Lolz, he is actually played by a girl in the play, cuz they can't have children on stage.

Yes, I remember very well since I watched it when I was five...*shivers* Oh to endure such horror...

You saw the play? All I ever saw was the Walt Disney version. After this I think we should get 

[Countess]

Petling, Peter is actually played by a girl because the acrobatic moves performed on the ropes need to be an adult & a woman's voice is closer to that of an adolescent boy than a grown man's. Children are allowed onstage, in professional theater the kids are usually part of a special union that regulates how often they can perform, how long they can rehearse, schooling, etc.

Really? Like I said, I unfortunately never got to see the play.

But I did...*shudders again* So... childish.... oh the agony.... 

[blow_fly]

Don't faeries have a less than friendly reputation by the way? I've heard a lot of grim stories about them, especially the Unseelie court.

I believe so. I think people like Disney tried to slap a happy face on them. In the original Peter Pan, just one example, Tinker Bell tries to kill Wendy.

[blow_fly]

Yeah, the unabridged Peter Pan as it was written by J.M Barrie, actually had pretty sinister undertones. Mermaids that would strangle you to death if you came too close were another feature that Disney seems to have left out. It's almost disturbing that so many people tend to think of faeries as adorable little winged cherubs, when a lot of them were actually pretty fond of playing nasty and even fatal pranks on innocent, unsuspecting mortals.

Was it the faeries that stole babies? & left changelings as replacements?

[blow_fly]

Yep. The changeling would either be the offspring of the fairy itself, or it would be a stock, a wooden manikin closely resembling the human child that had been stolen.

Did that whole legend occur as an explanation for mentally disabled children? Or do you think faeries really do that? I mean, who would want to give up their own child? Or steal a human's child who'll just grow old on you & die?

[Countess]

The idea behind changelings was that it was a joke on humans. Faeries weren't seen as having the same emotions or morals as humans. So an inconcevable act for a human, such as giving up your own child, supposedly meant nothing to a faerie. The link to mental handicapped children is interesting & a really good possibility.

It makes sense now that you put it in that perspective.

And it all goes back down to perspective.