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Shapeshifting

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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"Shapeshift" redirects here. For the Swiss company, see <a href="ShapeShift" title="ShapeShift">ShapeShift</a>. "Shapeshifter" redirects here. For other uses, see <a href="Shapeshifter_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Shapeshifter (disambiguation)">Shapeshifter (disambiguation)</a>.</div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"Metamorph" redirects here; not to be confused with <a href="The_Metamorph" title="The Metamorph">The Metamorph</a>, <a href="Metamorphism" title="Metamorphism">Metamorphism</a>, <a href="Metamorpha" title="Metamorpha">Metamorpha</a>, <a href="Metamorphosis" title="Metamorphosis">Metamorphosis</a>, <a href="Metamorphoses" title="Metamorphoses">Metamorphoses</a>, or <a href="Metamorphic" class="mw-redirect" title="Metamorphic">Metamorphic</a>.</div>

In <a href="Mythology" class="mw-redirect" title="Mythology">mythology</a>, <a href="Folklore" title="Folklore">folklore</a> and <a href="Speculative_fiction" title="Speculative fiction">speculative fiction</a>, shapeshifting is the <a href="Ability" title="Ability">ability</a> to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of <a href="Totem" title="Totem">totemism</a> and <a href="Shamanism" title="Shamanism">shamanism</a>, as well as the oldest existent literature and <a href="Epic_poetry" title="Epic poetry">epic poems</a> such as the <a href="Epic_of_Gilgamesh" title="Epic of Gilgamesh">Epic of Gilgamesh</a> and the <a href="Iliad" title="Iliad">Iliad</a>. The concept remains a common literary device in modern <a href="Fantasy" title="Fantasy">fantasy</a>, <a href="Children's_literature" title="Children's literature">children's literature</a> and <a href="Popular_culture" title="Popular culture">popular culture</a>. Examples of shape-shifters include <a href="Changelings" class="mw-redirect" title="Changelings">changelings</a>, <a href="Jinns" class="mw-redirect" title="Jinns">jinns</a>, <a href="Kitsune" title="Kitsune">kitsunes</a>, <a href="Vampires" class="mw-redirect" title="Vampires">vampires</a>, and <a href="Werewolves" class="mw-redirect" title="Werewolves">werewolves</a>, along with <a href="Deity" title="Deity">deities</a> such as <a href="Loki" title="Loki">Loki</a> and <a href="Vertumnus" title="Vertumnus">Vertumnus</a>.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Folklore_and_mythology">Folklore and mythology</h2></div>

Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are <a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">werewolves</a> and <a href="Vampire" title="Vampire">vampires</a> (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), <a href="Ichchhadhari_naag" class="mw-redirect" title="Ichchhadhari naag">ichchhadhari naag</a> (shape-shifting cobra) of India, shapeshifting fox spirits of East Asia such as the <a href="Huli_jing" class="mw-redirect" title="Huli jing">huli jing</a> of China, the <a href="Obake" title="Obake">obake</a> of Japan, the Navajo <a href="Skin-walker" title="Skin-walker">skin-walkers</a>, and gods, goddesses and demons and demonesses such as the <a href="Norse_mythology" title="Norse mythology">Norse</a> <a href="Loki" title="Loki">Loki</a> or the <a href="Greek_mythology" title="Greek mythology">Greek</a> <a href="Proteus" title="Proteus">Proteus</a>. Shapeshifting to the form of a <a href="Gray_wolf" class="mw-redirect" title="Gray wolf">wolf</a> is specifically known as <a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">lycanthropy</a>, and creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants.

The prefix "were-" comes from the Old English word for "man".

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.<a href="#cite_note-endicott-studio.com-1">[1]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Greco-Roman">Greco-Roman</h3></div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Metamorphoses_in_Greek_mythology" title="Metamorphoses in Greek mythology">Metamorphoses in Greek mythology</a></div>

Examples of shapeshifting in <a href="Classical_literature" class="mw-redirect" title="Classical literature">classical literature</a> include many examples in <a href="Ovid" title="Ovid">Ovid</a>'s <a href="Metamorphoses_(poem)" class="mw-redirect" title="Metamorphoses (poem)">Metamorphoses</a>, <a href="Circe" title="Circe">Circe</a>'s transforming of <a href="Odysseus" title="Odysseus">Odysseus</a>'s men to <a href="Pig" title="Pig">pigs</a> in <a href="Homer" title="Homer">Homer</a>'s <a href="The_Odyssey" class="mw-redirect" title="The Odyssey">The Odyssey</a>, and <a href="Apuleius" title="Apuleius">Apuleius</a>'s Lucius becoming a <a href="Donkey" title="Donkey">donkey</a> in <a href="The_Golden_Ass" title="The Golden Ass">The Golden Ass</a>. <a href="Proteus" title="Proteus">Proteus</a> was known among the gods for his shapeshifting; both <a href="Menelaus" title="Menelaus">Menelaus</a> and <a href="Aristaeus" title="Aristaeus">Aristaeus</a> captured him to obtain information, and they succeeded only by holding on through his many transformations. <a href="Nereus" title="Nereus">Nereus</a> told <a href="Heracles" title="Heracles">Heracles</a> where to find the Apples of the <a href="Hesperides" title="Hesperides">Hesperides</a> for the same reason.

The <a href="Oceanid" class="mw-redirect" title="Oceanid">Oceanid</a> <a href="Metis_(mythology)" title="Metis (mythology)">Metis</a>, the first wife of Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena, was believed to be able to change her appearance into anything she wanted. In one story, her pride led Zeus to trick her into transforming into a fly. He then swallowed her because he feared that he and Metis would have a son who would be more powerful than Zeus himself. Metis, however, was already pregnant. She stayed alive inside his head and built an armor for her daughter. The banging of her metalworking made Zeus have a headache, so Hephaestus clove his head with an axe. Athena sprang from her father's head, fully grown, and in battle armor.

In <a href="Greek_mythology" title="Greek mythology">Greek mythology</a>, the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them.

<ul><li><a href="Zeus" title="Zeus">Zeus</a> transformed King <a href="Lycaon_of_Arcadia" class="mw-redirect" title="Lycaon of Arcadia">Lycaon</a> and his children into wolves (hence lycanthropy) as a punishment for either killing Zeus's children or serving him the flesh of Lycaon's own murdered son <a href="Nyctimus" title="Nyctimus">Nyctimus</a>, depending on the exact version of the myth.</li>

<li><a href="Ares" title="Ares">Ares</a> assigned <a href="Alectryon_(mythology)" title="Alectryon (mythology)">Alectryon</a> to keep watch for <a href="Helios" title="Helios">Helios</a> the sun god during his affair with <a href="Aphrodite" title="Aphrodite">Aphrodite</a>, but Alectryon fell asleep, leading to their discovery and humiliation that morning. Ares turned Alectryon into a <a href="Rooster" class="mw-redirect" title="Rooster">rooster</a>, which always crows to signal the morning and the arrival of the sun.</li>

<li><a href="Demeter" title="Demeter">Demeter</a> transformed <a href="Ascalabus" title="Ascalabus">Ascalabus</a> into a lizard for mocking her sorrow and thirst during her search for her daughter <a href="Persephone" title="Persephone">Persephone</a>. She also turned King <a href="Lyncus" title="Lyncus">Lyncus</a> into a <a href="Lynx" title="Lynx">lynx</a> for trying to murder her prophet <a href="Triptolemus" title="Triptolemus">Triptolemus</a>.</li>

<li><a href="Athena" title="Athena">Athena</a> transformed <a href="Arachne" title="Arachne">Arachne</a> into a spider for challenging her as a weaver and/or weaving a tapestry that insulted the gods. She also turned <a href="Nyctimene_(mythology)" title="Nyctimene (mythology)">Nyctimene</a> 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.</li>

<li><a href="Artemis" title="Artemis">Artemis</a> transformed <a href="Actaeon" title="Actaeon">Actaeon</a> into a stag for <a href="Voyeurism" title="Voyeurism">spying</a> on her bathing, and he was later devoured by his hunting dogs.</li>

<li><a href="Galanthis" title="Galanthis">Galanthis</a> was transformed into a <a href="Weasel" title="Weasel">weasel</a> or <a href="Cat" title="Cat">cat</a> after interfering in <a href="Hera" title="Hera">Hera</a>'s plans to hinder the birth of <a href="Heracles" title="Heracles">Heracles</a>.</li>

<li><a href="Atalanta" title="Atalanta">Atalanta</a> and <a href="Hippomenes" title="Hippomenes">Hippomenes</a> were turned into lions after making love in a temple dedicated to Zeus or <a href="Cybele" title="Cybele">Cybele</a>.</li>

<li><a href="Io_(mythology)" title="Io (mythology)">Io</a> was a priestess of <a href="Hera" title="Hera">Hera</a> in <a href="Ancient_Argos" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Argos">Argos</a>, a nymph who was raped by Zeus, who changed her into a <a href="Cattle" title="Cattle">heifer</a> to escape detection.</li>

<li>Hera punished young <a href="Tiresias" title="Tiresias">Tiresias</a> by transforming him into a woman and, seven years later, back into a man.</li>

