Geeky folklore stuff (baby-related, trust me :-)

shaindelr · January 2012

Hey, All,

I'm reading an article on "The Erotic Economies of Desire in A Midsummer Night's Dream" so I can post discussion questions for my students, and I got to thinking about the "changeling boy" in the play. You know, when fairies or elves exchange one of their babies for a human baby, and I got to thinking how weird it would have been for us to be alive in a time and a culture when that was a fear we all would have had.

After some digging, I found a guide that would have helped us out:

How to Protect Your Child

Jacob Grimm, German Mythology

1. Placing a key next to an infant will prevent him from being exchanged.

2. Women may never be left alone during the first six weeks following childbirth, for the devil then has more power over them.

3. During the first six weeks following childbirth, mothers may not go to sleep until someone has come to watch the child. If mothers are overcome by sleep, changelings are often laid in the cradle. To prevent this one should lay a pair of men's pants over the cradle.

4. Whenever the mother leaves the infant's room she should lay an article of the father's clothing on the child, so that it cannot be exchanged.

Source: Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed. (1877), v. 3, pp. 450-460 (items 484, 509, 510, 744).

Twirple · January 2012

I would have swaddled Chase in one of his daddy's button-up shirts and taken a nap. Problem solved!

GHBEA · January 2012

Interesting.

LadyXaverian · January 2012

As if we don't have enough to worry about lol!!

shaindelr · January 2012

SarahL77:
As if we don't have enough to worry about lol!!

I definitely think it's interesting that the time that they believed "the devil" "has the most influence" over new mothers is the same time that we know that post-partum hormones are wreaking the most havoc on women... the first six weeks.

Here's the website I got this all from if you're interested :-)

https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/gerchange.html