Shapeshifting

In mythology, folklore and speculative

fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to
physically transform through an inherently
superhuman ability, divine intervention,
demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or
having inherited the ability. The idea of
shapeshifting is in the oldest forms of
totemism and shamanism, as well as the
oldest existent literature and epic poems
such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the
Iliad. The concept remains a common
trope in modern fantasy, children's
literature and popular culture.

Tsarevna Frog (or The Frog Princess), by Viktor

Vasnetsov, tells of a frog that metamorphoses into a
princess.
Louhi, Mistress of the North, attacking Väinämöinen
in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her
back when she trying to steal Sampo; in the Finnish

epic poetry Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. (The Defense of

the Sampo, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1896)
"The giant Galligantua and the wicked old magician
transform the duke's daughter into a white hind." by
Arthur Rackham

Loge feigns fear as Alberich turns into a giant snake.

 oge e g s ea as be c tu s to a g a t s a e.
Wotan stands in the background; illustration by Arthur
Rackham to Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold

Folklore and mythology

1722 German woodcut of a werewolf transforming

Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore

are werewolves and vampires (mostly of
European, Canadian, and Native
American/early American origin), the huli
jing of East Asia (including the Japanese
kitsune and Korean kumiho), and the gods,
goddesses, and demons of numerous
mythologies, such as the Norse Loki or the
Greek Proteus. Shapeshifting to the form
of a wolf is specifically known as
lycanthropy, and such creatures who
undergo such change are called
lycanthropes. Therianthropy is the more
general term for human-animal shifts, but
it is rarely used in that capacity. It was also
common for deities to transform mortals
into animals and plants.

Other terms for shapeshifters include

metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic,
and therianthrope. The prefix "were-,"
coming from the Old English word for
"man" (masculine rather than generic), is
also used to designate shapeshifters;
despite its root, it is used to indicate
female shapeshifters as well.

While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is

of a human being who turns into
something else, there are numerous
stories about animals that can transform
themselves as well.[1]

Greco-Roman …
Vertumnus, in the form of an old woman, wooing
Pomona, by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.

Examples of shapeshifting in classical

literature include many examples in Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Circe's transforming of
Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's The
Odyssey, and Apuleius's Lucius becoming
a donkey in The Golden Ass. Proteus was
noted among the gods for his
shapeshifting; both Menelaus and
Aristaeus seized him to win information
from him, and succeeded only because
they held on during his various changes.
Nereus told Heracles where to find the
Apples of the Hesperides for the same
reason.

The Titan Metis, the first wife of Zeus and

the mother of the goddess Athena, was
believed to be able to change her
appearance into anything she wanted. In
one story, she was so proud, that her
husband, Zeus, tricked her into changing
into a fly. He then swallowed her because
he feared that he and Metis would have a
son who would be more powerful than
Zeus himself. Metis, however, was already
pregnant. She stayed alive inside his head
and built armor for her daughter. The
banging of her metalworking made Zeus
have a headache, so Hephaestus clove his
head with an axe. Athena sprang from her
father's head, fully grown, and in battle
armor.
The Children of Lir, transformed into swans in Irish
tales

In Greek mythology, the transformation is

often a punishment from the gods to
humans who crossed them.

Zeus transformed King Lycaon and his

children into wolves (hence lycanthropy)
as a punishment for either killing Zeus'
children or serving him the flesh of
Lycaon's own murdered son Nyctimus,
depending on the exact version of the
myth.
Ares assigned Alectryon to keep watch
for the other gods during his affair with
Aphrodite, but Alectryon fell asleep,
leading to their discovery and
humiliation that morning. Ares turned
Alectryon into a rooster, which always
crows to signal the morning.
Demeter transformed Ascalabus into a
lizard for mocking her sorrow and thirst
during her search for her daughter
Persephone. She also turned King
Lyncus into a lynx for trying to murder
her prophet Triptolemus.
Athena transformed Arachne into a
spider for challenging her as a weaver
and/or weaving a tapestry that insulted
the gods. She also turned Nyctimene
into an owl, though in this case it was an
act of mercy, as the girl wished to hide
from the daylight out of shame from
being raped by her father.
Artemis transformed Actaeon into a
stag for spying on her bathing, and he
was later devoured by his own hunting
dogs.
Galanthis was transformed into a
weasel or cat after interfering in Hera's
plans to hinder the birth of Heracles.
Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned
into lions after making love in a temple
dedicated to Zeus or Cybele.
Io was a priestess of Hera in Argos, a
nymph who was raped by Zeus, who
changed her into a heifer to escape
detection.
Hera punished young Tiresias by
transforming him into a woman and,
seven years later, back into a man.
 King Tereus, his wife Procne and her
sister Philomela were all turned into
birds (a hoopoe, a swallow and a
nightingale respectively), after Tereus
raped Philomela and cut out her tongue,
and in revenge she and Procne served
him the flesh of his murdered son Itys.

While the Greek gods could use

transformation punitively – such as
Medusa, turned to a monster for having
sexual intercourse with Poseidon in
Athena's temple – even more frequently,
the tales using it are of amorous
adventure. Zeus repeatedly transformed
himself to approach mortals as a means
of gaining access:[2]

Danaë as a shower of gold

Europa as a bull
Leda as a swan
Ganymede, as an eagle
Alcmene as her husband Amphitryon
Hera as a cuckoo
Leto as a quail
Semele as a mortal shepherd
Io, as a cloud
Nemesis (Goddess of retribution)
transformed into a goose to escape
 Zeus' advances, but he turned into a
swan. She later bore the egg in which
Helen of Troy was found.