<li>King <a href="Tereus" title="Tereus">Tereus</a>, his wife <a href="Procne" title="Procne">Procne</a>, and her sister <a href="Philomela" title="Philomela">Philomela</a> were all turned into birds (a <a href="Hoopoe" title="Hoopoe">hoopoe</a>, a <a href="Swallow" title="Swallow">swallow</a> and a <a href="Nightingale" class="mw-redirect" title="Nightingale">nightingale</a> respectively), after Tereus raped Philomela and cut out her tongue, and in revenge she and Procne served him the flesh of his murdered son <a href="Itys" title="Itys">Itys</a> (who in some variants is resurrected as a <a href="European_goldfinch" title="European goldfinch">goldfinch</a>).</li>

<li><a href="Callisto_(mythology)" title="Callisto (mythology)">Callisto</a> was turned into a bear by either <a href="Artemis" title="Artemis">Artemis</a> or <a href="Hera" title="Hera">Hera</a> for being impregnated by Zeus.</li>

<li><a href="Selene" title="Selene">Selene</a> transformed <a href="Myia_(mythology)" title="Myia (mythology)">Myia</a> into a fly when she became a rival for the love of <a href="Endymion_(mythology)" title="Endymion (mythology)">Endymion</a>.</li></ul>

While the Greek gods could use transformation punitively — such as <a href="Medusa" title="Medusa">Medusa</a>, who turned to a monster for having sexual intercourse (<a href="Rape" title="Rape">raped</a> in Ovid's version) with <a href="Poseidon" title="Poseidon">Poseidon</a> in <a href="Athena" title="Athena">Athena</a>'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:<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a>

<ul><li><a href="Dana%C3%AB" title="Danaë">Danaë</a> as a shower of gold</li>

<li><a href="Europa_(mythology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Europa (mythology)">Europa</a> as a bull</li>

<li><a href="Ganymede_(mythology)" title="Ganymede (mythology)">Ganymede</a>, as an <a href="Eagle" title="Eagle">eagle</a></li>

<li><a href="Alcmene" title="Alcmene">Alcmene</a> as her husband <a href="Amphitryon" title="Amphitryon">Amphitryon</a></li>

<li><a href="Hera" title="Hera">Hera</a> as a <a href="Cuckoo" title="Cuckoo">cuckoo</a></li>

<li><a href="Aegina_(mythology)" title="Aegina (mythology)">Aegina</a> as an eagle or a flame</li>

<li><a href="Persephone" title="Persephone">Persephone</a> as a serpent</li>

<li><a href="Io_(mythology)" title="Io (mythology)">Io</a>, as a cloud</li>

<li><a href="Callisto_(mythology)" title="Callisto (mythology)">Callisto</a> as either Artemis or <a href="Apollo" title="Apollo">Apollo</a></li>

<li><a href="Nemesis_(mythology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Nemesis (mythology)">Nemesis</a> (Goddess of retribution) transformed into a goose to escape <a href="Zeus#Divine_offspring" title="Zeus">Zeus</a>' advances, but he turned into a swan. She later bore the egg in which <a href="Helen_of_Troy#Birth" title="Helen of Troy">Helen of Troy</a> was found.</li></ul>

<a href="Vertumnus" title="Vertumnus">Vertumnus</a> transformed himself into an old woman to gain entry to <a href="Pomona_(mythology)" title="Pomona (mythology)">Pomona</a>'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 (<a href="Daphne" title="Daphne">Daphne</a> into laurel, <a href="Corone_(crow)" title="Corone (crow)">Corone</a> into a crow). Unlike Zeus and other gods' shapeshifting, these women were permanently metamorphosed.

In one tale, <a href="Demeter#Demeter_and_Poseidon" title="Demeter">Demeter</a> transformed herself into a mare to escape <a href="Poseidon#Lovers" title="Poseidon">Poseidon</a>, but Poseidon counter-transformed himself into a stallion to pursue her, and succeeded in the rape. <a href="Caeneus" title="Caeneus">Caenis</a>, having been raped by <a href="Poseidon" title="Poseidon">Poseidon</a>, demanded of him that she be changed to a man. He agreed, and she became <a href="Caeneus" title="Caeneus">Caeneus</a>, a form he never lost, except, in some versions, upon death.

<a href="Clytie_(Oceanid)" title="Clytie (Oceanid)">Clytie</a> 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 <a href="Heliotropium" title="Heliotropium">heliotropium</a>.

As a final reward from the gods for their hospitality, <a href="Baucis_and_Philemon" title="Baucis and Philemon">Baucis and Philemon</a> were transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of trees.

<a href="Eos" title="Eos">Eos</a>, the goddess of the dawn, secured immortality for her lover the <a href="Troy" title="Troy">Trojan</a> prince <a href="Tithonus" title="Tithonus">Tithonus</a>, 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 <a href="Cicada" title="Cicada">cicada</a>.

In some variants of the tale of <a href="Narcissus_(mythology)" title="Narcissus (mythology)">Narcissus</a>, he is turned into a <a href="Narcissus_(plant)" title="Narcissus (plant)">narcissus</a> flower.

Sometimes metamorphoses transform objects into humans. In the myths of both <a href="Jason" title="Jason">Jason</a> and <a href="Cadmus" title="Cadmus">Cadmus</a>, one task set to the hero was to sow <a href="Dragon's_teeth_(mythology)" title="Dragon's teeth (mythology)">dragon's teeth</a>; 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. <a href="Deucalion" title="Deucalion">Deucalion</a> and <a href="Pyrrha" title="Pyrrha">Pyrrha</a> repopulated the world after a flood by throwing stones behind them; they were transformed into people. <a href="Cadmus" title="Cadmus">Cadmus</a> is also often known to have transformed into a dragon or serpent towards the end of his life. <a href="Pygmalion_(mythology)" title="Pygmalion (mythology)">Pygmalion</a> fell in love with <a href="Galatea_(mythology)" title="Galatea (mythology)">Galatea</a>, a statue he had made. <a href="Aphrodite" title="Aphrodite">Aphrodite</a> had pity on him and transformed the stone into a living woman.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="British_and_Irish">British and Irish</h3></div>

<a href="Fairy" title="Fairy">Fairies</a>, <a href="Witch" class="mw-redirect" title="Witch">witches</a>, and <a href="Wizard_(fantasy)" class="mw-redirect" title="Wizard (fantasy)">wizards</a> were all noted for their shape-shifting ability. Not all fairies could shape-shift, some having only the appearance of shape-shifting, through their power, called "glamour", to create illusions, and some were limited to changing their size, as with the <a href="Spriggan" title="Spriggan">spriggans</a>, and others to a few forms.<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a> But others, such as the <a href="The_Hedley_Kow" title="The Hedley Kow">Hedley Kow</a>, could change to many forms, and both human and supernatural wizards were capable of both such changes, and inflicting them on others.<a href="#cite_note-Fairies,_Hobgoblins_p360-4">[4]</a>

Witches could turn into hares and in that form steal milk and butter.<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

Many British fairy tales, such as <a href="Jack_the_Giant_Killer" title="Jack the Giant Killer">Jack the Giant Killer</a> and <a href="The_Black_Bull_of_Norroway" class="mw-redirect" title="The Black Bull of Norroway">The Black Bull of Norroway</a>, feature shapeshifting.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Celtic_mythology">Celtic mythology</h4></div>

<a href="Pwyll" title="Pwyll">Pwyll</a> was transformed by <a href="Arawn" title="Arawn">Arawn</a> into Arawn's shape, and Arawn transformed himself into Pwyll's so that they could trade places for a year and a day.

<a href="Llwyd_ap_Cil_Coed" title="Llwyd ap Cil Coed">Llwyd ap Cil Coed</a> 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.

<a href="Math_fab_Mathonwy" title="Math fab Mathonwy">Math fab Mathonwy</a> and <a href="Gwydion" title="Gwydion">Gwydion</a> transform flowers into a woman named <a href="Blodeuwedd" title="Blodeuwedd">Blodeuwedd</a>, and when she betrays her husband <a href="Lleu_Llaw_Gyffes" title="Lleu Llaw Gyffes">Lleu Llaw Gyffes</a>, who is transformed into an eagle, they transform her again, into an owl.

<a href="Gilfaethwy" title="Gilfaethwy">Gilfaethwy</a> raped <a href="Goewin" title="Goewin">Goewin</a>, <a href="Math_fab_Mathonwy" title="Math fab Mathonwy">Math fab Mathonwy</a>'s virgin footholder, with help from his brother <a href="Gwydion" title="Gwydion">Gwydion</a>. As punishment, Math turned them into different types of 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.

<a href="Taliesin" title="Taliesin">Gwion</a>, having accidentally taken <a href="Awen" title="Awen">the wisdom</a> from a potion that <a href="Ceridwen" title="Ceridwen">Ceridwen</a> was brewing for <a href="Morfran" title="Morfran">her son</a>, fled from her through a succession of changes, which she answered with changes of her own. This ended when he turned into a grain of corn and she turned into a hen and ate him. She became pregnant, and he was reborn as a baby. He grew up to be the bard Taliesin. In the <a href="Book_of_Taliesin" title="Book of Taliesin">Book of Taliesin</a>, he mentions many forms which he is able to take, including that of lantern-light.

Tales abound about the <a href="Selkie" title="Selkie">selkie</a>, a seal that can remove its skin to make contact in <a href="Human_guise" title="Human guise">human guise</a> with people for only a short amount of time before it must return to the sea. Clan MacColdrum of <a href="Uist" title="Uist">Uist</a>'s foundation myths include a union between the founder of the clan and a shape-shifting selkie.<a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a> Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In <a href="The_Great_Silkie_of_Sule_Skerry" title="The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry">The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry</a> the (male) selkie seduces a human woman. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies.

