Shapeshifting
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In
Folklore and mythology
Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are
Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, the Navajo skin-walker, mimic, and therianthrope. The prefix "were-", coming from the Old English word for "man" (masculine rather than generic), is also used to designate shapeshifters; despite its root, it is used to indicate female shapeshifters as well.
While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well.[1]
Greco-Roman
Examples of shapeshifting in
The
In Greek mythology, the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them.
- Lycaon and his children into wolves (hence lycanthropy) as a punishment for either killing Zeus' children or serving him the flesh of Lycaon's own murdered son Nyctimus, depending on the exact version of the myth.
- rooster, which always crows to signal the morning and the arrival of the sun.
- Demeter transformed Ascalabus into a lizard for mocking her sorrow and thirst during her search for her daughter Persephone. She also turned King Lyncus into a lynx for trying to murder her prophet Triptolemus.
- Athena transformed Arachne into a spider for challenging her as a weaver and/or weaving a tapestry that insulted the gods. She also turned Nyctimene into an owl, though in this case it was an act of mercy, as the girl wished to hide from the daylight out of shame of being raped by her father.
- Artemis transformed Actaeon into a stag for spying on her bathing, and he was later devoured by his hunting dogs.
- Galanthis was transformed into a weasel or cat after interfering in Hera's plans to hinder the birth of Heracles.
- Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned into lions after making love in a temple dedicated to Zeus or Cybele.
- Argos, a nymph who was raped by Zeus, who changed her into a heiferto escape detection.
- Hera punished young Tiresias by transforming him into a woman and, seven years later, back into a man.
- King ).
- Callisto was turned into a bear by either Artemis or Hera for being impregnated by Zeus.
- Selene transformed Myia into a fly when she became a rival for the love of Endymion.
While the Greek gods could use transformation punitively – such as Medusa, who turned to a monster for having sexual intercourse (raped in Ovid's version) with Poseidon in Athena's temple – even more frequently, the tales using it are of amorous adventure. Zeus repeatedly transformed himself to approach mortals as a means of gaining access:[2]
- Danaë as a shower of gold
- Europaas a bull
- Leda as a swan
- Ganymede, as an eagle
- Alcmene as her husband Amphitryon
- Hera as a cuckoo
- Aegina as an eagle or a flame
- Persephone as a serpent
- Io, as a cloud
- Callisto as either Artemis or Apollo
- Nemesis (Goddess of retribution) transformed into a goose to escape Zeus' advances, but he turned into a swan. She later bore the egg in which Helen of Troywas found.
Vertumnus transformed himself into an old woman to gain entry to Pomona's orchard; there, he persuaded her to marry him.
In other tales, the woman appealed to other gods to protect her from rape, and was transformed (Daphne into laurel, Corone into a crow). Unlike Zeus and other gods' shapeshifting, these women were permanently metamorphosed.
In one tale, Demeter transformed herself into a mare to escape Poseidon, but Poseidon counter-transformed himself into a stallion to pursue her, and succeeded in the rape. Caenis, having been raped by Poseidon, demanded of him that she be changed to a man. He agreed, and she became Caeneus, a form he never lost, except, in some versions, upon death.
Clytie was a nymph who loved Helios, but he did not love her back. Desperate, she sat on a rock with no food or water for nine days looking at him as he crossed the skies, until she was transformed into a purple, sun-gazing flower, the heliotropium.
As a final reward from the gods for their hospitality, Baucis and Philemon were transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of trees.
Eos, the goddess of the dawn, secured immortality for her lover the Trojan prince Tithonus, but not eternal youth, so he aged without dying as he shriveled and grew more and more helpless. In the end, Eos transformed him into a cicada.
In some variants of the tale of Narcissus, he is turned into a narcissus flower.
Sometimes metamorphoses transform objects into humans. In the myths of both Jason and Cadmus, one task set to the hero was to sow dragon's teeth; on being sown, they would metamorphose into belligerent warriors, and both heroes had to throw a rock to trick them into fighting each other to survive. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulated the world after a flood by throwing stones behind them; they were transformed into people. Cadmus is also often known to have transformed into a dragon or serpent towards the end of his life. Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, a statue he had made. Aphrodite had pity on him and transformed the stone into a living woman.
