Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

I really enjoyed Brewery of Eggshells because changelings are something that has always fascinated me.

Matter of fact – the show of the gods: Supernatural – did an episode about changelings titled The Kids Are Alright.  However, there were no eggshells involved – instead they described the changeling as feeding off of the mother’s synovial fluids.

(Sidebar: synovial fluids are just joint fluids.)

In Supernatural, the changeling’s true form is reflected in a mirror – showing off their large, mouths filled with multiple circular rows and of teeth.  Their faces also appear stretched and their eyes seem to disappear completely.

They are created by a mother changeling, who replaces the human children with her own so that her children can feed off the human mothers.

 

Changeling

But, in folklore the changelings are children of fairies, trolls, elves, or – as seen in the story – goblins who are left with human parents.  Not totally unlike cuckoo birds – who lay eggs in the nests of other birds (and those birds actually raise the cuckoo chick which is just crazy).

While the woman was able to determine if the children were changelings by boiling some potage inside an egg, Supernatural has Sam and Dean, the two main characters who are brothers, set the changeling mother on fire.  Because, as the old internet adage goes – fire is the best way to unwant something.

 

Demotivational Posters, ftw.

After the woman in the tale threw the children into the river (and Sam and Dean kill the changeling mother – thus killing the changeling children) the human children returned to their mother.