Vertumnus transformed himself into an

old woman to gain entry to Pomona's
orchard; there, he persuaded her to marry
him.

Gianlorenzo Bernini Apollo pursuing an unwilling

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo pursuing an unwilling
Daphne who transforms into a laurel tree

In other tales, the woman appealed to

other gods to protect her from rape, and
was transformed (Daphne into laurel,
Cornix into a crow). Unlike Zeus and other
gods' shapeshifting, these women were
permanently metamorphosed.

In one tale, Demeter transformed herself

into a mare to escape Poseidon, but
Poseidon counter-transformed himself
into a stallion to pursue her, and
succeeded in the rape. Caenis, having
been raped by Poseidon, demanded of him
that she be changed to a man. He agreed,
and she became Caeneus, a form he never
lost, except, in some versions, upon death.

As a final reward from the gods for their

hospitality, Baucis and Philemon were
transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of
trees.

In some variants of the tale of Narcissus,

he is turned into a narcissus flower.
"Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth" by Maxfield
Parrish

Sometimes metamorphoses transformed

objects into humans. In the myths of both
Jason and Cadmus, one task set to the
hero was to sow dragon's teeth; on being
sown, they would metamorphose into
belligerent warriors, and both heroes had
to throw a rock to trick them into fighting
each other to survive. Deucalion and
Pyrrha repopulated the world after a flood
by throwing stones behind them; they were
transformed into people. Cadmus is also
often known to have transformed into a
dragon or serpent towards the end of his
life. Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, a
statue he had made. Aphrodite had pity on
him and transformed the stone to a living
woman.

British and Irish …

Fairies, witches, and wizards were all

noted for their shapeshifting ability. Not all
fairies could shapeshift, and some were
limited to changing their size, as with the
spriggans, and others to a few forms and
other fairies might have only the
appearance of shapeshifting, through their
power, called "glamour," to create
illusions.[3] But others, such as the Hedley
Kow, could change to many forms, and
both human and supernatural wizards
were capable of both such changes, and
inflicting them on others.[4]

Witches could turn into hares and in that

form steal milk and butter.[5]
Many British fairy tales, such as Jack the
Giant Killer and The Black Bull of Norroway,
feature shapeshifting.

Celtic mythology …

Pwyll was transformed by Arawn into

Arawn's own shape, and Arawn
transformed himself into Pwyll's, so that
they could trade places for a year and a
day.

Llwyd ap Cil Coed transformed his wife

and attendants into mice to attack a crop
in revenge; when his wife is captured, he
turned himself into three clergymen in
succession to try to pay a ransom.

Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion

transform flowers into a woman named
Blodeuwedd, and when she betrays her
husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who is
transformed into an eagle, they transform
her again, into an owl.

Gilfaethwy committed rape with help from

his brother Gwydion. Both were
transformed into animals, for one year
each. Gwydion was transformed into a
stag, sow and wolf, and Gilfaethwy into a
hind, boar and she-wolf. Each year, they
had a child. Math turned the three young
animals into boys.

Gwion, having accidentally taken some of

the wisdom potion that Ceridwen was
brewing for her son, fled from her through
a succession of changes that she
answered with changes of her own, ending
with his being eaten, a grain of corn, by her
as a hen. She became pregnant, and he
was reborn in a new form, as Taliesin.

Tales abound about the selkie, a seal that

can remove its skin to make contact with
humans for only a short amount of time
before it must return to the sea. Clan
MacColdrum of Uist's foundation myths
include a union between the founder of the
clan and a shapeshifting selkie.[6] Another
such creature is the Scottish selkie, which
needs its sealskin to regain its form. In The
Great Silkie of Sule Skerry the (male) selkie
seduces a human woman. Such stories
surrounding these creatures are usually
romantic tragedies.

Kelpie by Herbert James Draper: transformed into a

human
Scottish mythology features shapeshifters,
which allows the various creatures to trick,
deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water
spirits such as the each-uisge, which
inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland,
were said to appear as a horse or a young
man.[4] Other tales include kelpies who
emerge from lochs and rivers in the
disguise of a horse or woman in order to
ensnare and kill weary travelers. Tam Lin, a
man captured by the Queen of the Fairies
is changed into all manner of beasts
before being rescued. He finally turned into
a burning coal and was thrown into a well,
whereupon he reappeared in his human
form. The motif of capturing a person by
holding him through all forms of
transformation is a common thread in
folktales.[7]

Perhaps the best-known Irish myth is that

of Aoife who turned her stepchildren, the
Children of Lir, into swans to be rid of
them. Likewise, in the Tochmarc Étaíne,
Fuamnach jealously turns Étaín into a
butterfly. The most dramatic example of
shapeshifting in Irish myth is that of Tuan
mac Cairill, the only survivor of Partholón's
settlement of Ireland. In his centuries long
life he became successively a stag, a wild
boar, a hawk and finally a salmon prior to
being eaten and (as in the Wooing of
Étaín) reborn as a human.

The Púca is a Celtic faery, and also a deft

shapeshifter. He can transform into many
different, terrifying forms.

Sadhbh, the wife of the famous hero Fionn

mac Cumhaill, was changed into a deer by
the druid Fer Doirich when she spurned his
amorous interests.

