelings back as our own. It’s so nice to hear stories like this.
Gotta say the part where you talk about irl victims of like superstition and stuff was really interesting. Hard to watch but would definitely be interested in more stuff like that!
I used to watch these things of which you speak occur with great regularity
My friends grandmother called me a Changeling being the only black child in the bunch. 😐 She had plenty of times told us about Changelings She had only seen black people in magazines. She was very kind to me she would have me cuddle with her .I told you before that she stole the family Station Wagon and had us go to the ends of rainbows .🌈 I remember when we found the end of a rainbow and it ended in the opening of an abandoned mine . She told us us meaning me to jump into the mine. My feet covered in mud living in Las Vegas surrounded by hundreds of abandoned mines. Needless to say 6 hours later after being rescued by firemen and spelunkers !
That escalated so quickly
She sounds crazy!
Did I have stroke trying to read this?
@@DrDolan2000 Imagine me stuck in the dark with biga$$ spiders rattle snakes 🐍 and Tommy knockers. That scared me crapless. I wasn't cursing at that time I was on the news. I was Black Baby Jessica .👶Except I wasn't a baby or a girl it wasn't a pipe it was a mine that would occasionally collapse as they tried to lower themselves nearly 40 feet inside the cave. I was hungry and I was fed KFC 🍗 That was some of the most delicious chicken I 🐔 ever tasted !😋 I had 5 pieces and a breast was one of the pieces extra crunchy! Grandma said I will see you tomorrow 😁
IM SORRY WHAT?! SAY SIKE RN
My son is autistic, he's not ugly but in his three years of life he's had MANY, MANY, MANY things that would have alarmed even neurotyypical people today. Luckily I am more than half way through dealing with and medicating my own variety of issues. So I could see with our relationship I built when he was just being a stubborn toddler and when he was really struggling. But... hitting himself in the head, refusing to eat or speak, acute liver failure at 1 1/2 and continued developmental struggles. Refusing many, many, many normal things toddlers would do, say, eat or enjoy. It really scares me that back then.... ugh. >_< THat's so truly awful! However, I /would/ like to hear more about any changling stuff you have to share!
Have you thought about a Messed Up Origins episode for The Rescuers? The Disney movie's plot is based on the second book, Miss Bianca, which is VERY dark and disturbing.
I feel like the idea behind changeling is based around psychological abnormalities in order to "explain" the odd behaviors people with different disorders had and since at the time therapists and psychologists were minimal they clung to the idea that it was some sort of ethereal creature
Either I’m a changeling, because I was laughing at the eggshell thing, or changelings just happen to have ADHD humor.
As for the unworldly laugh, well, my cousins always teased me for my tea whistle laugh.
But yeah, even though it’s extremely sad to hear, I still think that it would be very interesting to hear a video on changing-related crimes
As someone who is currently writing a changeling themed comic,, thank you for making this video Jon
Maybe you could make it open source? And then everyone can write it
A show that was a Disney channel series called So Weird featured an episode about a changeling. The main characters had to make it laugh to get the human baby back.
Oh man seeing this gave me flashbacks, that show freaked me out so bad as a kid! It was so scary to me lol.
So Weird was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. I watched it again a few years ago, and I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it. I think Jon would really enjoy the show too!
Thanks for the video; I love all the information! Just a little tiny thing, though, which I humbly wish to mention: The term “postpartum” just means “after giving birth.” It Using this term alone does not automatically imply “Postpartum Depression.” Again thanks and I hope that I am not taken offensively, just explaining something I had to learn before as well.
Ooh I've always found the concept of changelings fascinating, been hoping you'd do a video covering them for a long time 😊 hope your well
I’ve always personally hoped for a Jon Solo X Golem crossover!
I liked the changelings in Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. They did an amazing job tying in traditional myths and modern takes.
I know all the changeling things were just another Salem witch trials. That was all it was.
“Good look for picture day?”
Don't you have an old series about crazy crimes? A video all about changeling related crimes would fit perfectly in that theme! I vote yes to that video.
Please Jon give us another episode on this. I’m fully invested!
I would so greatly appreciate if you did another video on Changelings. Thank you so much for this one!
is like that scene from Monthy Phyton where their coming round to collect the dead but they aren't dead yet except that killing someone is the answer to EVERYTHING. Depressed? Changling. Thyroid Issues? Changling Allergies? Changling
Unrelated: I'm reading Robinson Crusoe atm, and discovered his shipwreck happened while sailing to the African coast to get rich quick via the slave trade. That's a pretty messed up origin story if you ask me. Loved this video too - horrifying stuff.
Yes! Changling related crime! I had a profeesor that related one that took place when he was a child in Germany in the 1940´s. In his area, the "Gauführer" was a farily easy going man who didn´t care about rounding up people with disabilities, citing that most weren´t hereditary. H had the shock of his life when a farmer´s wife came running in with her severely burned baby, demanding justice. It seems the baby had Downs, and the family had neighbors sure that it was a changling. So they waitd until the child was left with a teenaged sister to care for, and lured the girl off so one of thm could steal th baby. They then put this poor child on a red hot shovel to try to force the troll mother to come get it. The old coots were tried and convicted of murder, as far as the professor could remember.
