German Changeling Legends
translated and edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 1998
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How to Protect Your Child, Jacob
Grimm, German Mythology
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The Elves, Jacob and Wilhelm
Grimm, Children's and Household Tales
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The Nixie Changelings from the
Saal River,
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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The Changeling, Jacob and
Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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Changelings in the
Water, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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A Changeling is Beaten
with a Switch,
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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Keeping Watch over
Children, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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The Rye-Mother,
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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The Two Underground
Women,
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
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The Nickert, A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, North German Legends, Tales,
and
Customs
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Changeling Beliefs in Altmark,
J. D. H. Temme, Folk Legends from Altmark
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The Changeling,
Karl Haupt, The Legend Book of Lausitz
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The Dwarf's Confession,
August Ey, Legends and Tales from the Upper Harz
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The Changeling of Plau,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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The Underground People
Try to Steal a Child,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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The Changeling of
Spornitz,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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The Underground People
of Lüth Farm,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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Mecklenburg Changelings,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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The Underground
People Steal a Child,
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
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The Changeling,
Johann August Ernst Köhler, Legend Book of Erzgebirge
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Table Talks on
Changelings, Martin Luther
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The Changeling of
Cüstrinichen,
J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian State
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The
Underground People of Amrum,
J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian State
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The Underground People at
Lüttensee, J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian
State
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Phantom Swedes,
Karl Lyncker, German Legends and Customs in the Hessian Districts
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The Changeling,
Anton Altrichter, Legends from the Iglau Language Island
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Satan Attempts to Steal a Child
Johann Adolf Heyl, Folk Legends, Customs, and Beliefs from Tyrol
Jacob Grimm, German Mythology
- Placing a key next to an infant will prevent him from being exchanged.
- Women may never be left alone during the first six weeks following
childbirth, for the devil then has more power over them.
- 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.
- 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).
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Children's and Household Tales
A mother had her child taken from the cradle by elves. In its place they
laid a changeling with a thick head and staring eyes who would do nothing
but eat and drink. In distress she went to a neighbor and asked for
advice. The neighbor told her to carry the changeling into the kitchen,
set it on the hearth, make a fire, and boil water in two eggshells. That
should make the changeling laugh, and if he laughs it will be all over
with him. The woman did everything just as her neighbor said. When she
placed the eggshells filled with water over the fire, the blockhead said:
Now I am as old
As the Wester Wood,
But have never seen anyone cooking in shells!
And he began laughing about it. When he laughed, a band of little elves
suddenly appeared. They brought the rightful child, set it on the
hearth, and took the changeling away.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen,
no. 39/III.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
From time to time nixies would emerge from the Saal River and go into the
city of Saalfeld where they would buy fish at the market. They could be
recognized by their large, dreadful eyes and by the hems of their skirts
that were always dripping wet. It is said that they were mortals who, as
children, had been taken away by nixies, who had then left changelings in
their place.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no.
60. The
passage above is an extract from a longer depiction of nixies and related
water spirits in the Elbe and Saal Rivers.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
At Hessloch near Odernheim in the Gau the servant and the cook of a
clergyman were living together as man and wife, although they had not
been able to have their relationship publicly consecrated. They had a
child together, but it failed to grow and gain weight. It cried day and
night, always demanding to be fed.
Finally the woman sought advice, and was told that the baby would improve
if she would take it to Neuhausen on the Cyriak Meadow, have it weighed
there, and give it water from the Cyriak Spring. At that time it was
believed that in such cases a child thus would be restored to health or
would die within nine days. [Note 1]
As the woman approached the millrace near Westhofen, the child, whom she
was carrying on her back, became so heavy that she began to pant, and the
sweat began running from her face. At that moment a traveling student
approached her, saying: "Woman, what sort of wild creature are you
carrying? It will be a miracle if it doesn't break your neck!"
She answered that it was her own dear child that would neither grow nor
gain weight, and that she was therefore taking it to Neuhausen to have it
weighed.
He replied: "That is not your child! It is the devil! [Note 2] Throw
him into the brook!"
She did not want to do this, insisting that it was her child while
kissing it.
He continued: "Your child is at home in a new cradle behind the chest in
the side room. Throw this monster into the brook!"
