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Fairies, Children and Changelings

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Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield talk about the strange interest that fairies take in human infants, and the plight of children who stumble into this world, and can’t get home.

We explore how fairies seem to have difficulty in giving birth, and they need humans midwives to help. One of the strangest medieval stories is that of the 'Green Children' who appear in the human world in twelfth-century Suffolk and can’t find their way home again. We also talk about changelings, the puny, wizened infants swapped by the fairies for healthy human children.

Date Published: 21 May 2020
Contributors:
Carolyne Larrington, Fay Hield, Brian McMahon, Marry Waterson, Ben Nicholls, Barney Morse-Brown
In Collection(s): Modern Fairies
Keywords:
fairies, changelings, green children, babies, Modern Fairies project
Source:
University of Oxford Podcasts
Cite: Fairies, Children and Changelings by Carolyne Larrington, Fay Hield, Brian McMahon, Marry Waterson, Ben Nicholls, Barney Morse-Brown at https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/fairies-children-and-changelings via http://writersinspire.org/content/fairies-children-changelings. Published on 21 May 2020. Accessed on 26 December 2024.

If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Fairies, Children and Changelings (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/fairies-children-and-changelings) by Carolyne Larrington, Fay Hield, Brian McMahon, Marry Waterson, Ben Nicholls, Barney Morse-Brown, licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).