Shapeshifters from the Celtic World

The statue of the selkie in Mikladalur, by Siegfried Rabanser, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68573408

There are many different kinds of shapeshifting and here we look at different examples from Ireland, Wales and Scotland that provide differing glimpses of shapeshifters in action in the myth, folklore, and tradition of these three Celtic nations.

Fairy Folklore: Come Away, O Human Child

Richard Dadd. Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke. 1855–64. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Image-Dadd_-_Fairy_Feller%27s.jpg

To be led astray, Peter Pan style, by a fairy – ‘pixie led’ – is an old fear from isolated communities where weather and terrain seemed to judge and punish.

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