ABSTRACT
The changeling is one of the most sinister motifs of traditional fairy folklore. The fairies – for their own inscrutable reasons – steal away a human infant and place in exchange a substitute. The imposter child – the 'changeling' – may be a fairy, or an inanimate object like a log of wood enchanted to be appear human. Changelings are a fertile subject for horror stories. This chapter focuses on a small group of recent changeling stories, from perhaps the first, Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild, to the most recent and most original, Frances Hardinge's Cuckoo Song. Cuckoo Song in general is deeply conscious of historical change. In an apparent paradox, Cuckoo Song, which begins with by far the most terrifyingly gothic evocation of the fear and horror of the changeling's predicament, ends with by far the most unequivocally celebratory and triumphant happy ending.