<a href="Scottish_mythology" title="Scottish mythology">Scottish mythology</a> features shapeshifters, which allows the various creatures to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water spirits such as the <a href="Each-uisge" title="Each-uisge">each-uisge</a>, which inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland, were said to appear as a horse or a young man.<a href="#cite_note-Fairies,_Hobgoblins_p360-4">[4]</a> Other tales include <a href="Kelpie" title="Kelpie">kelpies</a> who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman to ensnare and kill weary travelers. <a href="Tam_Lin" title="Tam Lin">Tam Lin</a>, 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 <a href="Folklore" title="Folklore">folktales</a>.<a href="#cite_note-Francis_James_Child_pp._336-7">[7]</a>

Perhaps the best-known <a href="Irish_mythology" title="Irish mythology">Irish myth</a> is that of <a href="Aoife" title="Aoife">Aoife</a> who turned her stepchildren, the <a href="Children_of_Lir" title="Children of Lir">Children of Lir</a>, into swans to be rid of them. Likewise, in the <a href="Tochmarc_%C3%89ta%C3%ADne" title="Tochmarc Étaíne">Tochmarc Étaíne</a>, <a href="Fuamnach" title="Fuamnach">Fuamnach</a> jealously turns <a href="%C3%89ta%C3%ADn" title="Étaín">Étaín</a> into a butterfly. The most dramatic example of shapeshifting in Irish myth is that of <a href="Tuan_mac_Cairill" title="Tuan mac Cairill">Tuan mac Cairill</a>, the only survivor of <a href="Parthol%C3%B3n" title="Partholón">Partholón</a>'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 <a href="P%C3%BAca" title="Púca">Púca</a> is a Celtic faery, and also a deft shapeshifter. He can transform into many different, terrifying forms.

<a href="Sadhbh" title="Sadhbh">Sadhbh</a>, the wife of the famous hero <a href="Fionn_mac_Cumhaill" title="Fionn mac Cumhaill">Fionn mac Cumhaill</a>, was changed into a deer by the druid <a href="Fear_Doirche" class="mw-redirect" title="Fear Doirche">Fer Doirich</a> when she spurned his amorous interests.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Norse_and_Teutonic">Norse and Teutonic</h3></div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Hamr_(folklore)" title="Hamr (folklore)">Hamr (folklore)</a></div>

There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales.<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a>

In the <a href="Lokasenna" title="Lokasenna">Lokasenna</a>, <a href="Odin" title="Odin">Odin</a> and <a href="Loki" title="Loki">Loki</a> taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century <a href="Edda" title="Edda">Edda</a> relates Loki taking the form of a <a href="Mare" title="Mare">mare</a> to bear Odin's steed <a href="Sleipnir" title="Sleipnir">Sleipnir</a> which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear <a href="Fenrir" title="Fenrir">Fenrir</a>.<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a>

<a href="Svipdagr" title="Svipdagr">Svipdagr</a> angered <a href="Odin" title="Odin">Odin</a>, who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess <a href="Freyja" title="Freyja">Freyja</a>, 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. In the <a href="Hyndlulj%C3%B3%C3%B0" title="Hyndluljóð">Hyndluljóð</a>, Freyja transformed her protégé <a href="%C3%93ttar_(mythology)" title="Óttar (mythology)">Óttar</a> 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 <a href="Volsunga_saga" class="mw-redirect" title="Volsunga saga">Volsunga saga</a> contains many shapeshifting characters. <a href="Siggeir" title="Siggeir">Siggeir</a>'s mother changed into a wolf to help torture his defeated brothers-in-law with slow and ignominious deaths. When one, <a href="Sigmund" title="Sigmund">Sigmund</a>, survived, he and his nephew and son <a href="Sinfj%C3%B6tli" title="Sinfjötli">Sinfjötli</a> killed men wearing wolfskins; when they donned the skins themselves, they were cursed to become <a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">werewolves</a>.<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a>

The dwarf <a href="Andvari" title="Andvari">Andvari</a> is described as being able to magically turn into a <a href="Esox" title="Esox">pike</a>. <a href="Alberich" title="Alberich">Alberich</a>, his counterpart in <a href="Richard_Wagner" title="Richard Wagner">Richard Wagner</a>'s <a href="Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen" title="Der Ring des Nibelungen">Der Ring des Nibelungen</a>, using the <a href="Tarnhelm" title="Tarnhelm">Tarnhelm</a>, takes on many forms, including a giant serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to impress or intimidate Loki and Odin/<a href="Odin" title="Odin">Wotan</a>.

<a href="Fafnir" class="mw-redirect" title="Fafnir">Fafnir</a> was originally a dwarf, a giant, or even a human, depending on the exact myth, but in all variants, he transformed into a dragon—a symbol of <a href="Greed_(deadly_sin)" class="mw-redirect" title="Greed (deadly sin)">greed</a>—while guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother, <a href="%C3%93tr" class="mw-redirect" title="Ótr">Ótr</a>, enjoyed spending time as an otter, which led to his accidental slaying by Loki.

In <a href="Scandinavia" title="Scandinavia">Scandinavia</a>, 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 <a href="Shamanism" title="Shamanism">shamans</a>, and all the girls Maras.

The <a href="Nisse_(folklore)" title="Nisse (folklore)">Nisse</a> is sometimes said to be a shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to <a href="Hulder" title="Hulder">Hulder</a>.

<a href="Gunnhild%2C_Mother_of_Kings" title="Gunnhild, Mother of Kings">Gunnhild, Mother of Kings</a> (Gunnhild konungamóðir) (c. 910  –  c. 980), a quasi-historical figure who appears in the <a href="Icelandic_Sagas" class="mw-redirect" title="Icelandic Sagas">Icelandic Sagas</a>, according to which she was the wife of <a href="Eric_Bloodaxe" title="Eric Bloodaxe">Eric Bloodaxe</a>, was credited with magic powers – including the power of shapeshifting

and turning at will into a bird. She is the central character of the novel <a href="Mother_of_Kings" title="Mother of Kings">Mother of Kings</a> by <a href="Poul_Anderson" title="Poul Anderson">Poul Anderson</a>,<a href="#cite_note-11">[11]</a> which considerably elaborates on her shapeshifting abilities.

In the <a href="Finland" title="Finland">Finnish</a> epic poem <a href="Kalevala" title="Kalevala">Kalevala</a> of ancient folklore, <a href="Louhi" title="Louhi">Louhi</a>, Mistress of the North, attacks <a href="V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen" title="Väinämöinen">Väinämöinen</a> in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her back as she tries to steal <a href="Sampo" title="Sampo">Sampo</a>.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Indian">Indian</h3></div>

<ul><li><a href="Ichchhadhari_naag" class="mw-redirect" title="Ichchhadhari naag">Ichchhadhari naag</a>: A common male cobra will become an ichchhadhari naag and a common female cobra will become an ichchhadhari naagin after 100 years of tapasya (penance). After being blessed by Lord <a href="Shiva" title="Shiva">Shiva</a>, they attain a human form of their own and have the ability to shapeshift into any living creature, they can live for more than a hundred years without getting old.</li>

<li><a href="Yogini" title="Yogini">Yoginis</a> were associated with the power of shapeshifting into female animals.<a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a></li>

<li>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.</li>

<li>In <a href="Kerala" title="Kerala">Kerala</a>, 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 <a href="Malabar_Coast" title="Malabar Coast">Malabar</a> region of Kerala before the widespread use of electricity.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Armenian">Armenian</h3></div>

In <a href="Armenian_mythology" title="Armenian mythology">Armenian mythology</a>, 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.<a href="#cite_note-Armmyth-13">[13]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Philippines">Philippines</h3></div>

<a href="Philippine_mythology" title="Philippine mythology">Philippine mythology</a> includes the <a href="Aswang" title="Aswang">Aswang</a>, 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 <a href="Kapre" title="Kapre">Kapre</a>, the <a href="Tikbalang" title="Tikbalang">Tikbalang</a>, and the <a href="Engkanto" title="Engkanto">Engkanto</a>, 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,<a href="#cite_note-14">[14]</a> a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Tatar">Tatar</h3></div>

<a href="Tatarstan" title="Tatarstan">Tatar</a> folklore includes <a href="Yuxa" title="Yuxa">Yuxa</a>, a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men to have children.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Chinese">Chinese</h3></div>

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<a href="Chinese_mythology" title="Chinese mythology">Chinese mythology</a> contains many tales of animal shapeshifters, capable of taking on human form. The most common such shapeshifter is the <a href="Huli_jing" class="mw-redirect" title="Huli jing">huli jing</a>, a fox spirit that usually appears as a beautiful young woman; most are dangerous, but some feature as the heroines of love stories. <a href="Madame_White_Snake" class="mw-redirect" title="Madame White Snake">Madame White Snake</a> is one such legend; a snake falls in love with a man, and the story recounts the trials she and her husband faced.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Japanese">Japanese</h3></div>

In <a href="Japanese_folklore" title="Japanese folklore">Japanese folklore</a> <a href="Obake" title="Obake">obake</a> are a type of <a href="Y%C5%8Dkai" title="Yōkai">yōkai</a> with the ability to shapeshifting. The fox, or <a href="Kitsune#Folklore" title="Kitsune">kitsune</a> is among the most commonly known, but other such creatures include the <a href="Bakeneko" title="Bakeneko">bakeneko</a>, the <a href="Mujina" title="Mujina">mujina</a>, and the <a href="Japanese_raccoon_dog" title="Japanese raccoon dog">tanuki</a>.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Korean">Korean</h3></div>

<a href="Korean_mythology" title="Korean mythology">Korean mythology</a> also contains a fox with the ability to shapeshift. Unlike its Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the <a href="Kumiho" title="Kumiho">kumiho</a> 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.<a href="#cite_note-15">[15]</a> 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).