Norse …
In the Lokasenna, Odin and Loki taunt
each other with having taken the form of
females and nursing offspring to which
they had given birth. A 13th-century Edda
relates Loki taking the form of a mare to
bear Odin's steed Sleipnir which was the
fastest horse ever to exist, and also the
form of a she-wolf to bear Fenrir.[8]

Svipdagr angered Odin, who turned him

into a dragon. Despite his monstrous
appearance, his lover, the goddess Freyja,
refused to leave his side. When the warrior
Hadding found and slew Svipdagr, Freyja
cursed him to be tormented by a tempest
and shunned like the plague wherever he
went. In the Hyndluljóð, Freyja transformed
her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal
him. She also possessed a cloak of falcon
feathers that allowed her to transform into
a falcon, which Loki borrowed on
occasion.

The Volsunga saga contains many

shapeshifting characters. Siggeir's mother
changed into a wolf to help torture his
defeated brothers-in-law with slow and
ignominious deaths. When one, Sigmund,
survived, he and his nephew and son
Sinfjötli killed men wearing wolfskins;
when they donned the skins themselves,
they were cursed to become werewolves.

The dwarf Andvari is described as being

able to magically turn into a pike. Alberich,
his counterpart in Richard Wagner's Der
Ring des Nibelungen, using the Tarnhelm,
takes on many forms, including a giant
serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to
impress or intimidate Loki and
Odin/Wotan.

Fafnir was originally a dwarf, a giant or

even a human, depending on the exact
myth, but in all variants he transformed
into a dragon—a symbol of greed—while
guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother,
Ótr, enjoyed spending time as an otter,
which led to his accidental slaying by Loki.

In Scandinavia, there existed, for example,

the famous race of she-werewolves known
with a name of Maras, women who took
on the appearance of the night looking for
huge half-human and half-wolf monsters.
If a female at midnight stretches the
membrane which envelopes the foal when
it is brought forth, between four sticks and
creeps through it, naked, she will bear
children without pain; but all the boys will
be shamans, and all the girls Maras.
The Nisse is sometimes said to be a
shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to
Huldra.

Gunnhild, Mother of Kings (Gunnhild

konungamóðir) (c. 910  –  c. 980), a quasi-
historical figure who appears in the
Icelandic Sagas, according to which she
was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe, was
credited with magic powers - including the
power of shapeshifting and turning at will
into a bird. She is the central character of
the novel Mother of Kings by Poul
Anderson,[9] which considerably elaborates
on her shapeshifting abilities.
Other lore …

Armenian …

In Armenian mythology, shapeshifters

include the Nhang, a serpentine river
monster than can transform itself into a
woman or seal, and will drown humans
and then drink their blood; or the beneficial
Shahapet, a guardian spirit that can appear
either as a man or a snake.[10]

Indian …

Ancient Indian mythology tells of Nāga,

snakes that can sometimes assume
human form. Scriptures describe
shapeshifting Rakshasa (demons)
assuming animal forms to deceive
humans. The Ramayana also includes the
Vanara, a group of apelike humanoids who
possessed supernatural powers and could
change their shapes.[11][12][13]

Yoginis were associated with the power of

shapeshifting into female animals.[14]

In the Indian fable The Dog Bride from

Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil
Henry Bompas, a buffalo herder falls in
love with a dog that has the power to turn
into a woman when she bathes.
Philippines …

Philippine mythology includes the Aswang,

a vampiric monster capable of
transforming into a bat, a large black dog,
a black cat, a black boar or some other
form in order to stalk humans at night. The
folklore also mentions other beings such
as the Kapre, the Tikbalang and the
Engkanto, which change their appearances
to woo beautiful maidens. Also, talismans
(called "anting-anting" or "birtud" in the
local dialect), can give their owners the
ability to shapeshift. In one tale, Chonguita
the Monkey Wife,[15] a woman is turned
into a monkey, only becoming human
again if she can marry a handsome man.

Tatar …

Tatar folklore includes Yuxa, a hundred-

year-old snake that can transform itself
into a beautiful young woman, and seeks
to marry men in order to have children.

"Madame White Snake" Picture on long veranda in the

Summer Palace, Beijing, China
Chinese …

Chinese mythology contains many tales of

animal shapeshifters, capable of taking on
human form. The most common such
shapeshifter is the huli jing, a fox spirit
which usually appears as a beautiful
young woman; most are dangerous, but
some feature as the heroines of love
stories. Madame White Snake is one such
legend; a snake falls in love with a man,
and the story recounts the trials that she
and her husband faced.

Japanese …
Kuzunoha the fox woman, casting a fox shadow

In Japanese folklore ōbake are a type of

yōkai with the ability to shapeshift. The
fox, or kitsune is among the most
commonly known, but other such
creatures include the bakeneko, the mujina
and the tanuki.

Korean …
Korean mythology also contains a fox with
the ability to shapeshift. Unlike its Chinese
and Japanese counterparts, the kumiho is
always malevolent. Usually its form is of a
beautiful young woman; one tale recounts
a man, a would-be seducer, revealed as a
kumiho.[16] The kumiho has nine tails and
as she desires to be a full human, she uses
her beauty to seduce men and eat their
hearts (or in some cases livers where the
belief is that 100 livers would turn her into
a real human).

Somali …
In Somali mythology Qori ismaris ("One
who rubs himself with a stick") was a man
who could transform himself into a
"Hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a
magic stick at nightfall and by repeating
this process could return to his human
state before dawn.

