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A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being.
Oct 6, 2021 · One such creature, a tale to haunt any family, was the changeling, historically known as an oaf or an auf. The changeling appears again and again in folk tales throughout Europe. The changeling would appear in the bed of an infant, and superficially it resembled the child it replaced, but it was not human and the original child had disappeared.
- Bipin Dimri
Oct 29, 2023 · When a changeling is allowed to grow into an adult human, it’s usually called “an oaf”. It’s also said that changelings typically bring great misfortune to the homes they are placed in. The one redeeming quality of changelings seems to be that they grow up with a love and affinity for music.
Nov 12, 2023 · In European folklore, a changeling (a.k.a. auf or oaf) is the malformed or imbecilic offspring of a fairy or elf secretly sent to replace a human baby. According to folklore, the kidnapped human babies are either given to the devil or used to bolster fairy populations.
A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human -like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being.
Changeling, in European folklore, a deformed or imbecilic offspring of fairies or elves substituted by them surreptitiously for a human infant. According to legend, the abducted human children are given to the devil or used to strengthen fairy stock.
A baby whose defects were not obvious at birth but appeared in the first year or two could thus be explained as not truly human. In 16th- and 17th-century England, such an infant was called either a ‘changeling’ or an ‘auf’ or ‘oaf’—a variant of ‘elf’, defined by the ...