The example you gave in Sweden has actually ben used in sermons decrying mistreatment of children (fun facts for fun people!). Thanks so much for your informative and interesting videos!
That is crazy because some kids going through puberty would be enough to make you think they're a changeling
There’s a few other references to changelings in other childrens media. Such as the Sims having a very blatant one, Frozen having a subtle one with the rock trolls “stealing”Kristoff, and Quasimodo being accused of being a changeling though this one is mostly in the book but one can infer from the movie that he is not only different to society but even to his Romani parents. Though his mother cared for him his Romani father called him an “it”. A few episodes in Goosebumps, Tales from the Crypt, and Creeped Out.
I would’ve been accused of being a changeling back in the day… I was diagnosed with ADHD at 6 and was later diagnosed with autism at the age of 17. I also suffer from depression, GAD(generalized anxiety disorder), PTSD(from childhood trauma) and a few physical issues such as scoliosis.
Awesome video! There was a supernatural/paranormal series on Disney channel called "So Weird" and they had a changeling episode too. First they try the stew in an egg shell trick, then (spoiler) ultimately the "make the changing laugh" approach to successfully get the real baby back.
Hey, Jon? Would you ever consider looking into the lore of Robin Hood?
Irish gal here, can't wait for the videos you make off the back of your trip! The folklore behind the rock of cashel is a particularly good one!
I love your videos about Irish folklore, I remember when I was young I learned about fairies and I would go to forests with my friends to look for them for hours. Please keep making videos about Irish folklore I find them to be the most entertaining videos on your channel
My dad worked nights when I was a kid, and was fully bearded for as long as I could remember. When I was around 4, he shaved his face clean before work - after I'd gone to sleep. I was terrified of him when I saw him in our house the next morning, and was convinced my mom had gotten rid of my real dad and replaced him, so I was scared of her too. I learned to accept him, but my mom's behavior towards us (due to mental health issues and painkillers) meant I never fully regained trust in her. I pretty much felt it was me and my sis against the world. I frequently had nightmares about the switch, and when I caught Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it only reinforced my fears.
Yeah, I remember hearing about changelings and what people would do to the ones they suspected to be changelings as a kid. Also, logs and I think rocks could supposedly even be glamoured to look like a baby while the fairies/elves/trolls took the real one and wither away really early without any known cause. I would like to see an episode of what you find of 'crimes against changelings' to know the full breath of the situation, since I have mostly just heard about the tales before many were documented. You have me curious now. Awesome video! Keep up the great work!
15:46 normally we kill it 😂
I remember reading about Bridget Cleary in my own personal studies when I was a kid. Please do an episode of Changeling related crimes and murders
Oh Jon, you’re always after my heart with these drops. I was just doing a deep dive into changelings & I’m so happy to see you at the top of my TH-cam search on it! ❤
Willie McCulloch wrote and sang a song called Kylenagranagh about Bridget Cleary. It's a beautiful and haunting song.
I vote yes for the Changeling episode as well. I've know of the changeling myth and often wondered how many people, especially children, suffered due to this belief.
A video on changing related crimes and a short series on historical crimes would be awesome.
I for one would love to see that episode about changeling related crimes, please!!!
an episode about changeling related crimes sounds so interesting. Please do make one :)
On the topic of Coraline, it's being shown in select theaters August 14/15 and will have an exclusive presentation intro.
All of my faves are taking a break except for Jon 🙏
I live in Ireland and i still love learning of our folk lore, my home is a fascinating place ❤🇮🇪🇮🇪
oh dark and sad, but yes, I would hear more of storys like that. I also think its the svariest think... like illnesses that change the personalities. Bipolar, psychotics, halucinations and so on. Also dream about things like this. scary but important to learn, that we sould be kind to people and not cruel no matter what the fact would be, no matter wich illness it is.
Scary stuff. I probably would have been considered a changling. I had learning issues and couldn't keep up with the other kids on school. I was also prone to violent outbursts. Another kid who went to the Resource Room with me had all the signs of being developmentally disabled. He was larger than other kids, started growing hair on his arms in grade school, and was completely obsessed with trains.
The concerned father is an example of how the word "genius" stemmed all the way back to genie, djinn, and daimon/daemon. Being different has always caused problems, even if the person was just smart.
As your channel gets more and more popular, you should do a few giveaways for these trips so that people who can't afford it, who are huge fans, can go along too
The Changelings in MLP got stuff done. Especially the Queen
I would love to hear more about changelings and changeling related crimes and myths. This was enjoyable to listen too, thank you!
Brilliant video. I'd love to see the one of changeling related crime!
I would love you to make the Changeling crimes episode. As a lover of folklore and mythology, the darker and more macabre the better, this would be right up my street.