Southern Africa …

ǀKaggen is Mantis, a demi-urge and folk

hero of the ǀXam people of southern
Africa.[17] He is a trickster god who can
shape shift, usually taking the form of a
praying mantis but also a bull eland, a
louse, a snake, and a caterpillar.[18]
Trinidad and Tobago …

The Ligahoo or loup-garou is the

shapeshifter of Trinidad and Tobago's
folklore. This unique ability is believed to
be handed down in some old creole
families, and is usually associated with
witch-doctors and practitioners of African
magic.[19][20]

Mapuche (Argentina and Chile) …

The name of the Nahuel Huapi Lake in

Argentina derives from the toponym of its
major island in Mapudungun (Mapuche
language): "Island of the Jaguar (or
Puma)", from nahuel, "puma (or jaguar)",
and huapí, "island". There is, however, more
to the word "Nahuel" - it can also signify "a
man who by sorcery has been transformed
into a puma" (or jaguar).

Folktales …

In the Finnish tale The Magic Bird, three

young sorceresses attempt to murder a
man who keeps reviving. His revenge is
to turn them into three black mares and
have them harnessed to heavy loads
until he is satisfied.
In The Laidly Worm of Spindleston
Heugh, a Northumbrian legend from
about the thirteenth century, Princess
Margaret of Bamburgh is transformed
into a dragon by her stepmother; her
motive sprung, like Snow White's
stepmother's, from the comparison of
their beauty.[21]
In Child ballad 35, "Allison Gross", the
title witch turns a man into a wyrm for
refusing to be her lover. This is a motif
found in many legends and folktales.[22]
In the German tale The Frog's
Bridegroom , recorded by folklorist and
ethnographer Gustav Jungbauer, the
third of three sons of a farmer, Hansl, is
forced to marry a frog, which eventually
turns out to be a beautiful woman
transformed by a spell.
In some variants of the fairy tales, both
The Frog Prince or more commonly The
Frog Princess and Beast, of Beauty and
the Beast, are transformed as a form of
punishment for some transgression.
Both are restored to their true forms
after earning a human's love despite
their appearance.
In the most famous Lithuanian folk tale
Eglė the Queen of Serpents, Eglė
irreversibly transforms her children and
herself into trees as a punishment for
betrayal while her husband is able to
reversibly morph into a serpent at will.
In East of the Sun and West of the Moon,
the hero is transformed into a bear by
his wicked stepmother, who wishes to
force him to marry her daughter.[23]
In The Marmot Queen by Italo Calvino, a
Spanish queen is turned into a rodent by
Morgan le Fay.
In The Mare of the Necromancer, a Turin
Italian tale by Guido Gozzano, the
Princess of Corelandia is turned into a
horse by the baron necromancer for
refusing to marry him. Only the love and
intelligence of Candido save the
princess from the spell.
The Deer in The Wood, a Neapolitan tale
written by Giambattista Basile,
describes the transformation of
Princess Desiderata into a doe by a
jealous fairy.
From a Croatian book of tales, Sixty
Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic
Sources by A. H. Wratislaw, the fable
entitled "The she-wolf" tells of a huge
she-wolf with a habit of turning into a
woman from time to time by taking off
her skin. One day a man witnesses the
transformation, steals her pelt and
marries her.
The Merchant's Sons is a Finnish story of
two brothers, one of whom tries to win
the hand of the tsar's wicked daughter.
The girl does not like her suitor and
endeavors to have him killed, but he
turns her into a beautiful mare which he
and his brother ride. In the end he turns
her back into a girl and marries her.
In Dapplegrim if the youth found the
transformed princess twice, and hid
from her twice, they would marry.
 In literary fairy tale The Beggar Princess,
in order to save her beloved prince,
Princess Yvonne fulfills the tasks of
cruel king Ironheart and is changed into
an old woman.[24]

Themes
Shapeshifting may be used as a plot
device, such as when Puss in Boots in the
fairy tales tricks the ogre into becoming a
mouse to be eaten. Shapeshifting may
also include symbolic significance, like the
Beast's transformation in Beauty and the
Beast indicates Belle's ability to accept
him despite his appearance.[25]
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When a form is taken on involuntarily, the

thematic effect can be one of confinement
and restraint; the person is bound to the
new form. In extreme cases, such as
petrifaction, the character is entirely
disabled. On the other hand, voluntary
shapeshifting can be a means of escape
and liberation. Even when the form is not
undertaken to resemble a literal escape,
the abilities specific to the form allow the
character to act in a manner that was
previously impossible.
Examples of this are in fairy tales. A prince
who is forced into a bear's shape (as in
East of the Sun and West of the Moon) is a
prisoner, but a princess who takes on a
bear's shape voluntarily to flee a situation
(as in The She-Bear) escapes with her new
shape.[26] In the Earthsea books, Ursula K.
Le Guin depicts an animal form as slowly
transforming the wizard's mind, so that the
dolphin, bear or other creature forgets it
was human, making it impossible to
change back. This makes an example for a
voluntary shapeshifting becoming an
imprisoning metamorphosis.[27] Beyond
this, the uses of shapeshifting,
transformation, and metamorphosis in
fiction are as protean as the forms the
characters take on. Some are rare, such as
Italo Calvino's "The Canary Prince" is a
Rapunzel variant in which shapeshifting is
used to gain access to the tower.