British and Irish
Witches could turn into hares and in that form steal milk and butter.[5]
Many British fairy tales, such as
Celtic mythology
Pwyll was transformed by Arawn into Arawn's shape, and Arawn transformed himself into Pwyll's so that they could trade places for a year and a day.
Llwyd ap Cil Coed transformed his wife and attendants into mice to attack a crop in revenge; when his wife is captured, he turns himself into three clergymen in succession to try to pay a ransom.
Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion transform flowers into a woman named Blodeuwedd, and when she betrays her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who is transformed into an eagle, they transform her again, into an owl.
Gilfaethwy committed rape on Goewin, Math fab Mathonwy's virgin foothold, with help from his brother Gwydion. Both were transformed into animals, for one year each. Gwydion was transformed into a stag, sow, and wolf, and Gilfaethwy into a hind, boar, and she-wolf. Each year, they had a child. Math turned the three young animals into boys.
Gwion, having accidentally taken some of the wisdom potions that Ceridwen was brewing for her son, fled from her through a succession of changes that she answered with changes of her own, ending with his being eaten, a grain of corn, by her as a hen. She became pregnant, and he was reborn in a new form, as Taliesin.
Tales abound about the selkie, a seal that can remove its skin to make contact with humans for only a short amount of time before it must return to the sea. Clan MacColdrum of Uist's foundation myths include a union between the founder of the clan and a shape-shifting selkie.[6] Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry the (male) selkie seduces a human woman. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies.
Scottish mythology features shapeshifters, which allows the various creatures to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water spirits such as the each-uisge, which inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland, were said to appear as a horse or a young man.[4] Other tales include kelpies who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman to ensnare and kill weary travelers. Tam Lin, a man captured by the Queen of the Fairies is changed into all manner of beasts before being rescued. He finally turned into a burning coal and was thrown into a well, whereupon he reappeared in his human form. The motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is a common thread in folktales.[7]
Perhaps the best-known Irish myth is that of Aoife who turned her stepchildren, the Children of Lir, into swans to be rid of them. Likewise, in the Tochmarc Étaíne, Fuamnach jealously turns Étaín into a butterfly. The most dramatic example of shapeshifting in Irish myth is that of Tuan mac Cairill, the only survivor of Partholón's settlement of Ireland. In his centuries-long life, he became successively a stag, a wild boar, a hawk, and finally a salmon before being eaten and (as in the Wooing of Étaín) reborn as a human.
The Púca is a Celtic faery, and also a deft shapeshifter. He can transform into many different, terrifying forms.
Norse
There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales.[8]
In the Lokasenna, Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century Edda relates Loki taking the form of a mare to bear Odin's steed Sleipnir which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear Fenrir.[9]
Svipdagr angered Odin, who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess Freyja, refused to leave his side. When the warrior Hadding found and slew Svipdagr, Freyja cursed him to be tormented by a tempest and shunned like the plague wherever he went.[citation needed] In the Hyndluljóð, Freyja transformed her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal him. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers that allowed her to transform into a falcon, which Loki borrowed on occasion.
The
The dwarf Andvari is described as being able to magically turn into a pike. Alberich, his counterpart in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, using the Tarnhelm, takes on many forms, including a giant serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to impress or intimidate Loki and Odin/Wotan.
In Scandinavia, there existed, for example, the famous race of she-werewolves known by the name of Maras, women who took on the appearance of huge half-human and half-wolf monsters that stalked the night in search of human or animal prey. If a woman gives birth at midnight and stretches the membrane that envelopes the child when it is brought forth, between four sticks and creeps through it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will be shamans, and all the girls Maras.[citation needed]
The Nisse is sometimes said to be a shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to Hulder.