I knew Jon would bring up Bridget Cleary. I am a little surprised he didn't mention the nursery rhyme that was sung after "Are a witch or are a fairy, or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?" And yes, I find it morbid and disrespectful, but I found it worth mentioning.
Also, I would love it if you did more videos about changelings. I would recommend "The Moorchild" by Eolise McGraw. It incorporates both the mythology and the general attitude towards it.
I resently learned about a fantasy book named The broken sword by Paul Anderson, with one of the main characters being a changeling named Valgard. His story is very interesting as it shows his fall into darkness and his questioning of his actions. He was also one of the inspirations for Elric of Melnibone, the character who inspired Witcher, Game of thrones, Berserk, Marvel and many others.
You should make a video about doppelgängers and the history behind doppelgängers but amazing work you do 🩷🩷
I'm glad that the Autism reference was made. I've read about the Changeling=Autistic theory and it seems to match uncannily well. It's sad how people think Autism is some newfangled thing when it's always been a thing, people just called it being "quirky" or "odd" when people did things like write long essays to the town hall about how the street lamps were too bright for him at night.
The cookoo bird's chick is like a bird version of changlings
Hi Jon, This is a fantastic video! All of your videos are very good, I really enjoyed this one, so interesting and much information but I was glued to the screen the entire time. I recently watched a video about Bridget C. So having seen that your video was that much more interesting to me. I wish I could afford to go to Ireland with you, you will all have a fantastic time. Keep up the great work, I love it.
One of the most terrifying things about these mfs is you can’t really do anything about it. Even if you do notice and find out the authorities are gonna be concerned about you attacking someone claiming they’re changelings.
There’s also the mass hysteria with innocents harmed but when would that ever be a problem irl
Nice pfp🤙🏾
Let me change it up on you
Believing an adult was a changeling was probably caused by some sort of psychiatric condition. A person afflicted with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc (these usually manifest in young adults) could be perceived as a changeling. There is a neurological/pscyciatric condition that makes a person think their loved ones have been replaced by a look-a-like because their brains no longer register emotional feelings towards that person or people. It's a pretty rare condition & I suspect that the husband who killed his wife in Ireland probably suffered from it. As for babies, I imagine thinking they are changelings was a coping mechanism when children had deformaties or illnesses or were non neurotypical since they had no other explanations. Infant mortality & crib death was attributed to a demon so....yeah. Humans will make up stories to not feel powerless when faced by the unexplainable.
This isn't Jon Solo! He's a Changeling! Back to Fae World with you! 🧚♂
In my home country we also did have changlings, but the most common belief was that if you happened to have a changeling, you should take good care of it. If you did, the mother of the changeling (they are called 'huldufólk' meaning 'hidden people') would come back and change the child again.
If you on the other hand treated the changling badly, the mother would punish you and the household a lot.
It was also very common that if you met a 'huldufólk', you should always treat them with respect and help them with their request (often it was the mother asking you to keep an eye on her children for a while). If you did as they requested, they would reward you. But if you refused or did a bad job, they would punish you.
There are of course also stories where the changling was treated badly, but I hope most did take care of the child in hopes of a reward than punishing it for something completely out of their control.
That is lovely. I love the way your country used the changelings.
I would definitely love to see a video about changeling related crimes. It’s an important part of folklore history, and actually does remind us not to repeat the same mistakes. The sad thing is, I’ve seen people just as stupid nowadays. By the way, I’ve heard that people would sometimes leave their children abandoned on what they believed were fairy hills as a test of whether they were a changeling or not.
15:00 yes definitely what I was thinking. W have similar stories of monsters and avil things that were disproven and came up as just ppl with a disease, visible or invisible disability.
The last example sounds like the murderer was a narcissist gaslighting his family and neighbours while hectortured and killed his wife. The people all sound like either one to me the way they treat the “changelings”. Either gaslit people or psychopaths/narcissists. I suppose you can tell this video made me a little upset.
I hope you continue to offer trips to places like Ireland and Greece even further in the future, it's not something that is possible for me at the moment or even recent future but it sounds really wonderful
There are some cases that, while being identified as more of an alien abduction case, is definitely changeling related. Usually, it's more a clone made by an alien than a faery pretender.
Another Childhood song you could talk about is 'Ten in the bed' and 'shortning Bread' along with the riddle 'As I went through the garden gap'.
I died at the use of the Men in Tights clips. Thank you, John.
Awesome as always thanks i would love more changeling videos please! I'm researching this topic for a novel I'm writing
Any time a creator I like says “I could make an entire video on _____ so let me know if you’d be interested” the answer is always YES!
We have an almost similar stories here in my country, but instead of being replaced by other beings, people who died were replaced by an enchanted log from the Balete tree. And the replaced continued to live in an enchanted kingdom. The replaced are sometimes women courted by kapre while they were still alive. It's a Philippine folklore BTW.
I'd say Jordan Peele's 'Us' also borrows from the changeling concept.
Because (SPOILER ALERT):
The plot of the movie is that the mother of the main family was swapped for her double (or changeling) when she was just a kid, and now wants her life back.