Crying and sobbing she did has she had been told. Immediately there
issued a great cry and commotion from beneath the bridge she was standing
on, like the howling of wolves and bears. And when the mother arrived
home, she found her baby, hearty and healthy, laughing in its new cradle.
Note 1: A changeling generally does not live longer that seven
years;
according to others, they live eighteen or nineteen years. [Footnote in
the original]
Note 2: For the devil removes the rightful children from their cradles,
takes them away, and replaces them with his own. Hence the name
"changeling." [Footnote in the original]
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 82.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
Near Halberstadt a peasant had a killcrop that sucked its mother and five
wet nurses dry, all the while eating voraciously.(for they eat more than
ten other children). It behaved in such a manner that they became tired
of it. The peasant was advised that he should take the child on a
pilgrimage in praise of the Virgin Mary to Heckelstadt and have him
weighed at that place.
The good peasant followed this advice. He put the child in a pack basket
and set forth carrying it on his back. He was about to cross over a
stream on a bridge when he heard a shout from the water beneath him:
"Killcrop! Killcrop!"
The child in the basket, who had until now never spoken a word, answered:
"Ho! Ho!" The peasant did not expect this, and it startled him.
Then the devil in the water asked further: "Where are you going?"
The killcrop above answered "I am going to Heckelstadt to our Dear Lady,
and have myself weighed, that I might thrive."
When the peasant heard that the changeling could talk perfectly well, he
became angry and threw him, together with the basket, into the water.
Then the two devils came together, cried out "Ho! Ho! Ha!" and
frolicked and jousted with one another, and then disappeared.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 83.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
The following true story took place in the year 1580. Near Breslau there
lived a distinguished nobleman who had a large crop of hay every summer
which his subjects were required harvest for him. One year there was a
new mother among his harvest workers, a woman who had barely had a week
to recover from the birth of her child. When she saw that she could not
refuse the nobleman's decree, she took her child with her, placed it on a
small clump of grass, and left it alone while she helped with the
haymaking. After she had worked a good while, she returned to her child
to nurse it. She looked at it, screamed aloud, hit her hands together
above her head, and cried out in despair, that this was not her child:
It sucked the milk from her so greedily and howled in such an inhuman
manner that it was nothing like the child she knew.
As is usual in such cases, she kept the child for several days, but it
was so ill-behaved that the good woman nearly collapsed. She told her
story to the nobleman. He said to her: "Woman, if you think that this
is not your child, then do this one thing. Take it out to the meadow
where you left your previous child and beat it hard with a switch. Then
you will witness a miracle."
The woman followed the nobleman's advice. She went out and beat the
child with a switch until it screamed loudly. Then the Devil brought
back her stolen child, saying: "There, you have it!" And with that he
took his own child away.
This story is often told and is known by both the young and the old in
and around Breslau.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no.
88.
This legend is also recounted in J. G. Th. Grässe, Sagenbuch des
Preußischen Staats, vol. 1 (Glogau: Verlag von Carl Flemming,
1871), no. 171, p. 183.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
A reliable citizen of Leipzig told the following story: When his first
child was a few weeks old they found it on three different nights lying
crossways and uncovered in its cradle, even though the cradle stood
immediately next to the mother's bed. The father therefore resolved to
stay awake during the third night and to pay close attention to his
child. He persisted a long while, staying awake until after midnight.
Nothing happened to the child, because he had been keeping a watchful eye
on it. But then his eyes began to close a little. Shortly afterward the
mother woke up and saw that the child was again lying crossways, and that
the cover had been taken from the cradle and thrown across the middle of
her bed. In keeping with common custom, she normally folded the cover
back at the foot of the cradle. Everything had happened so fast that
everyone was amazed. However, the demon did not seem to have had any
further power over the child.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 89.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
The rural people of Mark Brandenburg tell the legend of the Rye-Mother
who hides in grain fields. For this reason children do not dare to walk
into a grain field.
In Altmark children a kept silent with the words: "Hold your mouth or the
Rye-Mother, with her long black tits, will come and take you away!"