Punitive changes …

In many cases, imposed forms are punitive

in nature. This may be a just punishment,
the nature of the transformation matching
the crime for which it occurs; in other
cases, the form is unjustly imposed by an
angry and powerful person. In fairy tales,
such transformations are usually
temporary, but they commonly appear as
the resolution of myths (as in many of the
Metamorphoses) or produce origin myths.

"Svipdag transformed" by John Bauer

Transformation chase …
In many fairy tales and ballads, as in Child
Ballad #44, The Twa Magicians or Farmer
Weathersky, a magical chase occurs where
the pursued endlessly takes on forms in an
effort to shake off the pursuer, and the
pursuer answers with shapeshifting, as, a
dove is answered with a hawk, and a hare
with a greyhound. The pursued may finally
succeed in escape or the pursuer in
capturing.

The Grimm Brothers fairy tale Foundling-

Bird contains this as the bulk of the
plot.[28] In the Italian Campania Fables
collection of Pentamerone by Gianbattista
Basile, tells of a Neapolitan princess who,
to escape from her father who had
imprisoned her, becomes a huge she-bear.
The magic happens due to a potion given
to her by an old witch. The girl, once gone,
can regain her human aspect.

In other variants, the pursued may

transform various objects into obstacles,
as in the fairy tale "The Master Maid",
where the Master Maid transforms a
wooden comb into a forest, a lump of salt
into a mountain, and a flask of water into a
sea. In these tales, the pursued normally
escapes after overcoming three
obstacles.[29] This obstacle chase is
literally found worldwide, in many variants
in every region.[30]

In fairy tales of the Aarne–Thompson type

313A, The Girl Helps the Hero Flee, such a
chase is an integral part of the tale. It can
be either a transformation chase (as in
The Grateful Prince, King Kojata, Foundling-
Bird, Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the
Devil's Daughter, or The Two Kings'
Children) or an obstacle chase (as in The
Battle of the Birds, The White Dove, or The
Master Maid).[31]
In a similar effect, a captive may
shapeshift in order to break a hold on him.
Proteus and Nereus's shapeshifting was to
prevent heroes such as Menelaus and
Heracles from forcing information from
them.[32] Tam Lin, once seized by Janet,
was transformed by the faeries to keep
Janet from taking him, but as he had
advised her, she did not let go, and so
freed him.[33] The motif of capturing a
person by holding him through many
transformations is found in folktales
throughout Europe,[7] and Patricia A.
McKillip references it in her Riddle-Master
trilogy: a shapeshifting Earthmaster finally
wins its freedom by startling the man
holding it.

Powers …

One motif is a shape change in order to

obtain abilities in the new form. Berserkers
were held to change into wolves and bears
in order to fight more effectively. In many
cultures, evil magicians could transform
into animal shapes and thus skulk about.

In many fairy tales, the hero's talking

animal helper proves to be a shapeshifted
human being, able to help him in its animal
form. In one variation, featured in The
Three Enchanted Princes and The Death of
Koschei the Deathless, the hero's three
sisters have been married to animals.
These prove to be shapeshifted men, who
aid their brother-in-law in a variant of tale
types.[34]

In an early Mayan text, the Shapeshifter, or

Mestaclocan, has the ability to change his
appearance and to manipulate the minds
of animals. In one tale, the Mestaclocan
finds a dying eagle. Changing into the form
of an eagle, he convinces the dying bird
that it is, in fact, not dying. As the story
goes they both soar into the heavens, and
lived together for eternity.

Bildungsroman …

Beauty and the Beast, by Anne Anderson

Beauty and the Beast has been interpreted

as a young woman's coming-of-age, in
which she changes from being repulsed by
sexual activity and regarding a husband
therefore bestial, to a mature woman who
can marry.[35]

Needed items …

Valkyries as swan maidens, having shed their swan

skins.
Some shapeshifters are able to change
form only if they have some item, usually
an article of clothing. In Bisclavret by
Marie de France, a werewolf cannot regain
human form without his clothing, but in
wolf form does no harm to anyone. The
most common use of this motif, however,
is in tales where a man steals the article
and forces the shapeshifter, trapped in
human form, to become his bride. This
lasts until she discovers where he has
hidden the article, and she can flee.
Selkies feature in these tales. Others
include swan maidens and the Japanese
tennin.

Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, in The

Wonderful Adventures of Nils, included a
version of the story with the typical
elements (fisherman sees mermaids
dancing on an island and steals the
sealskin of one of them, preventing her
from becoming a seal again so that he
could marry her) and linked it to the
founding of the city of Stockholm [36]

Inner conflict …
The power to externally transform can
symbolize an internal savagery; a central
theme in many strands of werewolf
mythology,[37] and the inversion of the
"liberation" theme, as in Dr Jekyll's
transformation into Mr. Hyde.

Usurpation …
Sister Alenushka Weeping about Brother Ivanushka
by Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian variant of Brother and
Sister: Alenushka laments her brother's
transformation into a goat.