Indian
- Shapeshifting cobra: A common male cobra will become an ichchadhari naag (male shapeshifting cobra) and a common female cobra will become an ichchadhari naagin (female shapeshifting cobra) after 100 years of tapasya (penance). After being blessed by Lord Shiva, they attain a human form of their own, can shapeshift into any living creature, and can live for more than a hundred years without getting old.
- Yoginis were associated with the power of shapeshifting into female animals.[12]
- In the Indian fable The Dog Bride from Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas, a buffalo herder falls in love with a dog that has the power to turn into a woman when she bathes.
- In Kerala, there was a legend about the Odiyan clan, who in Kerala folklore are men believed to possess shapeshifting abilities and can assume animal forms. Odiyans are said to have inhabited the Malabar region of Kerala before the widespread use of electricity.
Armenian
In Armenian mythology, shapeshifters include the Nhang, a serpentine river monster that can transform itself into a woman or seal, and will drown humans and then drink their blood; or the beneficial Shahapet, a guardian spirit that can appear either as a man or a snake.[13]
Philippines
Philippine mythology includes the Aswang, a vampiric monster capable of transforming into a bat, a large black dog, a black cat, a black boar, or some other form to stalk humans at night. The folklore also mentions other beings such as the Kapre, the Tikbalang, and the Engkanto, which change their appearances to woo beautiful maidens. Also, talismans (called "anting-anting" or "birtud" in the local dialect), can give their owners the ability to shapeshift. In one tale, Chonguita the Monkey Wife,[14] a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man.
Tatar
Tatar folklore includes Yuxa, a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men to have children.
Chinese
Japanese
In Japanese folklore obake are a type of yōkai with the ability to shapeshifting. The fox, or kitsune is among the most commonly known, but other such creatures include the bakeneko, the mujina, and the tanuki.
Korean
Korean mythology also contains a fox with the ability to shapeshift. Unlike its Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the kumiho is always malevolent. Usually its form is of a beautiful young woman; one tale recounts a man, a would-be seducer, revealed as a kumiho.[15] The kumiho has nine tails and as she desires to be a full human, she uses her beauty to seduce men and eat their hearts (or in some cases livers where the belief is that 100 livers would turn her into a real human).
Somali
In Somali mythology Qori ismaris ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "Hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.
Southern Africa
South American
Amazon river dolphins are curious and lack of fear of foreign objects,[18] are apex predators,[19] and the male Amazon river dolphins are very physically agressive during their mating period, partiularly around the courtship practice of object carrying.[20][21]
Amazon river dolphins, known by the natives as the boto, encantados or toninhas, are very prevalent in the mythology of the native South Americans. They are frequently characterized in mythology with superior musical ability, seductiveness and love of sex, resulting in illegitimate children, and attraction to parties. Despite the fact that the Encante are said to come from a utopia full of wealth which is also without pain or death, they crave the pleasures and hardships of human societies.[22]
Transformation into human form is said to be rare, and usually occurs at night. The encantado will often be seen running from a festa, despite protests from the others for it to stay, and can be seen by pursuers as it hurries to the river and reverts to dolphin form. When it is under human form, it wears a hat to hide its blowhole, which does not disappear with the shapeshift.[22]
Besides the ability to shapeshift into human form, encantados frequently wield other magical abilities, such as controlling storms, hypnotizing humans into doing their will, transforming humans into encantados, and inflicting illness, insanity, and even death. Shamans often intervene in these situations.[22]
Along with shapeshifting,
Trinidad and Tobago
The Ligahoo or loup-garou is the shapeshifter of Trinidad and Tobago's folklore. This unique ability is believed to be handed down in some old creole families, and is usually associated with witch-doctors and practitioners of African magic.[25] [26]
Mapuche (Argentina and Chile)
The name of the
Slavic mythology
In
Folktales
- In the Finnish tale The Magic Bird, three young sorceresses attempt to murder a man who keeps reviving. His revenge is to turn them into three black mares and have them harnessed to heavy loads until he is satisfied.
