The Fairy Body Snatchers: When Fairies Stole Babies… and the Dead

Most people know the old stories about fairies stealing babies. But do you know about the “Fairy Body Snatchers” fairies who stole the dead?

Tales of changelings tell how the fairy folk could take a healthy child and leave behind one of their own in its place.

One piece of Welsh folklore speaks of a woman who returned home to find not her baby in the cradle, but “some old decrepit changeling, which looked as if it were half famished, but nevertheless, it was nursed.”

So even though the child was believed to have been replaced, the mother still cared for it.

But fairies were not only said to steal children. Some traditions claimed they could take the dying and the dead as well.

The Fairy Body Snatchers

According to one account recorded in Ireland in the early 20th century, when someone died after a long illness, their family did not really bury their loved one at all. They buried a replacement.

The belief was that the fairies had taken the person’s body and soul into Fairyland, leaving behind the body of an elderly fairy in its place. The family would bury this substitute, believing it was their relative.

As the collector recorded: “The wasted body is not taken into the (fairy) hill… the real body and the soul are carried off together.”

Those taken by the fairies were believed to live on in perfect health beneath the fairy hill, while only the substitute body remained behind.

For more on these accounts – not to mention protective charms, strange fairy traditions, and even some sneaky sound effects – check out this week’s episode of Ghosts and Folklore of Wales podcast below… if you dare:

Until next time, nos da! 👻

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