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Somali">Somali</h3></div>

In <a href="Somali_mythology" title="Somali mythology">Somali mythology</a> Qori ismaris ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "<a href="Werehyena" title="Werehyena">Hyena-man</a>" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Southern_Africa">Southern Africa</h3></div>

<a href="%C7%80Kaggen" title="ǀKaggen">ǀKaggen</a> is a <a href="Demi-urge" class="mw-redirect" title="Demi-urge">demi-urge</a> and folk hero of the <a href="%C7%80Xam" class="mw-redirect" title="ǀXam">ǀXam</a> people of southern Africa.<a href="#cite_note-16">[16]</a> He is a trickster god who can shape shift, usually taking the form of a <a href="Praying_mantis" class="mw-redirect" title="Praying mantis">praying mantis</a> but also a bull <a href="Taurotragus" title="Taurotragus">eland</a>, a <a href="Louse" title="Louse">louse</a>, a snake, and a <a href="Caterpillar" title="Caterpillar">caterpillar</a>.<a href="#cite_note-17">[17]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Native_American">Native American</h3></div>

A Pukwudgie is a human-like creature from Wampanoag folklore said to appear and disappear at will, and shapeshift.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="South_American">South American</h3></div>

<a href="Amazon_river_dolphin" title="Amazon river dolphin">Amazon river dolphins</a> are curious and lack of fear of foreign objects,<a href="#cite_note-18">[18]</a> are <a href="Apex_predator" title="Apex predator">apex predators</a>,<a href="#cite_note-19">[19]</a> and the male Amazon river dolphins are very physically aggressive during their mating period, particularly around the courtship practice of object carrying.<a href="#cite_note-20">[20]</a><a href="#cite_note-21">[21]</a>

<a href="Amazon_river_dolphin" title="Amazon river dolphin">Amazon river dolphins</a>, known by the <a href="Indigenous_peoples" title="Indigenous peoples">natives</a> as the <a href="Boto" title="Boto">boto</a>, 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 <a href="Utopia" title="Utopia">utopia</a> full of wealth which is also without pain or death, they crave the pleasures and hardships of human societies.<a href="#cite_note-Authorhouse-22">[22]</a>

Transformation into human form is said to be rare, and usually occurs at night. The encantado will often be seen running from a <a href="Festival" title="Festival">festa</a>, 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 <a href="Blowhole_(anatomy)" title="Blowhole (anatomy)">blowhole</a>, which does not disappear with the shapeshift.<a href="#cite_note-Authorhouse-22">[22]</a>

Besides the ability to shapeshift into human form, encantados frequently wield other magical abilities, such as controlling storms, <a href="Hypnosis" title="Hypnosis">hypnotizing</a> humans into doing their will, transforming humans into encantados, and inflicting illness, insanity, and even death. <a href="Shamanism" title="Shamanism">Shamans</a> often intervene in these situations.<a href="#cite_note-Authorhouse-22">[22]</a>

Along with shapeshifting, <a href="Kidnapping" title="Kidnapping">kidnapping</a> is also a common theme in such folklore. Encantados are said to be fond of abducting humans with whom they fall in love, children born of their illicit love affairs, or just about anyone near the river who can keep them company, and taking them back to the Encante. The fear of this is so great among people who live near the Amazon River that both children and adults are terrified of going near the water between dusk and dawn, or entering water alone. Some who supposedly have encountered encantados while out in their canoes have been said to have gone insane, but the creatures seem to have done little more than follow their boats and nudge them from time to time.<a href="#cite_note-Authorhouse-22">[22]</a> The <a href="Myth" title="Myth">myth</a> is suggested to have arisen in part because <a href="Dolphin_genitalia" class="mw-redirect" title="Dolphin genitalia">dolphin genitalia</a> bear a resemblance to those of humans. Others believe the myth served (and still serves) as a way of hiding the incestuous relations which are quite common in some small, isolated communities along the river.<a href="#cite_note-23">[23]</a>

Legend also states that "if a person makes eye contact with an Amazon river dolphin, they will have lifelong <a href="Nightmare" title="Nightmare">nightmares</a>".<a href="#cite_note-24">[24]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Trinidad_and_Tobago">Trinidad and Tobago</h3></div>

The <a href="Lagahoo" title="Lagahoo">Ligahoo</a> or <a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">loup-garou</a> is the shapeshifter of <a href="Caribbean_folklore" title="Caribbean folklore">Trinidad and Tobago's folklore</a>. This unique ability is believed to be handed down in some old <a href="Creole_peoples" title="Creole peoples">creole</a> families, and is usually associated with <a href="Witch_doctor" title="Witch doctor">witch-doctors</a> and practitioners of <a href="African_magic" title="African magic">African magic</a>.<a href="#cite_note-25">[25]</a><a href="#cite_note-26">[26]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Mapuche_(Argentina_and_Chile)">Mapuche (Argentina and Chile)</h3></div>

The name of the <a href="Nahuel_Huapi_Lake" title="Nahuel Huapi Lake">Nahuel Huapi Lake</a> in Argentina derives from the toponym of its major island in <a href="Mapudungun" class="mw-redirect" title="Mapudungun">Mapudungun</a> (<a href="Mapuche" title="Mapuche">Mapuche</a> language): "Island of the Jaguar (or Puma)", from nahuel, "puma (or jaguar)", and huapí, "island". There is, however, more to the word "Nahuel" – it can also signify "a man who by <a href="Magic_(paranormal)" class="mw-redirect" title="Magic (paranormal)">sorcery</a> has been transformed into a puma" (or jaguar).

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Slavic_mythology">Slavic mythology</h3></div>

In <a href="Slavic_mythology" class="mw-redirect" title="Slavic mythology">Slavic mythology</a>, one of the main gods <a href="Veles_(god)" title="Veles (god)">Veles</a> was a shapeshifting god of animals, magic and the underworld. He was often represented as a bear, wolf, snake or owl.<a href="#cite_note-27">[27]</a> He also became a dragon while fighting <a href="Perun" title="Perun">Perun</a>, the Slavic storm god.<a href="#cite_note-katicic2008-28">[28]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Folktales">Folktales</h3></div>

<ul><li>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.</li>

<li>In <a href="The_Laidly_Worm_of_Spindleston_Heugh" title="The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh">The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh</a>, a Northumbrian legend from about the thirteenth century, Princess Margaret of Bamburgh is transformed into a dragon by her stepmother; her motive sprung, like <a href="Snow_White" title="Snow White">Snow White</a>'s stepmother's, from the comparison of their beauty.<a href="#cite_note-29">[29]</a></li>

<li>In <a href="Child_ballad" class="mw-redirect" title="Child ballad">Child ballad</a> 35, "<a href="Allison_Gross" title="Allison Gross">Allison Gross</a>", the title witch turns a man into a <a href="European_dragon" title="European dragon">wyrm</a> for refusing to be her lover. This is a motif found in many legends and folktales.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChild1965313–314-30">[30]</a></li>

<li>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.</li>

<li>In some variants of the fairy tales, both <a href="The_Frog_Prince" title="The Frog Prince">The Frog Prince</a> or more commonly <a href="The_Frog_Princess" title="The Frog Princess">The Frog Princess</a> and Beast, of <a href="Beauty_and_the_Beast" title="Beauty and the Beast">Beauty and the Beast</a>, 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.</li>

<li>In the most famous <a href="Lithuanian_culture" class="mw-redirect" title="Lithuanian culture">Lithuanian</a> folk tale <a href="Egl%C4%97_the_Queen_of_Serpents" title="Eglė the Queen of Serpents">Eglė the Queen of Serpents</a>, 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.</li>

<li>In <a href="East_of_the_Sun_and_West_of_the_Moon" title="East of the Sun and West of the Moon">East of the Sun and West of the Moon</a>, the hero is transformed into a bear by his wicked <a href="Stepmother#In_fiction" title="Stepmother">stepmother</a>, who wishes to force him to marry her daughter.<a href="#cite_note-31">[31]</a></li>

<li>In The Marmot Queen by <a href="Italo_Calvino" title="Italo Calvino">Italo Calvino</a>, a Spanish queen is turned into a rodent by <a href="Morgan_le_Fay" title="Morgan le Fay">Morgan le Fay</a>.</li>

<li>In The Mare of the Necromancer, a Turin Italian tale by <a href="Guido_Gozzano" title="Guido Gozzano">Guido Gozzano</a>, 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.</li>

<li><a href="The_White_Doe" title="The White Doe">The White Doe</a>, a French tale written by <a href="Madame_d'Aulnoy" title="Madame d'Aulnoy">Madame d'Aulnoy</a>, describes the transformation of Princess Desiree into a doe by a jealous fairy.</li>

<li>From a Croatian book of tales, Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources by <a href="A._H._Wratislaw" class="mw-redirect" title="A. H. Wratislaw">A. H. Wratislaw</a>, 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.</li>

