The child looks very ill and, in fact, dies very shortly afterwards. In chapter 24 Claire Fraser is gathering plants in the woods with Geilis Duncan when she finds a baby laid in a hollowed rock, accompanied by a bowl of milk and some wild flowers tied with red thread. Changeling elves usually are described as being thin, wizened and yellow in appearance but abnormal hairiness is not a typical characteristic, as far as I know. I’m not sure of the etymology there’s a Lincolnshire fairy beast called the ‘shagfoal’ which may be related, although this very possibly has connotations of the naturally shaggy nature of the creature perhaps elvish bairns are also curiously hairy for their age. These infants are traditionally called shag-bairns or shargies in Scotland. The first scenario involves the finding of a changeling child this that takes place in the first TV series episode 10 (‘By the pricking of my thumbs’) and in chapter 24 of the book Outlander (which was originally published as Cross Stitch). The standing stones of Craigh na Dun are central to the story, but there are other fairy incidents in the series that deserve our close attention.
I have recently published an article in Faerie Magazine describing the significance of standing stones and stone circles in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series.
0 kommentar(er)