- In The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, a Northumbrian legend from about the thirteenth century, Princess Margaret of Bamburgh is transformed into a dragon by her stepmother; her motive sprung, like Snow White's stepmother's, from the comparison of their beauty.[29]
- In Child ballad 35, "Allison Gross", the title witch turns a man into a wyrm for refusing to be her lover. This is a motif found in many legends and folktales.[30]
- In the German tale The Frog's Bridegroom, recorded by folklorist and ethnographer Gustav Jungbauer, the third of three sons of a farmer, Hansl, is forced to marry a frog, which eventually turns out to be a beautiful woman transformed by a spell.
- In some variants of the fairy tales, both The Frog Prince or more commonly The Frog Princess and Beast, of Beauty and the Beast, are transformed as a form of punishment for some transgression. Both are restored to their true forms after earning a human's love despite their appearance.
- In the most famous Lithuanian folk tale Eglė the Queen of Serpents, Eglė irreversibly transforms her children and herself into trees as a punishment for betrayal while her husband is able to reversibly morph into a serpent at will.
- In East of the Sun and West of the Moon, the hero is transformed into a bear by his wicked stepmother, who wishes to force him to marry her daughter.[31]
- In The Marmot Queen by Italo Calvino, a Spanish queen is turned into a rodent by Morgan le Fay.
- In The Mare of the Necromancer, a Turin Italian tale by Guido Gozzano, the Princess of Corelandia is turned into a horse by the baron necromancer for refusing to marry him. Only the love and intelligence of Candido save the princess from the spell.
- The White Doe, a French tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy, describes the transformation of Princess Desiree into a doe by a jealous fairy.
- From a Croatian book of tales, A. H. Wratislaw, the fable entitled "The she-wolf" tells of a huge she-wolf with a habit of turning into a woman from time to time by taking off her skin. One day a man witnesses the transformation, steals her pelt and marries her.
- The Merchant's Sons is a Finnish story of two brothers, one of whom tries to win the hand of the tsar's wicked daughter. The girl does not like her suitor and endeavors to have him killed, but he turns her into a beautiful mare which he and his brother ride. In the end he turns her back into a girl and marries her.
- In Dapplegrim, if the youth found the transformed princess twice, and hid from her twice, they would marry.
- In literary fairy tale The Beggar Princess, to save her beloved prince, Princess Yvonne fulfills the tasks of cruel king Ironheart and is changed into an old woman.[32]
- Journey to the West, one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, greatly features shapeshifting, as many gods, demons, and other mythical beings are capable of the act. The most famous case would be the Monkey King, a mischievous trickster who often utilizes his power of 72 transformations to thwart his foes.
Themes
This section possibly contains original research. (July 2014) |
Shapeshifting may be used as a plot device, such as when Puss in Boots in the fairy tales tricks the ogre into becoming a mouse to be eaten. Shapeshifting may also include symbolic significance, like the Beast's transformation in Beauty and the Beast indicates Belle's ability to accept him despite his appearance.[33]
When a form is taken on involuntarily, the thematic effect can be one of confinement and restraint; the person is bound to the new form. In extreme cases, such as petrifaction, the character is entirely disabled. On the other hand, voluntary shapeshifting can be a means of escape and liberation. Even when the form is not undertaken to resemble a literal escape, the abilities specific to the form allow the character to act in a manner that was previously impossible.
Examples of this are in
Punitive changes
In many cases, imposed forms are punitive. This may be a just punishment, the nature of the transformation matching the crime for which it occurs; in other cases, the form is unjustly imposed by an angry and powerful person. In fairy tales, such transformations are usually temporary, but they commonly appear as the
Transformation chase
In many fairy tales and ballads, as in Child Ballad #44, The Twa Magicians or Farmer Weathersky, a magical chase occurs where the pursued endlessly takes on forms in an effort to shake off the pursuer, and the pursuer answers with shapeshifting, as, a dove is answered with a hawk and a hare with a greyhound. The pursued may finally succeed in escape or the pursuer in capturing.