Some transformations are performed to

remove the victim from his place, so that
the transformer can usurp it. Bisclaveret's
wife steals his clothing and traps him in
wolf form because she has a lover. A
witch, in The Wonderful Birch, changed a
mother into a sheep to take her place, and
had the mother slaughtered; when her
stepdaughter married the king, the witch
transformed her into a reindeer so as to
put her daughter in the queen's place. In
the Korean Transformation of the Kumiho,
a kumiho, a fox with magical powers,
transformed itself into an image of the
bride, only being detected when her
clothing is removed. In Brother and Sister,
when two children flee from their cruel
stepmother, she enchants the streams
along the way to transform them. While
the brother refrains from the first two,
which threaten to turn them into tigers and
wolves, he is too thirsty at the third, which
turns him into a deer. The Six Swans are
transformed into swans by their
stepmother,[38] as are the Children of Lir in
Irish mythology.
Ill-advised wishes …

Many fairy-tale characters have expressed

ill-advised wishes to have any child at all,
even one that has another form, and had
such children born to them.[39] At the end
of the fairy tale, normally after marriage,
such children metamorphose into human
form. Hans My Hedgehog was born when
his father wished for a child, even a
hedgehog. Even stranger forms are
possible: Giambattista Basile included in
his Pentamerone the tale of a girl born as a
sprig of myrtle, and Italo Calvino, in his
Italian Folktales, a girl born as an apple.
Sometimes, the parent who wishes for a
child is told how to gain one, but does not
obey the directions perfectly, resulting in
the transformed birth. In Prince Lindworm,
the woman eats two onions, but does not
peel one, resulting in her first child being a
lindworm. In Tatterhood, a woman
magically produces two flowers, but
disobeys the directions to eat only the
beautiful one, resulting her having a
beautiful and sweet daughter, but only
after a disgusting and hideous one.

Less commonly, ill-advised wishes can

transform a person after birth. The Seven
Ravens are transformed when their father
thinks his sons are playing instead of
fetching water to christen their newborn
and sickly sister, and curses them.[40] In
Puddocky, when three princes start to
quarrel over the beautiful heroine, a witch
curses her because of the noise.

Monstrous bride/bridegroom …

Such wished-for children may become

monstrous brides or bridegrooms. These
tales have often been interpreted as
symbolically representing arranged
marriages; the bride's revulsion to
marrying a stranger being symbolized by
his bestial form.[41]

The heroine must fall in love with the

transformed groom. The hero or heroine
must marry, as promised, and the
monstrous form is removed by the
wedding. Sir Gawain thus transformed the
Loathly lady; although he was told that this
was half-way, she could at his choice be
beautiful by day and hideous by night, or
vice versa, he told her that he would
choose what she preferred, which broke
the spell entirely.[42] In Tatterhood,
Tatterhood is transformed by her asking
her bridegroom why he didn't ask her why
she rode a goat, why she carried a spoon,
and why she was so ugly, and when he
asked her, denying it and therefore
transforming her goat into a horse, her
spoon into a fan, and herself into a beauty.
Puddocky is transformed when her prince,
after she had helped him with two other
tasks, tells him that his father has sent
him for a bride. A similar effect is found in
Child ballad 34, Kemp Owyne, where the
hero can transform a dragon back into a
maiden by kissing her three times.[43]
Sometimes the bridegroom removes his
animal skin for the wedding night,
whereupon it can be burned. Hans My
Hedgehog, The Donkey and The Pig King
fall under this grouping. At an extreme, in
Prince Lindworm, the bride who avoids
being eaten by the lindworm bridegroom
arrives at her wedding wearing every gown
she owns, and she tells the bridegroom
she will remove one of hers if he removes
one of his; only when her last gown comes
off has he removed his last skin, and
become a white shape that she can form
into a man.[1]
In some tales, the hero or heroine must
obey a prohibition; the bride must spend a
period of time not seeing the transformed
groom in human shape (as in East of the
Sun and West of the Moon), or the
bridegroom must not burn the animals'
skins. In The Brown Bear of Norway, The
Golden Crab, The Enchanted Snake and
some variants of The Frog Princess,
burning the skin is a catastrophe, putting
the transformed bride or bridegroom in
danger. In these tales, the prohibition is
broken, invariably, resulting in a separation
and a search by one spouse for the
other.[1]
Death …

Ghosts sometimes appear in animal form.

In The Famous Flower of Serving-Men, the
heroine's murdered husband appears to
the king as a white dove, lamenting her
fate over his own grave. In The White and
the Black Bride and The Three Little Men in
the Wood, the murdered – drowned – true
bride reappears as a white duck. In The
Rose Tree and The Juniper Tree, the
murdered children become birds who
avenge their own deaths. There are African
folk tales of murder victims avenging
themselves in the form of crocodiles that
can shapeshift into human form.[44]

In some fairy tales, the character can

reveal himself in every new form, and so a
usurper repeatedly kills the victim in every
new form, as in Beauty and Pock Face, A
String of Pearls Twined with Golden
Flowers, and The Boys with the Golden
Stars. This eventually leads to a form in
which the character (or characters) can
reveal the truth to someone able to stop
the villain.

Similarly, the transformation back may be

acts that would be fatal. In The Wounded
Lion, the prescription for turning the lion
back into a prince was to kill him, chop
him to pieces, burn the pieces, and throw
the ash into water. Less drastic but no less
apparently fatal, the fox in The Golden Bird,
the foals in The Seven Foals, and the cats
in Lord Peter and The White Cat tell the
heroes of those stories to cut off their
heads; this restores them to human
shape.[45] In the Greek tale of Scylla,
Scylla's father Nisus turns into an eagle
after death and drowns her daughter for
betraying her father.