<li>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.</li>

<li>In <a href="Dapplegrim" title="Dapplegrim">Dapplegrim</a>, if the youth found the transformed princess twice, and hid from her twice, they would marry.</li>

<li>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.<a href="#cite_note-32">[32]</a></li>

<li><a href="Journey_to_the_West" title="Journey to the West">Journey to the West</a>, 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 <a href="Monkey_King" class="mw-redirect" title="Monkey King">Monkey King</a>, a mischievous trickster who often utilizes his power of 72 transformations to thwart his foes.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Themes">Themes</h2></div>

Shapeshifting may be used as a <a href="Plot_device" title="Plot device">plot device</a>, such as when <a href="Puss_in_Boots" title="Puss in Boots">Puss in Boots</a> in the fairy tales tricks the <a href="Ogre" title="Ogre">ogre</a> into becoming a mouse to be eaten. Shapeshifting may also include symbolic significance, like the Beast's transformation in <a href="Beauty_and_the_Beast" title="Beauty and the Beast">Beauty and the Beast</a> indicates Belle's ability to accept him despite his appearance.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWilson197694-33">[33]</a>

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 <a href="Petrifaction_in_mythology_and_fiction" title="Petrifaction in mythology and fiction">petrifaction</a>, 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 <a href="Fairy_tale" title="Fairy tale">fairy tales</a>. A prince who is forced into a bear's shape (as in <a href="East_of_the_Sun_and_West_of_the_Moon" title="East of the Sun and West of the Moon">East of the Sun and West of the Moon</a>) is a prisoner, but a princess who takes on a bear's shape voluntarily to flee a situation (as in <a href="The_She-Bear" class="mw-redirect" title="The She-Bear">The She-Bear</a>) escapes with her new shape.<a href="#cite_note-34">[34]</a> In the <a href="Earthsea" title="Earthsea">Earthsea</a> books, <a href="Ursula_K._Le_Guin" title="Ursula K. Le Guin">Ursula K. Le Guin</a> depicts an animal form as slowly transforming the wizard's mind, so that the dolphin, bear or other creature forgets it was human, making it impossible to change back. This makes an example of a voluntary shapeshifting becoming an imprisoning metamorphosis.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEColbert200128–29-35">[35]</a>

Beyond this, the uses of shapeshifting, transformation, and <a href="Metamorphosis" title="Metamorphosis">metamorphosis</a> in fiction are as <a href="Proteus" title="Proteus">protean</a> as the forms the characters take on. Some are rare, such as <a href="Italo_Calvino" title="Italo Calvino">Italo Calvino</a>'s "<a href="The_Canary_Prince" title="The Canary Prince">The Canary Prince</a>" is a <a href="Rapunzel" title="Rapunzel">Rapunzel</a> variant in which shape-shifting is used to gain access to the tower.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Punitive_changes">Punitive changes</h3></div>

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 <a href="Three-act_structure#Structure" title="Three-act structure">resolution</a> of myths (as in many of the <a href="Metamorphoses" title="Metamorphoses">Metamorphoses</a>) or produce <a href="Origin_myth" title="Origin myth">origin myths</a>.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Transformation_chase">Transformation chase</h3></div>

In many <a href="Fairy_tale" title="Fairy tale">fairy tales</a> and <a href="Ballad" title="Ballad">ballads</a>, as in <a href="Child_Ballads" title="Child Ballads">Child Ballad</a> #44, <a href="The_Twa_Magicians" title="The Twa Magicians">The Twa Magicians</a> or <a href="Farmer_Weathersky" title="Farmer Weathersky">Farmer Weathersky</a>, 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 <a href="Foundling-Bird" title="Foundling-Bird">Foundling-Bird</a> contains this as the bulk of the plot.<a href="#cite_note-Vladimir_Propp_p_57-36">[36]</a> In the Italian Campania Fables collection of <a href="Pentamerone" title="Pentamerone">Pentamerone</a> by <a href="Gianbattista_Basile" class="mw-redirect" title="Gianbattista Basile">Gianbattista Basile</a>, tells of a Neapolitan princess who, to escape from her father who had imprisoned her, becomes a huge she-bear. The magic happens due to a potion given to her by an old witch. The girl, once gone, can regain her human aspect.

In other variants, the pursued may transform various objects into obstacles, as in the fairy tale "<a href="The_Master_Maid" title="The Master Maid">The Master Maid</a>", 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 <a href="Rule_of_three_(writing)" title="Rule of three (writing)">three</a> obstacles.<a href="#cite_note-Vladimir_Propp_p_57-36">[36]</a> This obstacle chase is literally found worldwide, in many variants in every region.<a href="#cite_note-37">[37]</a>

In fairy tales of the <a href="Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson" class="mw-redirect" title="Aarne–Thompson">Aarne–Thompson</a> type 313A, The Girl Helps the Hero Flee, such a chase is an integral part of the tale. It can be either a transformation chase (as in <a href="The_Grateful_Prince" title="The Grateful Prince">The Grateful Prince</a>, <a href="King_Kojata" title="King Kojata">King Kojata</a>, <a href="Foundling-Bird" title="Foundling-Bird">Foundling-Bird</a>, <a href="Jean%2C_the_Soldier%2C_and_Eulalie%2C_the_Devil's_Daughter" title="Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devil's Daughter">Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devil's Daughter</a>, or <a href="The_Two_Kings'_Children" title="The Two Kings' Children">The Two Kings' Children</a>) or an obstacle chase (as in <a href="The_Battle_of_the_Birds" title="The Battle of the Birds">The Battle of the Birds</a>, <a href="The_White_Dove_(Danish_fairy_tale)" title="The White Dove (Danish fairy tale)">The White Dove</a>, or <a href="The_Master_Maid" title="The Master Maid">The Master Maid</a>).<a href="#cite_note-38">[38]</a>

In a similar effect, a captive may shapeshift to break a hold on him. <a href="Proteus" title="Proteus">Proteus</a> and <a href="Nereus" title="Nereus">Nereus</a>'s shapeshifting was to prevent heroes such as <a href="Menelaus" title="Menelaus">Menelaus</a> and <a href="Heracles" title="Heracles">Heracles</a> from forcing information from them.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEColbert200123-39">[39]</a> <a href="Tam_Lin" title="Tam Lin">Tam Lin</a>, once seized by Janet, was transformed by the <a href="Fairy" title="Fairy">faeries</a> to keep Janet from taking him, but as he had advised her, she did not let go, and so freed him.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGrantClute960"Transformation"-40">[40]</a> The motif of capturing a person by holding him through many transformations is found in folktales throughout Europe,<a href="#cite_note-Francis_James_Child_pp._336-7">[7]</a> and <a href="Patricia_A._McKillip" title="Patricia A. McKillip">Patricia A. McKillip</a> references it in her <a href="Patricia_A._McKillip_bibliography#The_Riddle-Master_trilogy" title="Patricia A. McKillip bibliography">Riddle-Master trilogy</a>: a shape-shifting Earthmaster finally wins its freedom by startling the man holding it.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Powers">Powers</h3></div>

One motif is a shape change in order to obtain abilities in the new form. <a href="Berserker" title="Berserker">Berserkers</a> 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 <a href="Talking_animal" title="Talking animal">talking animal</a> <a href="Donor_(fairy_tale)" title="Donor (fairy tale)">helper</a> proves to be a shapeshifted human being, able to help him in its animal form. In one variation, featured in <a href="The_Three_Enchanted_Princes" title="The Three Enchanted Princes">The Three Enchanted Princes</a> and <a href="The_Death_of_Koschei_the_Deathless" title="The Death of Koschei the Deathless">The Death of Koschei the Deathless</a>, 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.<a href="#cite_note-41">[41]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Bildungsroman">Bildungsroman</h3></div>

<a href="Beauty_and_the_Beast" title="Beauty and the Beast">Beauty and the Beast</a> 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.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEJones199584-42">[42]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Needed_items">Needed items</h3></div>

Some shapeshifters can change form only if they have some item, usually an article of clothing. In <a href="Bisclavret" title="Bisclavret">Bisclavret</a> by <a href="Marie_de_France" title="Marie de France">Marie de France</a>, 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 <a href="Swan_maiden" title="Swan maiden">swan maidens</a> and the Japanese <a href="Tennin" title="Tennin">tennin</a>.