The Grimm Brothers' fairy tale
In other variants, the pursued may transform various objects into obstacles, as in the fairy tale "The Master Maid", where the Master Maid transforms a wooden comb into a forest, a lump of salt into a mountain, and a flask of water into a sea. In these tales, the pursued normally escapes after overcoming three obstacles.[36] This obstacle chase is literally found worldwide, in many variants in every region.[37]
In fairy tales of the
In a similar effect, a captive may shapeshift to break a hold on him. Proteus and Nereus's shapeshifting was to prevent heroes such as Menelaus and Heracles from forcing information from them.[39] Tam Lin, once seized by Janet, was transformed by the faeries to keep Janet from taking him, but as he had advised her, she did not let go, and so freed him.[40] The motif of capturing a person by holding him through many transformations is found in folktales throughout Europe,[7] and Patricia A. McKillip references it in her Riddle-Master trilogy: a shape-shifting Earthmaster finally wins its freedom by startling the man holding it.
Powers
One motif is a shape change in order to obtain abilities in the new form. Berserkers were held to change into wolves and bears to fight more effectively. In many cultures, evil magicians could transform into animal shapes and thus skulk about.
In many fairy tales, the hero's talking animal helper proves to be a shapeshifted human being, able to help him in its animal form. In one variation, featured in The Three Enchanted Princes and The Death of Koschei the Deathless, the hero's three sisters have been married to animals. These prove to be shapeshifted men, who aid their brother-in-law in a variant of tale types.[41]
In an early Mayan text, the Shapeshifter, or Mestaclocan, can change his appearance and manipulate the minds of animals. In one tale, the Mestaclocan finds a dying eagle. Changing into the form of an eagle, he convinces the dying bird that it is, in fact, not dying. As the story goes they both soar into the heavens and live together for eternity.
Bildungsroman
Beauty and the Beast has been interpreted as a young woman's coming-of-age, in which she changes from being repulsed by sexual activity and regarding a husband therefore bestial, to a mature woman who can marry.[42]
Needed items
Some shapeshifters can change form only if they have some item, usually an article of clothing. In Bisclavret by Marie de France, a werewolf cannot regain human form without his clothing, but in wolf form does no harm to anyone. However, the most common use of this motif is in tales where a man steals the article and forces the shapeshifter, trapped in human form, to become his bride. This lasts until she discovers where he has hidden the article, and she can flee. Selkies feature in these tales. Others include swan maidens and the Japanese tennin.
Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, included a version of the story with the typical elements (fisherman sees mermaids dancing on an island and steals the sealskin of one of them, preventing her from becoming a seal again so that he could marry her) and linked it to the founding of the city of Stockholm.[43]
Inner conflict
The power to externally transform can symbolize an internal savagery; a central theme in many strands of werewolf mythology,[44] and the inversion of the "liberation" theme, as in Dr Jekyll's transformation into Mr. Hyde.
Usurpation
Some transformations are performed to remove the victim from his place so that the transformer can usurp it.
Ill-advised wishes
Many fairy-tale characters have expressed ill-advised wishes to have any child at all, even one that has another form, and had such children born to them.[46] At the end of the fairy tale, normally after marriage, such children metamorphose into human form. Hans My Hedgehog was born when his father wished for a child, even a hedgehog. Even stranger forms are possible: Giambattista Basile included in his Pentamerone the tale of a girl born as a sprig of myrtle, and Italo Calvino, in his Italian Folktales, a girl born as an apple.
Sometimes, the parent who wishes for a child is told how to gain one but does not obey the directions perfectly, resulting in a transformed birth. In Prince Lindworm, the woman eats two onions but does not peel one, resulting in her first child being a lindworm. In Tatterhood, a woman magically produces two flowers, but disobeys the directions to eat only the beautiful one, resulting in her having a beautiful and sweet daughter, but only after a disgusting and hideous one.
Less commonly, ill-advised wishes can transform a person after birth. The Seven Ravens are transformed when their father thinks his sons are playing instead of fetching water to christen their newborn and sickly sister, and curses them.[47] In Puddocky, when three princes start to quarrel over the beautiful heroine, a witch curses her because of the noise.