In the vicinity of Braunschweig and Lüneburg she is called the
Grain-Wife. Children seeking cornflowers tell one another stories about
how she steals little children; and hence they do not dare go too far
into the green fields.
In the year 1662 a woman from Saalfeld told Prätorius the following
story: A nobleman from there forced one of his subjects, a woman who had
given birth less than six weeks earlier, to help bind sheaves during the
harvest. The woman, who was still nursing her baby, took it with her to
the field. In order better to perform her work, she laid the child on
the ground. Some time later, the nobleman, who was present there, saw an
Earth-Woman with a child come and exchange it for the peasant woman's
child. The false child began to cry. The peasant woman hurried to it in
order to nurse it, but the nobleman held her back, saying that he would
tell her the reason in good time. The woman thought that he was doing
this in order to make her work harder, which caused her great concern.
Meanwhile, the child cried incessantly, until finally the Rye-Mother
returned, picked up the crying child, and layed the stolen child back in
its place.
After seeing all of this transpire, the nobleman summoned the peasant
woman and told her to return home. And from that time forth he resolved
to never again force a woman who had recently given birth to work.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 90.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Legends
The following story was told to Prätorius by a student, whose mother
claimed that it happened in Dessau.
A woman gave birth to a child and laid it next to herself. She fell into
a deep sleep. The child had not yet been baptized. At midnight two
underground women came in and made a fire on the hearth. They placed a
kettle of water over the fire. Then they bathed the child they had
brought with them in the water, and carried it into the woman's room
where they exchanged it for her sleeping child.
They took the child away, but upon arriving at the first hill, they began
fighting over it, throwing it back and forth at each other like a ball.
The child began to cry, which woke up the housemaid. She looked at the
underground women's child and realized that an exchange had taken place.
She ran to the front of the house, where she found the women arguing
about the stolen child. She stepped into the fray and caught the child
as they were throwing it back and forth. With the child in her arms she
ran home. She placed the changeling outside the door, and the hill-women
came and took it back.
Source: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, no. 91.
A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, North German Legends, Tales, and
Customs
The Nickert is a small gray person that lives in the water and has a great
desire for human children. If they have not yet been baptized, he will
steal
them, leaving his own children in their place. They are very small, but
have
large, broad heads.
Once a woman on a journey gave birth to a child at Scharfenbrück. As
soon
as she had recovered and was crossing the Ruthe Bridge on her way home,
the
Nickert came upon her without being seen and stole her newborn child,
leaving in
its place his malformed brat with its thick head. It lived for eight
years, and
then died. If the woman had not crossed over running water with her
newborn,
the Nickert would not have been able to do anything to her.
The changelings that the Nickert substitutes for human children are very
strong,
often having more strength than three strong men together.
Once in Zühlichendorf there was a large Nickert child that was
completely
wild. He dirtied himself, and was almost like an animal. One day a
worker came
home with a heavily loaded wagon full of grain and ran into the gatepost
so hard
that he could not get loose. The Nickert child, who was sitting inside
next to
the window, saw what had happened and asked, "Should I help you?"
The bad-tempered worker replied, "You stupid quack, it's too heavy for
you!"
Then the Nickert child came outside and with one powerful shove pushed the
wagon
free. Three days later the Nickert child disappeared.
Source: A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und
Gebräuche (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1848), pp. 92-93.
J. D. H. Temme, Folk Legends from Altmark
- To prevent the "thickheads" (underground spirits) from exchanging a
newborn child, it must be continuously watched until it is baptized. For
this reason the baptism takes place as soon as possible.
- Dwarfs in the region between Salzwedel and Disdorf are not called
"thickheads," but rather "the underground people." Here the belief that a
child can be exchanged is especially strong. People fear that the
misshapen dwarfs who live beneath the earth, and who would like nothing
more than to have beautiful, well-formed human children, will steal
newborns, leaving their own malformed children, called changelings, in
their place. Therefore there is always a great rush to have the child
baptized, and until this happens the mother and child will not be left
alone for even an instant. Furthermore, until then there must always be a
burning light near them, even in broad daylight, because the underground
people are afraid of light.
- A child must carefully and continuously be protected against exchange
by the underground people until it is baptized. Therefore the so-called
"word of God," a leaf from the Bible from a hymnbook, is either wrapped up
with the child in its blanket or laid in its cradle.
