Changeling
The baby is laughing in ways I don’t like.
Sinister giggling is odd for a tyke.
I heard words as such that I do not adore,
while he hid from me deep in the dresser drawer.
Now I am scared to leave him alone;
This troublesome child who would ruin my home.
What mischief he’d make in the cottage, I fear.
The mood that I see in his eyes is severe.
Where went my baby, the one who was sweet?
Did someone exchange him when I was asleep?
Surreptitiously elves came down from the wood,
And switched their bad mannered child for my good.
They left me with theirs, the one who is bitter;
This one who has turned my boy’s room into litter.
Pray instead, this one whom I toss in to burn
Should fly up the flue and let mine be returned.
Changeling
I want to thank you for visiting my page about Changelings.
This simple rhyme is intended for something simple to add to a collection of rhymes for children.
It is not my intention to present all the answers about changelings on this page.
My hope is merely to spark something new to think about within a child’s mind.
Imagination is best when it is your own, so I present this rhyme as a catalyst.
A Changeling is a child, or an infant, who was traded for another one who was better.
Most often the changeling was exchanged surreptitiously, without permission of the other one’s parents.
The change would occur if the fairies had a baby that was ugly or stupid or otherwise strange.
The fairies would find a household that had a good baby, and secretly trade them off.
To call someone a changeling nowadays would be a sly way of saying you think they are stupid or ugly.
But you might also call someone a changeling if you think they are fickle or change their minds a lot.
The suspicion of whether or not your baby was a changeling would be aroused by the sudden strange activity of the baby.
Maybe the baby had an insatiable appetite or a sudden temper.
There’s also the mystery of what fate befell the good child who was stolen.
Sometimes the fairies would simply love the child.
Other times the fairies would make their human-changeling a servant.
It was also feared that sometimes the exchange occurred just out of sheer malice.
For more information on Changelings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling
compares Changeling mythology across various cultures.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080516/
displays information about the 1980s movie; The Changeling, written by Russell Hunter.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/britchange.html
This is an excellent source for folklore on Changelings.
Changeling
My hobbies include writing poetry about the faeries, elves, gnomes, mermaids and magic of the Sebastopol, Bodega Bay, Sonoma County area.
I wrote Nude Tea which is available at online bookstores like Barnes and Nobles.
My
44 Summer Stories are published by WildChildPublishing.com
|
My Stories |
| Dyan N. Livven |
| Joey Slitherton |
| Remember The Children |
| A Mermaid Story |
| Mermaid of Zennor |
| Defender of the Last Elf |
| A Mermaid Song |
My Pages:
Home Page of course
Nude Tea 2 Not at all like the original Nude Tea ~ these tales are not for children.
The Ballad of Norman Knudleman
Robert Graves, Symptoms of Love
To Be or Not To Be, by me as well as Shakespeare
William Wordsworth, We are Seven
William Morris, The Sirens
Zennor, the Mermaid Legend