INTERPRETING FOLKLORE: FAIRIES AND

CHANGELINGS
BY KAITLYN TULL
R.D. WILLIAMS’S THE FAIRIES OF KNOCKSHEHOWNA
A rustling, whirling sound sweeps by,
Like leaves on an Autumn breeze,
Tho’, since sunset fled, there was scarce a sigh
To stir the slumbering trees;
And a troop comes forth from the moonlight glen,
With such mist-like motion on,
That you may not find an injur’d flower
Where their coursers’ hoofs have gone

They glide along o’er the dewy banks,

On their viewless, filmy wings,
And anon and again from their restless ranks
The merry fairy laughter rings
In lonely dells…
 SOURCES UTILIZED

 STORIES/TALES
 The Lost Child (England, 1865)
 Ethna the Bride (Ireland, 1888)
 The Changelings (Sweden, 1893)

 MOVIE
 Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986)
 BACKGROUND OF THE STORIES/TALES

 The Lost Child (England, 1865)

 Little boy gathering wildflowers hears music and travels toward the sound
 Finds a clearing where the music is the strongest, becomes tired and naps on a bed of ferns
 Visited by a gorgeous woman in his dreams who show’s him the “fae realm”
 Not found by friends for many days
 Fairies returned him, pleased with his innocence and child like wonder
 BACKGROUND OF THE STORIES/TALES

 Ethna the Bride (Ireland, 1888)

 Finvarra the Fairy King lures Ethna, wife of a lord, into deep slumber
 She awakens and explains how she would like to be asleep once more to visit her dreams (land of the fae)
 As time goes on faint music can be heard throughout the castle, and Ethna disappears
 The young lord goes to Finvarra for help, not knowing that it was he who took his wife
 Overhears some fairies talking about his wife with Finvarra
 Begins to dig down into the Earth where Finvarra’s palace is and rescues his wife
 She is comatose and void of life, feared to have eaten food from the fairy realm
 Young lord takes enchanted pin that was on her dress and burns girdle, spreads the ashes around the door and buries enchanted pin
deep in the earth
 Wife returns to normal
 BACKGROUND OF THE STORIES/TALES

 The Changelings (Sweden, 1893)

 1st tale
 Child not baptized cannot have fire go out in room, have the water thrown out after it’s birth and must have a needle or some
steel object tied to diaper to prevent being taken
 Grandmother leaves room for a while, and fire goes out, baby is taken and a changeling is left in it’s place
 Doesn’t become apparent until the child cries horrendously during the baptismal ceremony
 Transforms into ugly creature and eats all of the food
 To get original child back, a fire must be made 3 Thursday evenings in succession and lay the young one on top of the baking
shovel and pretend to throw it in the fire
 On the third night, original baby brought back by ugly woman, claims she didn’t treat their baby this horribly
 BACKGROUND OF THE STORIES/TALES

 2nd tale
 Man going to trade flour spent nights with lovely couple who gave him shelter from the weather
 One day he arrived well after midnight and decided not to wake the couple, slept under his wagon
 Woke up to see ugly lady carrying infant walk up to house, set the infant down, and enter house
 The woman came back out with the couple’s baby, set the baby down, picked up hers, and reentered the house
 Man grabbed baby and hid him in his coat, and went back under the wagon
 Woman came back out, saw the baby was gone, and went back in the house for her baby, came back out and vanished
 Come morning time man returned original baby to frantic parents
 COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS
The Lost Child (England, 1865)
 Setting: nature
 Young boy entranced by the fairies with music:
slumber
 “Dreams”: shown beautiful hallways made of
exquisite crystal, sense of peace (fae realm)
 Boy wakes up (returned willingly by fairies): child
like wonder saved him
 Meaning: Children should not stray off the path
 (Little Red Riding Hood)
Ethna the Bride (Ireland, 1888)
 Setting: castle
 Young woman entranced by the fairies with music: slumber
 “Dreams”: visited land of beautiful beings and exquisite castle
 Ethna wakes up, disheartened and immediately wants to go
back to sleep to visit her dreams again
 Eventually disappears, has to be rescued (Damsel in distress)
and elaborate ceremony must be performed to return her to
reality
 Meaning: Young women need to be watched carefully
 Arranged marriages, story used as an example of choosing
one’s own destiny
 (Sleeping Beauty)
 COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS CONTINUED
The Lost Child (England, 1865)
 Child taken by fairies (lured away)
 Usually children that are returned, are done so by
maintaining child like sense of wonder
 For the most part, no physical harm befalls the child
that travels to the fae realm (little boy eventually
wakes up and is unharmed)
The Changelings (Sweden, 1893)
 Infant taken by fairies and swapped for fae baby
 Parents or adult close to family are almost always the
cause of the original baby being returned
 Not much has been said on children that are taken away
by the fairies, however, usually returned without
physical signs of abuse
 Almost always the original baby is returned by
pretending to or actually causing harm to the changeling
 In some cases however, the baby is never returned
 Infanticide was trying to be rationalized (second
changeling story of throwing baby into fire)
 Parents are unable to sufficiently provide for baby
JIM HENSON’S LABYRINTH (1986)

• Sarah Williams,15, loves the book The Labyrinth and reenacts it when
ever she can, often confronting the main antagonist of the book, the
Goblin King

• Feels oppressed by her step mother, and thinks of herself as a victim

• Always has to watch her baby brother (Toby)

• Fit of blind rage, summons the Goblin King to take Toby away, not really
expecting him to actually be taken away

• Has to solve the Labyrinth in less than 13 hours and confront the Goblin
King to rescue Toby or else he will become a Goblin
 KEY POINTS OF THE MOVIE THAT HIGHLIGHT THE COMMON
THEMES OF FAIRY STORIES
 Opening Scene: Sarah is in the park reenacting a scene from The Labyrinth

 This can relate back to The Lost Child, as child like wonder definitely plays a part in both of their curiosities with
fantasy related aspects
 KEY POINTS OF THE MOVIE THAT HIGHLIGHT THE COMMON
THEMES OF FAIRY STORIES

 Middle Scene: Sarah is given a peach from one of the friends she has made in the Labyrinth that sends her in to a
trance

• The eating of the food and the trance is reminiscent to

Ethna the Bride and how Ethna was feared to have eaten
food from the fairy realm and put in a trance
 KEY POINTS OF THE MOVIE THAT HIGHLIGHT THE MAIN
THEMES OF FAIRY STORIES
 A scene close to the end: Sarah confronts the Goblin King and demands Toby back

 This is reminiscent of both The Lost Child and Ethna the Bride
 The young boy in The Lost Child, though “dreaming” comes into direct contact with a fairy (however that fairy had no evil
intentions that we were made aware of
 The young Lord going to rescue Ethna and seeing her with the king and proceeding to rescue her really reminded of this
particular scene