Source: J. D. H. Temme, Die Volkssagen der Altmark (Berlin:
In der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1839), pp. 74, 82, 86.
Karl Haupt, The Legend Book of Lausitz
A child must always have someone nearby until it is six weeks old.
Otherwise, an old woman from the woods or the mountains could come and
exchange a physically and mentally retarded, malformed changeling for the
infant. At the very least, one must place a hymnbook near the child's
head before leaving the room. However, if--through negligence--the
misfortune does occur, you should take prompt notice of it. Then you
need only make a switch from the branches of a weeping birch tree and
beat the changeling severely with it. The old woman will respond to his
cries by bringing back the exchanged child and taking the beastly child
away. You must allow her to depart unhindered, neither scolding nor
cursing her, otherwise you will be left with the changeling hanging on
your neck.
Source: Karl Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz. Erster Theil:
Das
Geisterreich (Leipzig, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, 1862), p. 69.
Haupt's source is Leopold Haupt and J. E. Schmaler, Volkslieder der
Wenden in der Ober- und Niederlausitz (Grimma, 1841), vol. 2, p. 267.
August Ey, Legends and Tales from the Upper Harz
A mother had her child exchanged by the dwarfs, and in its place they
laid a changeling. The mother was concerned, because the child looked so
very old. She shared her grief with a laborer. He told her that it
wasn't her child, but rather a dwarf. She could prove this by boiling
some oil while holding the child and then asking him how old he was. The
woman did this. With the child on her arm, she put the oil on the fire.
It asked her what she was doing, and the mother said that she wanted to
brew some beer. With that she set some empty walnut shells around the
fire, so she could later pour the beer into them. Then the dwarf said,
innocently and without thinking:
Now I am as old
As the Harz Wood,
And I've never seen anything like this,
My entire life long.
Brewing beer in walnut shells!
Now the mother knew that it was an old dwarf. Thus she set him down and
threatened to kill him if he didn't bring her child back. The dwarf told
just to go outside for a short while. When she came back in, her child
was there and the dwarf was gone. Later the child became large, strong,
wealthy, and very happy.
Source: August Ey, Harzmärchenbuch; oder, Sagen und
Märchen
aus dem Oberharze (Stade: Verlag von Fr. Steudel, 1862), pp. 106-107.
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
A married couple in Plau had a child that after two years was still only
as long as a shoe. It had an enormously large head and could not learn
to talk. They shared their concern with an old man, who said: "For sure
the underground people have exchanged your child. If you want to be
certain about this, then take an empty eggshell and in the presence of
the child pour fresh beer into it, then add yeast to make it ferment. If
the child then starts to talk, then my suspicion is right." They
followed this advice. The beer had scarcely begun to ferment when the
child called out from its cradle:
Now I am as old
As Bohemian gold,
But this is the first I've ever heard tell,
Of beer being brewed in an eggshell.
The parents determined that the very next night they would throw the
child into the Elbe River. They arose after midnight and went to the
cradle, where they discovered a strong and healthy child. The
underground people had taken back their own child.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus
Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, p. 42.
Mecklenburg is in northeast Germany, bordering the Baltic Sea.
The dwarf's actual words, in the original Low German:
Ik bün so olt
as Böhmer Gold,
doch dat seih ik taum irsten Mal,
dat man Bier brugt in Eierschal.
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
In Lanken near Parchim a peasant woman was lying in bed one night with
her small child that had not yet been baptized. Because the moon was
shining, she blew out the light. Then she suddenly noticed that a little
woman was standing at the door next to the bell. She came to the bed and
took hold of the boy and wanted to take him away. The peasant woman held
as fast as she could, but the small person was pulling almost stronger
than she was. Then the peasant woman called for her husband, and when he
struck a light, the little woman disappeared.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus
Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, p. 46.
Bartsch's source for this legend is a secondary school student named Behm
from Parchim.
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
A young peasant woman in Spornitz had her child stolen by an underground
person or a Mönk, and a changeling put in its place in the cradle.