Monstrous bride/bridegroom
Such wished-for children may become monstrous brides or bridegrooms. These tales have often been interpreted as symbolically representing arranged marriages; the bride's revulsion to marrying a stranger is symbolized by his bestial form.[48]
The heroine must fall in love with the transformed groom. The hero or heroine must marry, as promised, and the monstrous form is removed by the wedding.
Sometimes the bridegroom removes his animal skin for the wedding night, whereupon it can be burned. Hans My Hedgehog, The Donkey and The Pig King fall under this grouping. At an extreme, in Prince Lindworm, the bride who avoids being eaten by the lindworm bridegroom arrives at her wedding wearing every gown she owns, and she tells the bridegroom she will remove one of hers if he removes one of his; only when her last gown comes off has he removed his last skin, and become a white shape that she can form into a man.[1]
In some tales, the hero or heroine must obey a prohibition; the bride must spend a period not seeing the transformed groom in human shape (as in East of the Sun and West of the Moon), or the bridegroom must not burn the animals' skins. In The Brown Bear of Norway, The Golden Crab, The Enchanted Snake and some variants of The Frog Princess, burning the skin is a catastrophe, putting the transformed bride or bridegroom in danger. In these tales, the prohibition is broken, invariably, resulting in a separation and a search by one spouse for the other.[1]
Death
Ghosts sometimes appear in animal form. In
In some fairy tales, the character can reveal himself in every new form, and so a usurper repeatedly kills the victim in every new form, as in Beauty and Pock Face, A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers, and The Boys with the Golden Stars. This eventually leads to a form in which the character (or characters) can reveal the truth to someone able to stop the villain.
Similarly, the transformation back may be acts that would be fatal. In
Modern
Fiction
- In George MacDonald's The Princess and Curdie (1883) Curdie is informed that many human beings, by their acts, are slowly turning into beasts. Curdie is given the power to detect the transformation before it is visible and is assisted by beasts that had been transformed and are working their way back to humanity.[53]
- In Carlo Collodi's story The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), the boys who visit the Land of Toys turn into donkeys.
- L. Frank Baum concluded The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904) with the revelation that Princess Ozma, sought by the protagonists, had been turned into a boy as a baby and that Tip (who had been searching for her) is that boy. He agrees to have the transformation reversed, but Glinda the Good disapproves of shapeshifting magic, so it is done by the evil witch Mombi.[54]
- The science fiction short story "Who Goes There?" written by John W. Campbell (later adapted to film as The Thing from Another World and The Thing) concerns a shapeshifting alien lifeform that can assume the form and memories of any creature it absorbs.[55]
- In Rabadash into a donkey.[58]Eustace's transformation is not strictly a punishment – the change simply reveals the truth of his selfishness. It is reversed after he repents and his moral nature changes. Rabadash is allowed to reverse his transformation, providing he does so in a public place, so that his former followers will know that he had been a donkey. He is warned that, if he ever leaves his capital city again, he will become a donkey permanently, and this prevents him from leading further military campaigns.
- Both the Earthmasters and their opponents in Patricia A. McKillip's 1976 The Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy make extensive use of their shapeshifting abilities for the powers of their new forms.[59]
- James A. Hetley's contemporary fantasy books Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth centers on the Morgan family of Stonefort, Maine – present-day Americans who are secretly able to turn themselves into seals at will (and making extensive use of that ability in their fighting with various other characters).
- In Sean Catt's Between States series the principal character Jake Palmer is a cougar shapeshifter. Palmer kidnapped off the street in his mid-twenties, is forced to work as an albeit reluctant asset (assassin) for a covert CIA Black Ops unit that uses feline shapeshifters for the extrajudicial killing of selected targets. The CIA believed that being killed by a big cat could only ever be seen as a tragic accident.
- In Harry Potter series, some wizards and witches called 'Animagus' can transform into a particular animal of their choice and are required to register with the Ministry of Magic about their ability.
Popular culture
- The X-Files features a species known as the Colonists who are infiltrating Earth to colonize the planet.
- In David Icke's works, reptilian shapeshifters secretly controls many aspects of human society by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate humanity.
