Most people who believe in faeries, and would even go so far as to
seek their company, believe them to be creatures of light and love, who
want nothing but the best for their human counterparts. Many Wiccan's
will actually go so far as to invite them to join in with a ritual.
However, the undeniable truth about the fae is that historically they were creatures that were feared and loathed. They were blamed for many things that went wrong and were avoided at all costs.
An article I came across had this to say about their history:
"Like today’s aliens, fairies were believed to have
deployed many devious methods to abduct human babies. In one story from
Denmark, a troll kidnaps a pregnant woman and replaces her with a
doppelgänger to cover his crime. The tale begins when a blacksmith
working at his forge late one evening sees a troll driving a woman
along the road. The blacksmith uses a red-hot iron to scare away the
troll. When he takes the rescued woman to his house she immediately
gives birth to twins. Thinking the woman’s husband will want to know
what has happened, the blacksmith goes to their home the next morning.
Much to his surprise he finds the man in bed with a woman who is the
exact image of his wife. The blacksmith, knowing that this woman is a
fake provided by the troll, kills her with a blow from his axe; after
which, the man is reunited with his wife and the two new additions to
his family. [5]
In the Orkney Islands they sometimes call the fairy folk
‘trows’. Trows are ugly little creatures, thought to live in the
ancient mounds on the islands. Their homes are large, well lit,
lavishly decorated and always contain plenty of fine foodstuffs.
Generally, the trows are mischievous creatures that like to play tricks
on people; they were mainly feared for their tendency to steal human
babies. The trows’ own children were weak and sickly, so at any
opportunity they would swap them for healthy human infants. To prevent
this, women were carefully guarded by family and friends, both while
they were pregnant and after giving birth.
When trows abducted adults (or animals) they would cover
their crime by replacing them with exact replicas. These replicas were
called ‘stocks’ and were usually left in the person’s bed (or animal’s
stall) to hide the act. [6]
In many regions, it was thought that an infant was
particularly vulnerable to being replaced by a fairy changeling before
it was christened. To ward off this danger, open scissors would be
placed on the baby when it was left alone; alternatively, a cross made
out of mountain ash or a red thread placed round its neck were probably
safer options. In Ireland, according to George Waldron, you can get rid
of a changeling baby by putting a mixture of oatmeal and boiling
digitalis in its mouth, or by putting it on a red-hot shovel; needless
to say, neither of these courses of treatment should be tried at home!
[7]
If parents believed their child was a changeling, they had
an excuse to beat, whip and torture it to force the fairy parents to
return the real human infant. In the 16th century, it was feared that
some humans would actually help the fairies to steal babies; as a
result, midwives had to swear not to substitute babies or to use
magical incantations during childbirth. As David Sivier put it:
“These beliefs have the function of explaining the
occurrence of deformed children and assuaging the grief felt by their
parents when they eventually pass away. After all, if the children were
really malicious spirits, and not the couple’s own children, then
there was no point in grieving over their deaths. On the contrary, if
the creatures were evil, their final demise should be a cause of
celebration.” [8]
Today, instead of fairies, it’s often the authorities who
are blamed for swapping babies. One such case in the 1990s involved a
couple in London, who had a Downs Syndrome baby they would not accept
as their own. The mother had given birth to four healthy babies
previously, and could not believe that her fifth was any different.
Both mother and father thought that the hospital staff had swapped this
baby with their healthy one. [9]"
Bibliography:
Doppelgänger Effect - Doppelgängers in old fairy lore, modern science fiction and ufology
Nigel Watson / Images: Jonathan Burton |
November 2007 |
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/903/doppelgnger_effect.html