Swedish writer <a href="Selma_Lagerl%C3%B6f" title="Selma Lagerlöf">Selma Lagerlöf</a>, in <a href="The_Wonderful_Adventures_of_Nils" title="The Wonderful Adventures of Nils">The Wonderful Adventures of Nils</a>, 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 <a href="Stockholm" title="Stockholm">Stockholm</a>.<a href="#cite_note-43">[43]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Inner_conflict">Inner conflict</h3></div>

The power to externally transform can symbolize an internal savagery; a central theme in many strands of <a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">werewolf</a> mythology,<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger1999xix-44">[44]</a> and the <a href="Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde#Analysis_of_themes" title="Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde">inversion of the "liberation" theme</a>, as in <a href="Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde#Plot" title="Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde">Dr Jekyll's transformation</a> into Mr. Hyde.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Usurpation">Usurpation</h3></div>

Some transformations are performed to remove the victim from his place so that the transformer can usurp it. <a href="Bisclaveret" class="mw-redirect" title="Bisclaveret">Bisclaveret</a>'s wife steals his clothing and traps him in wolf form because she has a lover. A witch, in <a href="The_Wonderful_Birch" title="The Wonderful Birch">The Wonderful Birch</a>, changed a mother into a sheep to take her place, and had the mother slaughtered; when her stepdaughter married the king, the witch transformed her into a reindeer to put her daughter in the queen's place. In the Korean Transformation of the Kumiho, a <a href="Kumiho" title="Kumiho">kumiho</a>, a fox with magical powers, transforms itself into an image of the bride, only being detected when her clothing is removed. In <a href="Brother_and_Sister" title="Brother and Sister">Brother and Sister</a>, when two children flee from their cruel stepmother, she enchants the streams along the way to transform them. While the brother refrains from the first two, which threaten to turn them into tigers and wolves, he is too thirsty at the third, which turns him into a deer. <a href="The_Six_Swans" title="The Six Swans">The Six Swans</a> are transformed into swans by their <a href="Stepmother#In_fiction" title="Stepmother">stepmother</a>,<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETatar2004226-45">[45]</a> as are the Children of Lir in Irish mythology.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Ill-advised_wishes">Ill-advised wishes</h3></div>

Many fairy-tale characters have expressed ill-advised <a href="Wish" title="Wish">wishes</a> to have any child at all, even one that has another form, and had such children born to them.<a href="#cite_note-46">[46]</a> At the end of the fairy tale, normally after marriage, such children metamorphose into human form. <a href="Hans_My_Hedgehog" title="Hans My Hedgehog">Hans My Hedgehog</a> was born when his father wished for a child, even a hedgehog. Even stranger forms are possible: <a href="Giambattista_Basile" title="Giambattista Basile">Giambattista Basile</a> included in his Pentamerone the <a href="The_Myrtle" title="The Myrtle">tale</a> of a girl born as a sprig of myrtle, and <a href="Italo_Calvino" title="Italo Calvino">Italo Calvino</a>, 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 <a href="Lindworm#In_tales" title="Lindworm">Prince Lindworm</a>, the woman eats two onions but does not peel one, resulting in her first child being a <a href="Lindworm" title="Lindworm">lindworm</a>. In <a href="Tatterhood" title="Tatterhood">Tatterhood</a>, 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. <a href="The_Seven_Ravens" title="The Seven Ravens">The Seven Ravens</a> are transformed when their father thinks his sons are playing instead of fetching water to christen their newborn and sickly sister, and curses them.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTETatar2004136-47">[47]</a> In <a href="Puddocky" title="Puddocky">Puddocky</a>, when three princes start to quarrel over the beautiful heroine, a witch curses her because of the noise.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Monstrous_bride/bridegroom">Monstrous bride/bridegroom</h3></div>

<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="Animal_as_Bridegroom" title="Animal as Bridegroom">Animal as Bridegroom</a></div>

Such wished-for children may become monstrous <a href="Bride" title="Bride">brides</a> or <a href="Bridegroom" title="Bridegroom">bridegrooms</a>. 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.<a href="#cite_note-48">[48]</a>

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. <a href="Sir_Gawain" class="mw-redirect" title="Sir Gawain">Sir Gawain</a> thus transformed the <a href="Loathly_lady" title="Loathly lady">Loathly lady</a>; although he was told that this was halfway, she could at his choice be beautiful by day and hideous by night, or vice versa, he told her that he would choose what she preferred, which broke the spell entirely.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWilson197689-49">[49]</a> In <a href="Tatterhood" title="Tatterhood">Tatterhood</a>, Tatterhood is transformed by her asking her bridegroom why he didn't ask her why she rode a goat, why she carried a spoon, and why she was so ugly, and when he asked her, denying it and therefore transforming her goat into a horse, her spoon into a fan, and herself into a beauty. <a href="Puddocky" title="Puddocky">Puddocky</a> is transformed when her prince, after she had helped him with two other tasks, tells him that his father has sent him for a bride. A similar effect is found in <a href="Child_ballad" class="mw-redirect" title="Child ballad">Child ballad</a> 34, <a href="Kemp_Owyne" title="Kemp Owyne">Kemp Owyne</a>, where the hero can transform a dragon back into a maiden by kissing her three times.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChild1965306-50">[50]</a>

Sometimes the bridegroom removes his animal skin for the wedding night, whereupon it can be burned. <a href="Hans_My_Hedgehog" title="Hans My Hedgehog">Hans My Hedgehog</a>, <a href="The_Donkey_(fairy_tale)" title="The Donkey (fairy tale)">The Donkey</a> and <a href="The_Pig_King" title="The Pig King">The Pig King</a> fall under this grouping. At an extreme, in <a href="King_Lindworm" title="King Lindworm">Prince Lindworm</a>, 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.<a href="#cite_note-endicott-studio.com-1">[1]</a>

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 <a href="East_of_the_Sun_and_West_of_the_Moon" title="East of the Sun and West of the Moon">East of the Sun and West of the Moon</a>), or the bridegroom must not burn the animals' skins. In <a href="The_Brown_Bear_of_Norway" title="The Brown Bear of Norway">The Brown Bear of Norway</a>, <a href="The_Golden_Crab" title="The Golden Crab">The Golden Crab</a>, <a href="The_Enchanted_Snake" title="The Enchanted Snake">The Enchanted Snake</a> and some variants of <a href="The_Frog_Princess" title="The Frog Princess">The Frog Princess</a>, 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.<a href="#cite_note-endicott-studio.com-1">[1]</a>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Death">Death</h3></div>

Ghosts sometimes appear in animal form. In <a href="The_Famous_Flower_of_Serving-Men" title="The Famous Flower of Serving-Men">The Famous Flower of Serving-Men</a>, the heroine's murdered husband appears to the king as a white dove, lamenting her fate over his own grave. In <a href="The_White_and_the_Black_Bride" class="mw-redirect" title="The White and the Black Bride">The White and the Black Bride</a> and <a href="The_Three_Little_Men_in_the_Wood" title="The Three Little Men in the Wood">The Three Little Men in the Wood</a>, the murdered – drowned – true bride reappears as a white duck. In <a href="The_Rose_Tree" class="mw-redirect" title="The Rose Tree">The Rose Tree</a> and <a href="The_Juniper_Tree_(fairy_tale)" title="The Juniper Tree (fairy tale)">The Juniper Tree</a>, the murdered children become birds who avenge their own deaths. There are African folk tales of murder victims avenging themselves in the form of <a href="Mugger_crocodile" title="Mugger crocodile">crocodiles</a> that can shapeshift into human form.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger199967-51">[51]</a>

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 <a href="Beauty_and_Pock_Face" title="Beauty and Pock Face">Beauty and Pock Face</a>, <a href="A_String_of_Pearls_Twined_with_Golden_Flowers" title="A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers">A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers</a>, and <a href="The_Boys_with_the_Golden_Stars" title="The Boys with the Golden Stars">The Boys with the Golden Stars</a>. 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 <a href="The_Wounded_Lion" title="The Wounded Lion">The Wounded Lion</a>, the prescription for turning the lion back into a prince was to kill him, chop him to pieces, burn the pieces, and throw the ash into the water. Less drastic but no less fatal, the fox in <a href="The_Golden_Bird" title="The Golden Bird">The Golden Bird</a>, the foals in <a href="The_Seven_Foals" title="The Seven Foals">The Seven Foals</a>, and the cats in <a href="Lord_Peter_(fairy_tale)" title="Lord Peter (fairy tale)">Lord Peter</a> and <a href="The_White_Cat_(fairy_tale)" title="The White Cat (fairy tale)">The White Cat</a> tell the heroes of those stories to cut off their heads; this restores them to human shape.<a href="#cite_note-52">[52]</a> In the Greek tale of <a href="Scylla_(princess)" class="mw-redirect" title="Scylla (princess)">Scylla</a>, Scylla's father <a href="Nisos" title="Nisos">Nisus</a> turns into an eagle after death and drowns her daughter for betraying her father.

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Modern">Modern</h2></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Fiction">Fiction</h3></div>

<ul><li>In <a href="George_MacDonald" title="George MacDonald">George MacDonald</a>'s <a href="The_Princess_and_Curdie" title="The Princess and Curdie">The Princess and Curdie</a> (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.<a href="#cite_note-53">[53]</a></li>

<li>In <a href="Carlo_Collodi" title="Carlo Collodi">Carlo Collodi</a>'s story <a href="The_Adventures_of_Pinocchio" title="The Adventures of Pinocchio">The Adventures of Pinocchio</a> (1883), the boys who visit the <a href="Land_of_Toys" title="Land of Toys">Land of Toys</a> turn into <a href="Donkey" title="Donkey">donkeys</a>.</li>

<li><a href="L._Frank_Baum" title="L. Frank Baum">L. Frank Baum</a> concluded <a href="The_Marvelous_Land_of_Oz" title="The Marvelous Land of Oz">The Marvelous Land of Oz</a> (1904) with the revelation that <a href="Princess_Ozma" title="Princess Ozma">Princess Ozma</a>, 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 <a href="Glinda" title="Glinda">Glinda the Good</a> disapproves of shapeshifting magic, so it is done by the evil witch <a href="Mombi" title="Mombi">Mombi</a>.<a href="#cite_note-54">[54]</a></li>