- In the Doctor Who serial "The Faceless Ones" (1967), featureless aliens known as the Chameleons shapeshift into humans in order to steel their identities. However, they need to keep the copied person alive in order to maintain their stolen identity.[60]
- In the Doctor Who serial "Terror of the Zygons" (1975), the main antagonists, called the Zygons, can shapeshift into humans and other animals (such as horses). However, they need to keep the copied person or animal alive in order to be able to change back into their natural form.[61]
- In the Doctor Who serial “Horror of Fang Rock” (1977), the alien species called the Rutans, ancient opponents to the Sontarans, possessed the ability to transform from their natural jellyfish like form to that of one of their human victims.[62]
- The X-Men comics and films feature Mystique a shapeshifter who can look like any other person.
- The DC Comics universe features a wide range of shapeshifters, the most prominent being Beast Boy, Plastic Man, Martian Manhunter, Miss Martian, and the Clayfaces.
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) features a shapeshifting female prisoner who is involved in nearly killing James T. Kirk, but is herself killed.
- In Thunderheart (1992), starring Val Kilmer, the character Jimmy Looks Twice evades capture by shapeshifting at will into a series of animals.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features a species known as the Changelings, the race of psionically capable shapeshifters who founded the Dominion.
- aging process.[63]
- In Anakinpursues her and discovers she is a shapeshifter. Zam Wesell reverts to her natural form when her employer assassinates her.
- American band Transmogrification, contains themes around physical and spiritual shapeshifting of the earth as a planet.[64]
- In Supernatural, the shapeshifters are recurring creatures of the series. Shapeshifter first appeared in Season 1, Episode 6 titled "Skin".
- In Fringe, shapeshifters are inorganic, human hybrids from the Alternate Universe.
- In Encanto, Camilo has the ability to shapeshift.
- In the Animorphs books, an alien species known as the Andalites has shapeshifting or "morphing" technology that is shared with the Animorphs, giving them the power to shapeshift into any living creature they can acquire the DNA of.
- In the Heroes of Olympus book series, the demigod Frank Zhang possesses the ability to shapeshift as a gift from his ancestor Poseidon.
- In the graphic novel (and subsequent movie of the same name) Nimona, the titular character is a mischievous shapeshifter.
- In the Ben 10 franchise (notably Ben Tennyson himself), characters wielding the Omnitrix are able to shapeshift into various alien species.
See also
- Naagin (2015 TV series)
- Marvel Comics' Skrull extraterrestrial beings (1962–present)
- Resizing (fiction)
- Hantu Raya
- Kindama
- Maricha
- Skin-walker
- Soul eater (folklore)
- The Thing (1982 film)
- The Thing (2011 film)
Notes
Citations
- ^ a b c Terri Windling, "Married to Magic: Animal Brides and Bridegrooms in Folklore and Fantasy[usurped]"
- ^ Richard M. Dorson, "Foreword", p xxiv, Georgias A. Megas, Folktales of Greece, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1970
- ISBN 0-394-73467-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-394-73467-X.
- ISBN 1-58542-206-1
- ^ Scottish Highlanders and Native Americans: indigenous education in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world Margaret Szasz 2007 University of Oklahoma Press
- ^ a b Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, pp. 336–7, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Perabo, L. D. 2017. Shapeshifting in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, Roda da Fortuna. Revista Eletrônica sobre Antiguidade e Medievo, 6(1): 135–158.
- ^ Gill, N. S. "Loki – Norse Trickster Loki". about.com. Retrieved 2010-06-18.; Stephan Grundy, "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang," in Translation, Transformation, and Transubstantiation, ed. Carol Poster and Richard Utz (Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), pp. 104–22.
- ISSN 2161-2196.
- ^ Tor Books, 2003
- ^ Hatley, Shaman (2007). The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs. University of Pennsylvania (PhD Thesis, UMI Number: 3292099. p. 14.
- ^ "Armenian Mythology" by Mardiros H. Ananikiam, in Bullfinch's Mythology
- ^ Fansler, Dean s. Filipino Popular Tales.
- ^ Heinz Insu Fenkl. "A Fox Woman Tale of Korea". The Endicott Studio. Archived from the original on 2006-11-11.