The mother saw it happen, but she could neither move nor call out. The
maniken told her that her son would someday become the king of the
underground people. From time to time they had to exchange one of their
king's children for a human child so that earthly beauty would not
entirely die out among them. She was told to take good care of the
little dwarf prince, and her house would be blessed with good fortune.
With that the Mönk laid the changeling on her breast and disappeared
with her child. She took care of the child, and the prosperity of her
household increased visibly. However, the changeling remained small and
ugly, and died in his twentieth year.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus
Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, p. 46.
Bartsch gives his source for this legend as "Niederhöffer 4, 154 ff."
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
It is said that the farmyard of Peasant Lüth in Spornitz was
formerly frequented by the underground people. Once when the peasant had
gone to town they exchanged his child for one of their own, one who had
an enormously large head and who did not grow properly, but who otherwise
was mentally all right. In order to get their own child back, acting on
the advice of a neighbor woman, the peasant's wife brewed beer in an
eggshell.
As she was doing it, the child asked: "What are you doing there?"
She answered: "I'm brewing."
Then the child said:
I am as old
As Bohemian gold,
And in all my days I've never seen such brewing.
Then the woman said: "I'll throw you in." Then the child began to cry.
The underground people heard it and brought her child back.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, pp.
46-47. Bartsch's source for this legend is a secondary school student
named Thoms from Parchim.
The verse in Low German:
Ik bün so olt
as Böhmegold
Ïwer so'n Brugen heww 'k min Dag nich seihn.
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
In Rövershagen the underground people once exchanged a woman's
unbaptized child for one of their own. Following the advice of a wise
man, she laid the underground people's child on the chopping block as
though she were going to kill it with an ax. The dwarf's child
immediately disappeared, and her own child was returned.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus
Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, p. 62.
Bartsch's source for this legend is Pastor Dolberg from Hinrichshagen.
Karl Bartsch, Legends, Tales, and Customs from Mecklenburg
According to an old woman from Witzin, in her village and in the entire
district of Sternberg, it was formerly the practice to keep a light
burning all night in the vicinity of a newborn child until it was
baptized. A certain woman who failed to do this had her child stolen by
the underground people, and they laid one of their own in its place.
The woman noticed the exchange the next day and asked her neighbor for
advice. She told her that she should "brew through an egg." The mother
followed this advice, and the changeling, who until now had not uttered a
sound, cried out:
I am as old
As Bohemian gold,
But I have never seen such brewing.
At this the woman cried out: "To the devil with you! You are not my
child!" Then there was a great commotion, and the changeling
disappeared, and the mother got back her own child.
Source: Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche
aus Meklenburg (Vienna, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1879), vol. 1, pp.
64-65. Bartsch's source is a seminary student from Zarrentin identified
by the initials "G. P."
Bartsch explains the phrase "brew through an egg" with the following
note: "This is done by opening an egg at both ends, but the one hole
must be larger than the other. One then pours water into the larger hole
and lets it drip out through the smaller one."
The verse in Low German:
Ik bün so olt
as Böhmer Gold,
doch sonn Brug'n heww ik noch nie seihn.
Johann August Ernst Köhler, Legend Book of Erzgebirge
A child less than six weeks old should not be carried "on the change,"
(that is, alternating between the right arm and the left arm), for
consequently it might be stolen by a changeling.
Source: Johann August Ernst Köhler, Sagenbuch des
Erzgebirges
(Schneeberg and Schwarzenberg: Verlag und Druck von Carl Moritz
Gärtner, 1886), no. 198, p. 154.
Note by Köhler: Here the changeling is the demon who exchanges
children. However, in the legends of Lausitz [See Karl Haupt
Sagenbuch der Lausitz (Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann,
1862), vol. 1, no. 71], a changeling is a mentally retarded, malformed
child that an old woman from the mountains or the woods has exchanged for
an unattended and unbaptized well formed child less than six weeks old.
Similarly, according to a Schlesian legend a water-nymph exchanged her
child for a human child that had been left alone in a field. The child
from the water-nymph remained retarded and was also called a changeling.