Modern
Fiction …

In George MacDonald's The Princess

and Curdie (1883) Curdie is informed
that many human beings, by their acts,
are slowly turning into beasts. Curdie is
given the power to detect the
transformation before it is visible, and is
assisted by beasts that had been
transformed and are working their way
back to humanity.[46]
L. Frank Baum concluded The Marvelous
Land of Oz (1904) with the revelation
that Princess Ozma, sought by the
protagonists, had been turned into a boy
as a baby, and that Tip (who had been
searching for her) is that boy. He agrees
to have the transformation reversed, but
Glinda the Good disapproves of
shapeshifting magic, so it is done by the
evil witch Mombi.[47]
The science fiction short story "Who
Goes There?" written by John W.
Campbell (later adapted to film as The
Thing from Another World and The
Thing) concerns a shapeshifting alien
lifeform that can assume the form and
memories of any creature it absorbs.[48]
T. H. White, in the 1938 book The Sword
in the Stone, has Merlin and Madam
Mim fight a wizards' duel, in which the
duelists would endlessly transform until
one was in a form that could destroy the
other.[49] He also had Merlin transform
Arthur into various animals as an
educational experience.[50]
In C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia,
Eustace Scrubb transforms into a
dragon,[51] and the war-monger
Rabadash into a donkey.[52] Eustace's
transformation is not strictly a
punishment – the change simply reveals
the truth of his selfishness. It is reversed
after he repents and his moral nature
changes. Rabadash is allowed to
reverse his transformation, providing he
does so in a public place, so that his
former followers will know that he had
been a donkey. He is warned that, if he
ever leaves his capital city again, he will
become a donkey permanently, and this
prevents him leading further military
campaigns.
Both the Earthmasters and their
opponents in Patricia A. McKillip's 1976
The Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy make
extensive use of their shapeshifting
abilities for the powers of their new
forms.[53]
 James A. Hetley's contemporary fantasy
books Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth
centers on the Morgan family of
Stonefort, Maine - present-day
Americans who are secretly able to turn
themselves into seals at will (and
making extensive use of that ability in
their fighting with various other
characters).

Popular culture …

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

featured a shapeshifting female prisoner
who was involved in nearly killing James
Kirk, but was killed herself.
Founders (Star Trek) name of a race of
Shapeshifting/changelings featured in
Star Trek Series:Deep Space Nine.
The Twilight Saga also features
shapeshifters that can transform into
wolves and have inhuman strength,
speed, body temperature and aging
process.[54]
In the Doctor Who episode "Terror of the
Zygons", the main antagonists, called
the Zygons, can shapeshift into humans
and other animals (such as horses).
However, they need to keep the copied
person or animal alive in order to be able
 to change back into their natural
form.[55]
American band Nahr Alhumam 's debut
album is named "Transmogrification,
contains themes around physical and
spiritual shapeshifting of the earth as a
planet. [56]

See also
Glamour
Marvel Comics' Skrull extraterrestrial
beings (1962–present)
Resizing (fiction)
Skin-walker
 Soul eater (folklore)
The Thing (1982 film)