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- ^ Gómez Salazar, Catalina Trujillo, Fernando Whitehead, Hal (2011). "Ecological factors influencing group sizes of river dolphins : Inia geoffrensis and Sotalia fluviatilis". Marine Mammal Science. 28 (2): E124–E142.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Bebej, Ryan. "Inia geoffrensis Amazon river dolphin (Also: boto; pink river dolphin)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "TNT Folklore". triniview.com. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ "Caribbean History Archives". Gerard A. Besson. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- ^ Aleksandra Kojic (2016-08-18). "Veles – The Slavic Shapeshifting God of Land, Water and Underground". Slavorum. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
- ISBN 978-953-6927-41-8. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-10-18.
- ^ Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh"
- ^ Child (1965), pp. 313–314.
- ISBN 0-393-05163-3
- ^ Brady, Loretta Ellen. The Green Forest Fairy Book. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1920. pp. 132–169.
- ^ Wilson (1976), p. 94.
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- ^ Colbert (2001), pp. 28–29.
- ^ ISBN 0-292-78376-0
- ^ Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 56, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977
- ^ Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 89, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977
- ^ Colbert (2001), p. 23.
- ^ a b Grant & Clute, p. 960, "Transformation".
- ^ Stith Thompson, The Folktale, pp. 55–56, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977
- ^ Jones (1995), p. 84.
- ^ Online text of Ch. VII in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils [1]
- ^ Steiger (1999), p. xix.
- ^ Tatar (2004), p. 226.
- ISBN 0-691-06943-3
- ^ Tatar (2004), p. 136.
- ISBN 0-691-06943-3
- ^ Wilson (1976), p. 89.
- ^ Child (1965), p. 306.
- ^ Steiger (1999), p. 67.
- ISBN 0-691-06722-8
- ISBN 0-253-17461-9
- ISBN 0-415-92151-1
- ^ Steiger (1999), p. 385.
- ISBN 0-87054-076-9
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- ^ Grant & Clute, p. 858, "Shapeshifting".
- ^ "Doctor Who The Faceless Ones Blu-ray".
- ^ "The Zygon Who Fell to Earth". www.drwhoguide.com.
- ^ "Clip: Horror of Fang Rock: Part 4". www.bbc.co.uk.
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- ^ "Transmogrification, by Nahr Alhumam". nahralhumam.bandcamp.com.
Bibliography
- Child, Francis James (1965). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. 1. Dover Publications.
- Colbert, David (2001). The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter. 2001. ISBN 0-9708442-0-4.
- Grant, John; Clute, John (15 March 1999). ISBN 0-312-19869-8.
- Jones, Steven Swann (1995). The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-0950-9.
- Smith, Frederick M. (2006). The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13748-6.
- Steiger, B. (August 1999). The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 978-1-57859-078-0.
- Tatar, Maria (2004). The Annotated Brothers Grimm. W. W. Norton & company. ISBN 0-393-05848-4.
- Wilson, Anne (1976). Traditional Romance and Tale. D.S. Brewer, Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-87471-905-4.
Further reading
- Hall, Jamie (2003). Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures. AuthorHouse. ISBN 1-4107-5809-5.
- Kachuba, John B. 2019. Shapeshifters: A History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Wood, Felicity. "The Shape-Shifter on the Borderlands: A Comparative Study of the Trickster Figure in African Orality and in Oral Narratives Concerning one South African Trickster, Khotso Sethuntsa." English in Africa (2010): 71–90.
- Zaytoun, Kelli D. ""Now Let Us Shift" the Subject: Tracing the Path and Posthumanist Implications of La Naguala/The Shapeshifter in the Works of Gloria Anzaldúa." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 40.4 (2015): 69–88.
External links
- Media related to Shapeshifting at Wikimedia Commons
- Real Shapeshifters Website Archived 2019-10-13 at the Wayback Machine Dedicated to the study of shape-shifting phenomena (realshapeshifters.com)
- Shapeshifters in Love – A series of articles about shape-shifting characters in romance and speculative fiction.