Topic: Breeding Stock

Fairy motivations for kidnapping children often center on the need for new "breeding stock" to revitalize a sickly or inbred race. This lore explains the "changeling" phenomenon, where a healthy human infant is replaced by a fairy simulacrum, a sick fairy baby, or an elderly fairy man. Similar traditions are found globally, including the Djinn of the Middle East and the Ibiku spirits of the Yoruba people in Africa.