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SUPERNATURAL TALES (means of expression (changelings (explanations…

- - - - social issues encoded
        
        abduction, abuse, alcoholism, etc.
      - subtext clear
        
        inconvenient moral issues
        
        Black - whispered accusations (symbols)
    - - unacceptable behaviour in patriarchal societies
  - - - reading of supernatural entity
        
        society at early stage
        
        rationalising what can't be explained
      - Celtic & Germanic cultures
        
        all over the world
  - - - early modern scotland (1600-1800)
        
        infant mortality 1 in 4
        
        significant risk to mother
        
        Church implicates midwives
        
        c.f. witch trials
      - Malleus Maleficarum (1486)
        
        devil's plan
        
        first ref to changelings
        
        developments blamed on parents
        
        thoughts/actions during pregnancy
    - - explain illegitimate child/archaic perceptions of infant disability
      - extreme measures 2000BC
        
        continue through Middle Ages
    - - disabilities
        
        hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, cretinism, dwarfing syndrome, down's syndrome, not looking alike/parents, irritable, TB/polio, poor digestion, etc.
      - justification for infanticide
        
        rationalisation of serious illness/congenital disorder
      - attributing change/unexpected to supernatural intervention
- - - - liminal, betwixt man and angel
      - less constricted by space
        
        inversion of human world
        
        no different to that under the sea - soon will understand
      - examines armour, religion, etc.
    - - enabled by technology
      - part of God's creation
        
        in a much more sympathetic light
  - - - 4ft tall & dressed in green
      - small, human sized, large
      - physical defects
        
        one nostril, one eye, long breasts, webbed feet
    - - fairy gifts
        
        could help, sometimes expected to repay
        
        could kill or cripple
        
        fairy touch inflicts injury
        
        wear out humans/animals
      - same activity, time passes slowly
        
        carding, weaving, food and drink
    - - gender differences
        
        female - abandonment anxiety
        
        men - tendency to leave them with a child
        
        male - kidnap human lovers
      - Speyside tale
        
        two wives - his or the community's?
- - - - steal & leave changeling in their place
      - most common 'fairy' tale
    - - dancing, drinking, cursing, biting
    - - left out overnight, heat, drowning/killing
  - - - breaking of taboo
    - - divine