Reddit mentions of The Good People: New Fairylore Essays

Folklore studies initially had a great deal of interest in how real-life issues entwined themselves with traditions and beliefs about supernatural beings. An early pivotal work dealing with this was the work of Elisabeth Hartmann (1912-2004), Die Trollvorstellungen in den Sagen und Märchen der Skandinavischen Völker – The Troll Beliefs in the Legends and Folktales of the Scandinavian Folk, a doctoral dissertation, published in 1936 under the direction of Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1878-1952) and his former student, Sven S. Liljeblad (1899-2000). Hartmann went to great lengths to talk about circumstances that reinforced various stories and beliefs, not the least of which was the obvious relationship of infant infirmities and changeling legends. Corresponding with Dr. Hartmann in the last five years of her life, Hartmann confided that she felt her 1936 work had become dated and that elements such as the "causes" of folklore belief were particularly vulnerable to changes in the was folklorists viewed these sorts of traditions.

The problem with this line of enquiry is that it can be taken to mean that the changeling tradition existed so that it could be "used to justify infanticide of deformed/disabled children." Now, most folklorists would probably not agree with this statement. The tradition existed, as most traditions exist - simply because they existed. Then there is a process of real-life circumstance reinforcing the tradition. And there is also a process of tradition affecting real-life behaviors. The traditions and beliefs concerning changelings is part of a larger idea with international distribution that supernatural beings seek to abduct people. In Europe, infants (especially males) and young women were particularly vulnerable. This core belief was not caused by real-life circumstances, but reality affected the tradition and the tradition affected how one behaved and came to understand what was in one's environment.

A classic study of a real, non-infant abduction case that eventually went to trial in Ireland was handled well by Angela Bourke in The Burning of Bridget Cleary. Discussions of folklore analysis of Northern European fairies (including the issues surrounding changeling traditions) can be found in Peter Narvaez, ed., The Good People: New Fairylore Essays (1997). In an effort to update this work, Simon Young and Ceri Houlbrooks have edited a collection of essays on British and Irish fairies, which is due to appear later this year (I have an article in it on Cornish piskies).

There are similar stories internationally, largely because of the core fact that not all mothers are attentive, infants die or are born deformed, and the birth and rearing of an infant is infused with so much intense emotion that any failure in the process will result in a reaction in the oral tradition. Not to go down the path of trying to find causal relationships between real-life circumstance and belief. One example from my Introduction to Folklore:

>In North America’s Great Basin, Northern Paiute tradition includes the paúngaa’a, which translates as “water baby,” a name that does not match the sinister quality of the creature. This ruler of the water plays an important role in a testimonial legend that tells of a woman who left her infant in a cradleboard by the water while she gathered edible plants. She hears her infant crying, and so she returns and attempts to suckle the baby. When the baby opens its mouth, it reveals huge fangs, and it bites into the breast of the woman. It is, in fact, the paúngaa’a, which has devoured the baby and is now chewing on the mother. The woman must quickly summon a shaman with paúngaa’a power to chant the demon away. The supernatural being responds by retreating back into the water. This legend warns about the dangers of the water and about not being an attentive mother.

edit: just a quick, additional thought: it is a matter of modern unverified folk belief that "behind every legend there is a real event." Efforts to find those real events behind legends have invariable failed. Folklore is influenced by reality and it in turn influences real life, but finding a core event or circumstance that created a legend - that is solely responsible for its existence - is usually impossible or nearly so.