<li>The science fiction short story "<a href="Who_Goes_There%3F" title="Who Goes There?">Who Goes There?</a>" written by <a href="John_W._Campbell" title="John W. Campbell">John W. Campbell</a> (later adapted to film as <a href="The_Thing_from_Another_World" title="The Thing from Another World">The Thing from Another World</a> and <a href="The_Thing_(1982_film)" title="The Thing (1982 film)">The Thing</a>) concerns a shapeshifting alien lifeform that can assume the form and memories of any creature it absorbs.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger1999385-55">[55]</a></li>

<li>In <a href="T.H._White" class="mw-redirect" title="T.H. White">T.H. White</a>'s 1938 book <a href="The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(novel)" title="The Sword in the Stone (novel)">The Sword in the Stone</a>, <a href="Merlin" title="Merlin">Merlin</a> and <a href="Madam_Mim" class="mw-redirect" title="Madam Mim">Madam Mim</a> fight a wizards' duel, in which the duelists would endlessly transform until one was in a form that could destroy the other.<a href="#cite_note-56">[56]</a> Also, at various times, <a href="Merlin" title="Merlin">Merlin</a> transform <a href="King_Arthur" title="King Arthur">Arthur</a> into various animals as an educational experience.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGrantClute960"Transformation"-40">[40]</a></li>

<li>In <a href="C.S._Lewis" class="mw-redirect" title="C.S. Lewis">C.S. Lewis</a>'s <a href="The_Chronicles_of_Narnia" title="The Chronicles of Narnia">The Chronicles of Narnia</a>, <a href="Eustace_Scrubb" title="Eustace Scrubb">Eustace Scrubb</a> transforms into a dragon in <a href="The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader" title="The Voyage of the Dawn Treader">The Voyage of the Dawn Treader</a>,<a href="#cite_note-57">[57]</a> and in <a href="The_Horse_and_his_Boy" class="mw-redirect" title="The Horse and his Boy">The Horse and his Boy</a> the <a href="Calormene" class="mw-redirect" title="Calormene">Calormene</a> war-monger <a href="Prince_Rabadash" class="mw-redirect" title="Prince Rabadash">Rabadash</a> into a donkey.<a href="#cite_note-58">[58]</a> Eustace's transformation is not strictly a punishment — the change simply reveals the truth of his selfishness — and it is reversed after he repents with the later change in his moral nature. 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.</li>

<li>Both the Earthmasters and their opponents in <a href="Patricia_A._McKillip" title="Patricia A. McKillip">Patricia A. McKillip</a>'s 1976 <a href="The_Riddle-Master_of_Hed" title="The Riddle-Master of Hed">The Riddle-Master of Hed</a> trilogy make extensive use of their shapeshifting abilities for the powers of their new forms.<a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGrantClute858"Shapeshifting"-59">[59]</a></li>

<li>James A. Hetley's <a href="Contemporary_fantasy" title="Contemporary fantasy">contemporary fantasy</a> books Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth centers on the Morgan family of Stonefort, <a href="Maine" title="Maine">Maine</a> – 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).</li>

<li>In <a href="Harry_Potter" title="Harry Potter">Harry Potter</a> series, some wizards and witches with the ability of 'animagus' can transform into a particular animal of their choice and are required to register with the Ministry of Magic about their ability.</li>

<li>In the <a href="Mortal_Kombat_(franchise)" class="mw-redirect" title="Mortal Kombat (franchise)">Mortal Kombat franchise</a>, <a href="Shang_Tsung" title="Shang Tsung">Shang Tsung</a> is a shapeshifter.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Film_and_popular_culture">Film and popular culture</h3></div>

<ul><li><a href="The_X-Files" title="The X-Files">The X-Files</a> features a species known as the <a href="Colonist_(The_X-Files)" title="Colonist (The X-Files)">Colonists</a> who are infiltrating Earth to colonize the planet.</li>

<li>In <a href="David_Icke" title="David Icke">David Icke</a>'s works, <a href="Reptilian_conspiracy_theory" title="Reptilian conspiracy theory">reptilian shapeshifters</a> secretly control many aspects of human society by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate humanity.</li>

<li>In the <a href="Doctor_Who" title="Doctor Who">Doctor Who</a> serial "<a href="The_Faceless_Ones" title="The Faceless Ones">The Faceless Ones</a>" (1967), featureless aliens known as the Chameleons shapeshift into humans in order to steal their identities. However, they need to keep the copied person alive in order to maintain their stolen identity.<a href="#cite_note-60">[60]</a></li>

<li>In the <a href="Doctor_Who" title="Doctor Who">Doctor Who</a> serial "<a href="Terror_of_the_Zygons" title="Terror of the Zygons">Terror of the Zygons</a>" (1975), the main antagonists, called the <a href="Zygon" class="mw-redirect" title="Zygon">Zygons</a>, 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.<a href="#cite_note-61">[61]</a></li>

<li>In the <a href="Doctor_Who" title="Doctor Who">Doctor Who</a> serial "<a href="Horror_of_Fang_Rock" title="Horror of Fang Rock">Horror of Fang Rock</a>" (1977), the alien species called the Rutans, ancient opponents to the <a href="Sontaran" title="Sontaran">Sontarans</a>, possessed the ability to transform from their natural jellyfish like form to that of one of their human victims.<a href="#cite_note-62">[62]</a></li>

<li>The <a href="Marvel_Comics_Universe" class="mw-redirect" title="Marvel Comics Universe">Marvel Comics Universe</a> features a wide range of shapeshifters, including <a href="Mr._Fantastic" class="mw-redirect" title="Mr. Fantastic">Mr. Fantastic</a>, <a href="Mystique_(character)" title="Mystique (character)">Mystique</a>, and <a href="Impossible_Man" title="Impossible Man">Impossible Man</a>, and alien races whose members can shapeshift, such as the <a href="Skrull" title="Skrull">Skrulls</a>, the <a href="Phalanx_(comics)" title="Phalanx (comics)">Phalanx</a>, and the <a href="Symbiote_(comics)" title="Symbiote (comics)">Symbiotes</a>.</li>

<li>The <a href="DC_Comics_Universe" class="mw-redirect" title="DC Comics Universe">DC Comics Universe</a> features a wide range of shapeshifters, the most prominent being <a href="Beast_Boy" title="Beast Boy">Beast Boy</a>, <a href="Plastic_Man" title="Plastic Man">Plastic Man</a>, <a href="Martian_Manhunter" title="Martian Manhunter">Martian Manhunter</a>, <a href="Miss_Martian" title="Miss Martian">Miss Martian</a>, <a href="Metamorpho" title="Metamorpho">Metamorpho</a>, and the <a href="Clayface" title="Clayface">Clayfaces</a>.</li>

<li>The <a href="Star_Trek_universe" class="mw-redirect" title="Star Trek universe">Star Trek universe</a> features a number of shapeshifting alien races, including the <a href="Organians" class="mw-redirect" title="Organians">Organians</a> and the <a href="Chameloids" class="mw-redirect" title="Chameloids">Chameloids</a> from <a href="Star_Trek%3A_The_Original_Series" title="Star Trek: The Original Series">the original series</a>, and the <a href="List_of_Star_Trek_aliens#Changelings" title="List of Star Trek aliens">Changelings</a> in <a href="Star_Trek%3A_Deep_Space_Nine" title="Star Trek: Deep Space Nine">Deep Space Nine</a>. Among the <a href="Suliban" class="mw-redirect" title="Suliban">Suliban</a>, the <a href="Temporal_Cold_War" class="mw-redirect" title="Temporal Cold War">Cabal</a> also were given the ability to shapeshift by a being from the future, as seen in <a href="Star_Trek%3A_Enterprise" title="Star Trek: Enterprise">Star Trek: Enterprise</a>.</li>

<li>The <a href="Transformers" title="Transformers">Transformers</a> media franchise centers upon an alien race of shapeshifting robots.</li>

<li>In <a href="Thunderheart" title="Thunderheart">Thunderheart</a> (1992), starring <a href="Val_Kilmer" title="Val Kilmer">Val Kilmer</a>, the character Jimmy Looks Twice evades capture by shapeshifting at will into a series of animals.</li>

<li><a href="Twilight_(novel_series)" title="Twilight (novel series)">The Twilight Saga</a> also features <a href="List_of_Twilight_characters#Seth_Clearwater" title="List of Twilight characters">shapeshifters</a> that can transform into wolves and have inhuman <a href="Superhuman_strength" title="Superhuman strength">strength</a>, <a href="Speed" title="Speed">speed</a>, <a href="Body_temperature" class="mw-redirect" title="Body temperature">body temperature</a> and <a href="Aging_process" class="mw-redirect" title="Aging process">aging process</a>.<a href="#cite_note-63">[63]</a></li>

<li>In <a href="Star_Wars%3A_Episode_II_%E2%80%93_Attack_of_the_Clones" title="Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones">Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones</a> (2002), Zam Wesell attempts to assassinate <a href="Padm%C3%A9_Amidala" title="Padmé Amidala">Padmé Amidala</a>. When Zam flees, <a href="Anakin_Skywalker" class="mw-redirect" title="Anakin Skywalker">Anakin</a> pursues her and discovers she is a shapeshifter. Zam Wesell reverts to her natural form when her employer kills her after she is captured.</li>

<li>In <a href="Supernatural_(American_TV_series)" title="Supernatural (American TV series)">Supernatural</a>, the shapeshifters are recurring creatures of the series. Shapeshifter first appeared in Season 1, Episode 6 titled "Skin".</li>

