Storybook Guide/Key

Author: Sarah Tucker

There is a region known only to the fairies and other supernatural creatures, the forest Divei Ilai. Only magical creatures can enter the forest. Within the forest, there is a ruling Council where all major decisions are made and where punishments for infractions are decided. It is in the chambers of the Council that the story begins. Arethusa, a fairy who is accused of switching her niece with a human child, is being called to account for her action in front of the Council.

The Council is made up of four elders and two assistants to the Council. The Elders are: Titania, a fairy who is the Head Elder of the Council; Overon, an elf; Luella, an elf who defended Divei Ilai from attack many years ago; and Foster, a fairy who is the Guardian of Divei Ilai.

Radella, the elfin assistant to the Council, is in charge of maintaining order and controlling the accused. Orin, a fairy and the second assistant to the Council, is the impartial orator of the accused crimes. The Council's system to find innocence or guilt does not allow the accused to defend themselves. The first assistant to the Council, Radella, is also responsible for gathering information about the alleged crimes. She investigates the supposed crimes and interviews those who witnessed the crimes. The second assistant Orin, who is to remain impartial, travels with Radella as she investigates. Orin will then report to the Council and the Council will make a ruling. It is here, with Orin addressing the Council about the alleged crimes, that the story begins.

------

"The fairy Arethusa is accused of switching her newborn niece, Ellette, for a human child from Nithsdale. Arethusa abandoned her daughter and took the human child back to Divei Ilai. If the abandonment of her niece is not enough of an infraction, she also alerted the humans to our presence when she went during the night to Nithsdale to switch the two children. When the fairy child, Ellette, awoke she became frightened for she was in a new and very strange environment without the contact of her family. It is understandable that the child began to act out. It was reported that the child cried throughout the days and nights, attacked the human mother and would not be calm despite the efforts of the humans to comfort her.

Because of the fussing of the fairy child, the nursemaid to the human put poor Ellette into the fire on smoldering coals. This barbaric action by the humans was done because they know that fairies cannot resist helping one of their own when they are in pain. The humans believe that if they make the fairy children scream that the fairies will come. When Ellette began screaming in pain, her shrieking alerted all of the fairies in the surrounding area. The fairies came in mass to the home of the humans where Ellette was being tortured. When they saw what was happening, the fairies removed Ellette from the fire. While the majority of the fairies were attempting to remove Ellette from the fire and then calm her, one noble fairy asked the human women why they were harming the innocent child."

"Innocent?" said the human woman, "This child, which is not my child, is not innocent. It has been wailing and thrashing about for days."

The noble fairy, after seeing the disregard for life by the human woman, did not want to return the human child. Nevertheless, it is not our custom to keep human children, which is another one of the crimes Arethusa committed. Because of this, the noble fairy ordered one of the fairies, Eglantine, who was attempting to calm Ellette, to go find Ellette's family. Eglantine eventually found Arethusa. Arethusa, after hearing about the all of the trouble, agreed to return the human child to its rightful home.

Thus, Arethusa has not only endangered her niece, Ellette, and caused the child to undergo abuse by the humans; she has also exposed our culture to the humans. These are not slight infractions Arethusa has committed but major breaches to our code of secrecy and ethics."

-------

After Orin stopped recounting the crimes to the Council, Head Elder Titania stood to address the Council and Arethusa.

"The Council will take the seriousness of the crimes into account when we make out decision. Radella, Please remove Arethusa from the circle while the Council deliberates on her fate," said Titania.

Author's Note:

Folk tales about Changelings come from all over Europe, in particular Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia. A Changeling is a fairy, elf, or troll child that is switched, usually by the parents, for a human child. The origins of this story are believed to have surfaced during the middle ages and were an explanation for badly behaved babies. If a baby all of a sudden began acting out or crying for long periods, it was thought that the human child had been switched for a mystical child. Mystical children were thought to be more troublesome and more intelligent than human children are. It was also believed that if you made the "changeling" cry due to severe pain that the true mother of the child would come and rescue the changeling and give the humans back their children.

In the retelling, I changed the point of view of the story from that of the human family to that of the fairies. I added a whole slew of new characters to the story. In the original story, the fairies are not named. I wanted to have semi-authentic names for my characters, so I researched some old fairy stories and then looked in some baby name books for Old English names. There were a few things that I changed from the original story. I changed the gender of the changeling child from male to female and I changed how the fairy child escaped from the fireplace. I wanted the fairies to have a more active role in the story so I had the fairies facilitate the fairy child's removal from the human home. I chose this story because it is an excellent example of fairy mischievousness, which is the topic of my storybook.

Image Information:

"Bland Tomtar och Troll" by John Bauer (c) 1913
Website

Biblography:

Title: The Changeling
Author: Thomas Keightley
Book and Year: The Fairy Mythology (1870)
Webpage