Martin Luther
Eight years ago [in the year 1532] at Dessau, I, Dr. Martin Luther, saw
and touched a changeling. It was twelve years old, and from its eyes and
the fact that it had all of its senses, one could have thought that it
was a real child. It did nothing but eat; in fact, it ate enough for any
four peasants or threshers. It ate, shit, and pissed, and whenever
someone touched it, it cried. When bad things happened in the house, it
laughed and was happy; but when things went well, it cried. It had these
two virtues. I said to the Princes of Anhalt: "If I were the prince or
the ruler here, I would throw this child into the water--into the Molda
that flows by Dessau. I would dare commit homicidium on him!"
But the Elector of Saxony, who was with me at Dessau, and the Princes of
Anhalt did not want to follow my advice. Therefore, I said: "Then you
should have all Christians repeat the Lord's Prayer in church that God
may exorcise the devil. They did this daily at Dessau, and the
changeling child died in the following year.... Such a changeling child
is only a piece of flesh, a massa carnis, because it has no soul.
Source: Martin Luther, Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe:
Tischreden (Weimar: Böhlau, 1912-1921), v. 5, p. 9.
Changelings and killcrops are laid in the place of legitimate children by
Satan in order to plague mankind. He often pulls certain girls into the
water, impregnates them, and keeps them with him until they deliver their
children; afterward he places these children in cradles, taking the
legitimate children away. But such changelings, it is said, do not live
more than eighteen or nineteen years.
Source: Martin Luther, Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe:
Tischreden (Weimar: Böhlau, 1912-1921), v. 4, p. 357.
A man who lived near Halberstadt in Saxony had a killcrop who had sucked
his mother and five additional wet nurses dry. Further, he was eating a
great deal and behaving very strangely. The man was told that he should
take the child on a pilgrimage to Hockelstadt to praise the Virgin Mary
and to have him weighed there. The peasant followed this advice and set
forth, carrying the child in a basket. But when he came to a bridge over
some water, a devil in the water beneath the bridge called out:
"Killcrop! Killcrop!" The child in the basket, who had never yet spoken
a word, answered: "Ho! Ho!" This startled the peasant. The devil in
the water then asked: "Where are you going?" The killcrop said: "I'm on
my way to Hockelstadt to Our Dear Lady, to have myself weighed there so
that I may grow." When the peasant heard the changeling speak, the first
time this had ever happened, he became angry and threw the child into the
water, basket and all. Then the two devils came together, shouted "Ho,
ho, ha!," played with each other, rolled around with each other, and
disappeared.
Satan plagues mankind with such changelings and killcrops by substituting
them for real children. Satan has the power to exchange children,
placing a devil in the cradle in the place of a child. This devil will
suck and eat like an animal, but it will not grow. Thus it is said that
changelings and killcrops do not live longer than eighteen or nineteen
years.
It happens often, that babies are exchanged during their first six weeks,
and that devils lay themselves in their place, making themselves
detestable by shitting, eating, and crying more than any ten other
children. The parents get no rest from such filthy beasts. The mothers
are sucked dry and are no longer able to nurse.... However, changeling
children should be baptized, because they cannot always be recognized as
such during their first year.
Source: Martin Luther, Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe:
Tischreden
(Weimar: Böhlau, 1912-1921), v. 4, pp. 357-358. This story is
included in the Deutsche Sagen (1816, no. 83) of Jacob and Wilhelm
Grimm.
J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian State
In the year 1565 in the village of Cüstrinichen in the New Mark
Brandenburg, the wife of a peasant named of Andreas Prawitz gave birth to
a child who was baptized with the name Matthias. The child originally
appeared to be perfectly normal, but by the time it had reached the age
of twenty it still lacked all reason, and had developed a repulsive
appearance. And even though it reached the legal age of majority and had
a beard upon its chin, it never learned to stand or to walk or even to
speak. When it was hungry it just whimpered or bellowed. It could not
move from one place to the next, and did nothing but eat and drink. Many
people thought that it must be a killcrop or a changeling, of the kind
that Luther discusses in his works.
Source: J. G. Th. Grässe, Sagenbuch des
Preußischen
Staats, vol. 1 (Glogau: Verlag von Carl Flemming, 1871), no. 59, p. 75.
J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian State
On the Island of Amrum there were many underground people, little
manikins or dwarfs no taller than a table. They wore red caps on their
heads. It was feared that if one did not keep watch over a newborn child
until it was baptized, it might be exchanged by the underground people.