Notes

Citations …

1. Terri Windling, "Married to Magic:

Animal Brides and Bridegrooms in
Folklore and Fantasy Archived 2006-
11-11 at the Wayback Machine"
2. Richard M. Dorson, "Foreword", p xxiv,
Georgias A. Megas, Folktales of
Greece, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago and London, 1970
3. Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of
Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies,
Boogies, and Other Supernatural
Creatures, "Glamour", p. 191. ISBN 0-
394-73467-X
4. Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of
Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies,
Boogies, and Other Supernatural
Creatures, "Shape-shifting", p360.
ISBN 0-394-73467-X
5. Eddie Lenihan and Carolyn Eve Green,
Meeting The Other Crowd: The Fairy
Stories of Hidden Ireland, p. 80
ISBN 1-58542-206-1
6. Scottish Highlanders and Native
Americans: indigenous education in
the eighteenth-century Atlantic world
Margaret Szasz 2007 University of
Oklahoma Press
7. Francis James Child, The English and
Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, pp. 336–
7, Dover Publications, New York 1965
8. Gill, N. S. "Loki – Norse Trickster
Loki" . about.com. Retrieved
2010-06-18.; Stephan Grundy,
"Shapeshifting and Berserkergang," in
Translation, Transformation, and
Transubstantiation, ed. Carol Poster
and Richard Utz (Evanston: IL:
 Northwestern University Press, 1998),
pp. 104–22.
9. Tor Books, 2003
10. "Armenian Mythology" by Mardiros H.
Ananikiam, in Bullfinch's Mythology
11. Vanamali, Mataji Devi (2010).
Hanuman: The Devotion and Power of
the Monkey God Inner Traditions,
USA. ISBN 1-59477-337-8. pp. 13.
12. Goldman, Robert P. (Introduction,
translation and annotation) (1996).
Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of
Ancient India, Volume V:
Sundarakanda . Princeton University
 Press, New Jersey. 0691066620. pp.
45–47.
13. Smith (2006), pp. 195–202.
14. <Hatley, Shaman (2007). The
Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva
Cult of Yoginīs . University of
Pennsylvania (PhD Thesis, UMI
Number: 3292099. p. 14.
15. Fansler, Dean s.; Filipino Popular
Tales;
16. Heinz Insu Fenkl, "A Fox Woman Tale
of Korea Archived 2006-11-11 at the
Wayback Machine"
17. Dorothea F. Bleek, Bushman
Dictionary , p. 296, at Google Books
18. Bleek (1875) A brief account of
Bushman folklore and other texts
19. "TNT Folklore" . triniview.com.
Retrieved 2017-01-16.
20. "Caribbean History Archives" . Gerard
A. Besson. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
21. Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales,
"The Laidly Worm of Spindleston
Heugh"
22. Child (1965), pp. 313–314.
23. Maria Tatar, p. 193, The Annotated
Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-
 3
24. Brady, Loretta Ellen. The Green Forest
Fairy Book. Boston: Little, Brown and
Company. 1920. pp. 132-169.
25. Wilson (1976), p. 94.
26. Marina Warner, From the Beast to the
Blonde: On Fairy Tales And Their
Tellers, p. 353 ISBN 0-374-15901-7
27. Colbert (2001), pp. 28–29.
28. Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the
Folk Tale, p. 57, ISBN 0-292-78376-0
29. Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the
Folk Tale, p 57, ISBN 0-292-78376-0
30. Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 56,
University of California Press, Berkeley
Los Angeles London, 1977
31. Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 89,
University of California Press, Berkeley
Los Angeles London, 1977
32. Colbert (2001), p. 23.
33. John Grant and John Clute, The
Encyclopedia of Fantasy,
"Transformation", p 960 ISBN 0-312-
19869-8
34. Stith Thompson, The Folktale, pp. 55–
6, University of California Press,
Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977
35. Jones (1995), p. 84.
36. Online text of Ch. VII in The Wonderful
Adventures of Nils [1]
37. Steiger (1999), p. xix.
38. Tatar (2004), p. 226.
39. Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads! p.
60 ISBN 0-691-06943-3
40. Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers
Grimm, p 136 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
41. Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads! pp.
140–141 ISBN 0-691-06943-3
42. Wilson (1976), p. 89.
43. Child (1965), p. 306.
44. Steiger, B. (1999). The Werewolf Book:
The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting
Beings. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-57859-078-
0.
45. Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the
Grimms' Fairy Tales, pp. 174–5,
ISBN 0-691-06722-8
46. Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p.
86 ISBN 0-253-17461-9
47. Jack Zipes, When Dreams Came True:
Classical Fairy Tales and Their
Tradition, pp. 176–7 ISBN 0-415-
92151-1
48. Steiger, B. (1999). "Werewolf and
Shapeshifter Filmography". The
Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of
Shape-Shifting Beings. p. 385.
ISBN 978-1-57859-078-0.
49. This scene is omitted in the story as
depicted in The Once and Future King;
see L. Sprague de Camp, Literary
Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The
Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p. 266
ISBN 0-87054-076-9
50. John Grant and John Clute, The
Encyclopedia of Fantasy,
"Transformation", p. 960 ISBN 0-312-
19869-8
51. Erik J. Wielenberg, "Aslan the Terrible"
pp. 226–7 Gregory Bassham ed. and
Jerry L. Walls, ed. The Chronicles of
Narnia and Philosophy ISBN 0-8126-
9588-7
52. James F. Sennett, "Worthy of a Better
God" p. 243 Gregory Bassham ed. and
Jerry L. Walls, ed. The Chronicles of
Narnia and Philosophy ISBN 0-8126-
9588-7
53. John Grant and John Clute, The
Encyclopedia of Fantasy,
"Shapeshifting", p. 858 ISBN 0-312-
19869-8
 54. Meyer, Stephenie (2008). Breaking
Dawn. Little, Brown and Company.
ISBN 9780316032834.
55. "The Doctor Who Reference Guide:
The Zygon Who Fell to Earth" .
56. "Transmogrification" .

Bibliography …

Child, Francis James (1965). The English and

Scottish Popular Ballads. 1. Dover
Publications.
Colbert, David (2001). The Magical Worlds of
Harry Potter . 2001. ISBN 0-9708442-0-4.
Jones, Steven Swann (1995). The Fairy Tale:
The Magic Mirror of Imagination . Twayne
Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-0950-9.
Kachuba, John B. 2019. Shapeshifters: A
History. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
Smith, Frederick M. (2006). The Self
Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in
South Asian Literature . Columbia University
Press. ISBN 0-231-13748-6.
Steiger, B. (August 1999). The Werewolf
Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting
Beings. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-1-57859-
078-0.
Tatar, Maria (2004). The Annotated Brothers
Grimm. W. W. Norton & company. ISBN 0-
393-05848-4.
 Wilson, Anne (1976). Traditional Romance
and Tale. D.S. Brewer, Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN 0-87471-905-4.

Further reading
Hall, Jamie (2003). Half Human, Half
Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related
Creatures. AuthorHouse. ISBN 1-4107-
5809-5.
Wood, Felicity. "The Shape-Shifter on the
Borderlands: A Comparative Study of the
Trickster Figure in African Orality and in
Oral Narratives Concerning one South
African Trickster, Khotso Sethuntsa."
English in Africa (2010): 71-90.
 Zaytoun, Kelli D. "“Now Let Us Shift” the
Subject: Tracing the Path and
Posthumanist Implications of La
Naguala/The Shapeshifter in the Works
of Gloria Anzaldúa." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic
Literature of the United States 40.4
(2015): 69–88.

External links
Real Shapeshifters Website Dedicated
to the study of shapeshifting
phenomena (realshapeshifters.com)
Shapeshifters in Love  – A series of
articles about shapeshifting characters
in romance and speculative fiction.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Shapeshifting&oldid=989585338"

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