A concise documentary sourcebook on how changeling and fairy belief intersected with the Irish legal record in the 1800s: produced as a supplement to the The Exeter Companion to Changeling Lore: The West Eurasian and Mediterranean Tradition (University of Exeter Press). Drawing on court reports, psychiatric reports and newspaper coverage,
Changeling Crimes
presents twenty-three cases in which caregivers may have harmed children they believed were 'changelings, ' with dates, places, outcomes, and in some cases punishments. The preface situates changeling lore in Ireland, explains why child cases predominate here (as opposed to the separate tradition of adult 'stock' cases), and outlines the selection method. Intended for researchers and serious readers in folklore, Irish studies, social history, and criminology.
Content note:
includes historical accounts of harm to children.