Source: J. G. Th. Grässe, Sagenbuch des
Preußischen
Staats, vol. 1 (Glogau: Verlag von Carl Flemming, 1871), p. 1091.
This account (no. 1350, pp. 1091-1092) contains additional beliefs about
the underground people on the Island of Amrum in the North Sea.
J. G. Th. Grässe, Legend Book of the Prussian State
In the previous century in the vicinity of Lüttensee in Holstein
there were two girls with enormously large heads who were descendants of
the underground people who had exchanged them from the cradle for other
children. Previously, parents always kept a light burning near their
children and kept constant watch to prevent the underground people from
taking them away. It is said that the girls lived in a house that was
owned by a certain Eggert Möller, but no one knows what became of them.
Source: J. G. Th. Grässe, Sagenbuch des
Preußischen
Staats, vol. 1 (Glogau: Verlag von Carl Flemming, 1871), no. 1243, p.
1010.
Karl Lyncker, German Legends and Customs in the Hessian Districts
Since the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes have lived in dreadful memory
along the Kinzig River. "Swede," like "Croat," is a bad curse word, and
there are stories of male and female phantom Swedes as harmful beings and
evil sorcerers.
In Steinau, a woman, carrying her year and a half old boy on her arm,
came upon the Phantom Swedish Woman while walking across the street in
broad daylight. The latter grabbed the child and made it disappear. She
told the grieving mother to go back home, where she would find her child
in his bed. Seized by a deathly fear, the woman hurried home. In the
bed she saw a howling, ugly changeling, a boy with an extremely thick
head. With time the boy grew up, but he remained mentally retarded.
Source: Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in
hessischen
Gauen (Cassel: Verlag von Oswald Bertram, 1854), p. 110. Lyncker's
source: Dr. Bernstein from Schlüchtern.
Anton Altrichter, Legends from the Iglau Language Island [in
Moravia]
An old midwife related this, so it must be true. Until a child is
baptized, mysterious beings attempt to steal it and put a changeling in
its place. Such a changeling has a large head with coal-black hair and a
small body with thin legs, which do not learn to walk. When this
misfortune occurs, one must beat the changeling without mercy until the
thief returns the right child.
A woman had laid her as yet unbaptized baby in a canopied bed. The
cherries had just ripened, and the red, tempting fruit was beckoning
through the window from the garden. The new mother could not resist, and
went outside to pick a few cherries. She had scarcely crossed the
threshold when she was overcome by anxiety for her slumbering child, and
she quickly returned. There was, in fact, a being standing next to the
bed. The woman cried out and the being disappeared. The imprint of its
horrible paw, where it had grabbed for the child, could still be seen on
the canopied bed.
Source: Anton Altrichter, Sagen aus der Iglauer Sprachinsel
(Iglau: Druck von J. Rippel und Sohn, 1920), p. 100.
Johann Adolf Heyl, Folk Legends, Customs, and Beliefs from Tyrol
In the Sarn Valley there lived a farmer's wife who did not take
Christianity all too seriously. She failed to bless her children morning
and night. Nor was she good to people in other regards. She quarreled
with the servants, and no one did well enough to please her.
One evening she scolded the entire household and sent the children the
bed without giving them a blessing or having them say their prayers.
Suddenly the devil stood in the middle of the room, ripped the youngest
child from its bed and was about to carry it away. He was already at the
hole in the wall though which he had entered when the farmer's wife saw
him. She was terrified, but fortunately it occurred to her to make the
sign of the cross above the child. Seeing this, the devil dropped the
child to the floor and fled screaming back out through the hole.
That was a good lesson for the woman. She changed her ways and became
pious and patient, and she also had her children say their prayers.
Never again did she allow one of them to get up or go to bed without
receiving her blessing. However, no one was ever able to plaster shut
the hole that the devil had made in the wall in order to enter the house.
Source: Joh. Adolf Heyl, Volkssagen, Bräuche und
Meinungen aus
Tirol (Brixen: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Kath.-polit. Pressvereins,
1897), pp. 277-278.
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Revised October 30, 1998.
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