Chapter Text
After the conclusion of The War of the Ring, Middle Earth entered the Fourth Age, which started as one of peace. But it also brought with it various changes to the nations and people, along with various anxieties about how this age would unfurl.
No sooner had The War of the Ring ended that there was a startling rise in the births of what were called changelings. Although changeling births happened in earlier eras, they happened often enough in the Post-War Era to cause concern. All around Arda, human and dwarven families reported children being born into their households that had various quirks and deformities. These children were born smaller than usual with excess hair, usually in the lower legs. They tended to have stunted growth and slower maturation despite having voracious appetites. A number of them had misshapen ears and a strange aversion to footwear, although this did not apply to all cases. Finally, many of these children felt the most comfortable in small, secluded spaces, like a burrowing animal.
With the exception of the voracious appetites, most of these traits were not bad on their own. But it was what these children became when they grew up (from accounts that predated The Fourth Age) that scared people. These children were said to not only eat all of the food in the house but also devour the family members little by little, eating their physical bodies AND their souls. They were said to be fluent in demon tongue and use it to cast black magic and cause misfortune. They could potentially become feral monsters roaming the countryside and attacking livestock. Understandably, none of this was anything that anybody wanted.
The general consensus was that the parents of these children were originally pregnant with normal human or dwarven babies but that these babies had been switched in the womb by fairies. Changeling births happened nine months after the family's house was burgled or vandalized. These fairy intruders would often baffle the people in the household since they were stealthy enough to not wake anyone. It was clearly fairies who did this because… well… what else could it be?
After the intruders took whatever food and possessions there were, they would leave strange objects - doohickeys, people would call them. Some of these objects would be obvious to humans and dwarves, such as bowls and shovels. Others were strange-looking and had uses that were completely unknown. Even engineers and smiths were at a loss when it came to explaining what they were used for. It was fairly easy to come to the conclusion that, if their possessions were taken and switched out with fairy possessions, then surely the same happened to their unborn children. Some of these fairies left behind the smell of burnt leaves that often stuck around the home for weeks.
Most people claimed that, much like with their burgled objects, they had been asleep when their unborn babies were switched with unborn fairy babies. However, there were those who came forward and admitted to being awake while it happened. Accounts varied wildly on what these fairies looked like. Some said that they were furry creatures like dogs or rabbits, except they stood upright. Others said that they resembled birds. Others said that they had horns. It was difficult to paint a good picture when many of these accounts took place while it was dark out. But the most commonly reported account was that they resembled little hairy men. One thing that everyone could agree on was that these creatures were natural charmers, often luring their targets in with their words and looks. Or at least the ones who were good at it were. The ones who weren't good at it were usually chased off with a broom.
These stories often involved the fairies whisking their targets away to The Fairy Realm to perform their disturbing procedure, although "The Fairy Realm" that was described often resembled the back of the person's cottage or the tree at the edge of their property. This was a temporary kidnapping and the target would be returned to their bed once the procedure was done. The spouses who remained often claimed that their partner came back looking either exhausted but incredibly content or giddy and a little bit guilty. This was clearly the effects of the magical spell that the fairy had cast on this person. Because, once again, what else could it be?
In most instances, the person being kidnapped was the wife of the house, but a not-insignificant number of these fairies' targets were the husband or some other adult who was not otherwise able to give birth. What they would do with those people was anybody's guess. The fairies were perhaps putting something else in their bodies, such as an illness or an object that brought bad luck. Or maybe those fairies were confused and thought that the person inexplicably had a baby inside of them somewhere. One could remain awake at night thinking up the possibilities.
The leading experts in healing had been made aware of this widespread problem and gathered in order to discuss the issue. They had devised ways to prevent fairies from sabotaging people's homes and families, from charms to remedies to prayers to dances. Preventing fairies from ransacking a house could be done by anybody in that household. However. when it came to preventing changeling babies, most of these preventative measures were to be done by the person who was pregnant, as if they didn't have enough to worry about. Even so, prevention was difficult. Many of the people who interacted with fairies found the experience unbelievable enough that they convinced themselves that it was all a dream. That is, until nine months later, when it became very apparent that it wasn't.
When a changeling birth DID happen, there was not much that could be done. The best thing that families could do in this situation was to try to give the malformed, possibly evil baby back to the fairies. They didn't want to raise a beastly child that could eat all the food in their house or bring bad luck for generations. This made the most sense.
As far as anyone knew, this was purely a commoner problem. Until it wasn't.