<li>In <a href="Fringe_(TV_series)" title="Fringe (TV series)">Fringe</a>, shapeshifters are inorganic, human hybrids from the Alternate Universe.</li>

<li>In <a href="Encanto" title="Encanto">Encanto</a>, Camilo has the ability to shapeshift.</li>

<li>In the <a href="Animorphs" title="Animorphs">Animorphs</a> 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 whose DNA they acquire.</li>

<li>In the <a href="The_Heroes_of_Olympus" title="The Heroes of Olympus">Heroes of Olympus</a> book series, the demigod Frank Zhang possesses the ability to shapeshift as a gift from his ancestor <a href="Poseidon" title="Poseidon">Poseidon</a>.</li>

<li>In the graphic novel <a href="Nimona" title="Nimona">Nimona</a> and its animated feature film adaptation, the titular character is a mischievous shapeshifter.</li>

<li>The 1999 film <a href="My_Favorite_Martian_(film)" title="My Favorite Martian (film)">My Favorite Martian</a>, which is based on the <a href="My_Favorite_Martian" title="My Favorite Martian">1960s show of the same name</a>, features a gum called Nerplex, which turns anyone into aliens.</li>

<li>In the <a href="Ben_10" title="Ben 10">Ben 10</a> franchise (notably <a href="Ben_Tennyson" title="Ben Tennyson">Ben Tennyson</a> himself), characters wielding the Omnitrix are able to shapeshift into various alien species.</li>

<li><a href="Elastigirl" title="Elastigirl">Elastigirl</a>, fictional superhero who appears in <a href="Pixar" title="Pixar">Pixar</a>'s animated <a href="Superhero_film" title="Superhero film">superhero film</a> <a href="The_Incredibles_(franchise)" title="The Incredibles (franchise)">The Incredibles</a> can shapeshift.<a href="#cite_note-64">[64]</a><a href="#cite_note-65">[65]</a></li>

<li>Two of the <a href="Michael_Jackson" title="Michael Jackson">Michael Jackson</a> music videos, Thriller Michael Jackson becomes a werewolf and a zombie, while Black or White features him turning into a panther as well as involving face morphs between races.</li>

<li>In the music video for the <a href="Snoop_Dogg" title="Snoop Dogg">Snoop Dogg</a> song, "<a href="What's_My_Name%3F_(Snoop_Doggy_Dogg_song)" title="What's My Name? (Snoop Doggy Dogg song)">What's My Name?</a>" Snoop Dogg himself and others have the ability to turn into dogs, like <a href="Doberman" class="mw-redirect" title="Doberman">Dobermans</a>, <a href="Rottweiler" title="Rottweiler">Rottweilers</a>, <a href="Pit_bull" title="Pit bull">Pit bulls</a>, <a href="Cocker_Spaniel" title="Cocker Spaniel">Cocker Spaniels</a> and other dog breeds.</li>

<li>In the 2000 series <a href="Sheena_(TV_series)" title="Sheena (TV series)">Sheena</a>, this version of Sheena has the ability to turn into animals.</li></ul>

<ul><li><a href="Changeling" title="Changeling">Changeling</a></li>

<li><a href="Doppelg%C3%A4nger" title="Doppelgänger">Doppelgänger</a></li>

<li><a href="Hantu_Raya" title="Hantu Raya">Hantu Raya</a> – Spirit in Malay folklore</li>

<li><a href="Human_guise" title="Human guise">Human guise</a></li>

<li><a href="Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers" title="Invasion of the Body Snatchers">Invasion of the Body Snatchers</a></li>

<li><a href="Kindama" title="Kindama">Kindama</a> – Sage in Hindu epic Mahabharata</li>

<li><a href="List_of_shapeshifters" title="List of shapeshifters">List of shapeshifters</a></li>

<li><a href="Maricha" title="Maricha">Maricha</a> – Rakshasa (demon) in Ramayana</li>

<li><a href="Naagin_(2015_TV_series)" title="Naagin (2015 TV series)">Naagin (2015 TV series)</a></li>

<li><a href="Size_change_in_fiction" title="Size change in fiction">Size change in fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Skin-walker" title="Skin-walker">Skin-walker</a> – Witch in Navajo mythology</li>

<li><a href="Soul_eater_(folklore)" title="Soul eater (folklore)">Soul eater (folklore)</a></li>

<li><a href="Skrull" title="Skrull">Skrull</a> – Fictional extraterrestrial race</li>

<li><a href="The_Thing_(1982_film)" title="The Thing (1982 film)">The Thing (1982 film)</a></li>

<li><a href="The_Thing_(2011_film)" title="The Thing (2011 film)">The Thing (2011 film)</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Citations">Citations</h3></div>

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<li id="cite_note-endicott-studio.com-1">^ <a href="#cite_ref-endicott-studio.com_1-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-endicott-studio.com_1-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-endicott-studio.com_1-2">c</a> <a href="Terri_Windling" title="Terri Windling">Terri Windling</a>, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061111101830/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrMarriedToMagic.html">Married to Magic: Animal Brides and Bridegrooms in Folklore and Fantasy</a>"

</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a> Richard M. Dorson, "Foreword", p xxiv, Georgias A. Megas, Folktales of Greece, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1970

</li>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFKatharine_Briggs1976" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1"><a href="Katharine_Mary_Briggs" title="Katharine Mary Briggs">Katharine Briggs</a> (1976). "Glamour". An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures. p. 191. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-394-73467-X</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-Fairies,_Hobgoblins_p360-4">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Fairies,_Hobgoblins_p360_4-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Fairies,_Hobgoblins_p360_4-1">b</a> <cite id="CITEREFKatharine_Briggs1976" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1"><a href="Katharine_Mary_Briggs" title="Katharine Mary Briggs">Katharine Briggs</a> (1976). "Shape-shifting". An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures. p. 360. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-394-73467-X</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a> Eddie Lenihan and Carolyn Eve Green, Meeting The Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland, p. 80 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>1-58542-206-1</bdi>

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<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a> Scottish Highlanders and Native Americans: indigenous education in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world Margaret Szasz 2007 University of Oklahoma Press

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<li id="cite_note-Francis_James_Child_pp._336-7">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Francis_James_Child_pp._336_7-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Francis_James_Child_pp._336_7-1">b</a> Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, pp. 336–7, Dover Publications, New York 1965

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<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> Perabo, L. D. 2017. Shapeshifting in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, Roda da Fortuna. Revista Eletrônica sobre Antiguidade e Medievo, 6(1): 135–158.

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<cite id="CITEREFGill" class="citation web cs1">Gill, N. S. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/lokimyth/g/Loki.htm">"Loki – Norse Trickster Loki"</a>. about.com. Retrieved 2010-06-18.</cite>; <a href="Stephan_Grundy" title="Stephan Grundy">Stephan Grundy</a>, "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang," in Translation, Transformation, and Transubstantiation, ed. Carol Poster and Richard Utz (Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), pp. 104–22.

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<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFAdkins2023" class="citation journal cs1">Adkins, Christopher David (2023). "Carnivore Incarnate: Wicked Wolves and Noble Bears in Norse Tales of Shapeshifting". Preternature. 13 (1): 1–26. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.5325%2Fpreternature.12.1.0001">10.5325/preternature.12.1.0001</a>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2161-2196">2161-2196</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-11"><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a> <a href="Tor_Books" title="Tor Books">Tor Books</a>, 2003

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<li id="cite_note-12"><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFHatley2007" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Shaman_Hatley" title="Shaman Hatley">Hatley, Shaman</a> (2007). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3292099/">The Brahmayāmalatantra and Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs</a>. University of Pennsylvania (PhD Thesis, UMI Number: 3292099. p. 14.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-Armmyth-13"><a href="#cite_ref-Armmyth_13-0">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://bulfinch.englishatheist.org/armenian/chapter11.htm">"Armenian Mythology"</a> by Mardiros H. Ananikiam, in Bullfinch's Mythology

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<li id="cite_note-14"><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFFansler" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Dean_Fansler" title="Dean Fansler">Fansler, Dean s.</a> Filipino Popular Tales.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-15"><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFHeinz_Insu_Fenkl" class="citation web cs1 cs1-prop-unfit">Heinz Insu Fenkl. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061111095533/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrFoxTale.html">"A Fox Woman Tale of Korea"</a>. The Endicott Studio. Archived from the original on 2006-11-11.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-16"><a href="#cite_ref-16">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFDorothea_F._Bleek1956" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Dorothea_Bleek" title="Dorothea Bleek">Dorothea F. Bleek</a> (1956). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=l3UTAwAAQBAJ">Bushman Dictionary</a>. Рипол Классик. p. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=l3UTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA296">296</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9785882327261</bdi>.</cite> <code class="cs1-code">{{cite book}}</code>: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

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<li id="cite_note-17"><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFWilhelm_Heinrich_Immanuel_Bleek1875" class="citation book cs1">Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1875). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/12485">A brief account of Bushman folklore and other texts</a>. Cape Town: Juta. <a href="Hdl_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hdl (identifier)">hdl</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://hdl.handle.net/2263%2F12485">2263/12485</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-18"><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFDon_E._Wilson,_DeeAnn_M._Reeder2005" class="citation book cs1">Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (2005). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YnYED-YG0ZYC">Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1</a>. JHU Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780801882210</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-19"><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFGómez_Salazar,_Catalina_Trujillo,_Fernando_Whitehead,_Hal2011" class="citation journal cs1">Gómez Salazar, Catalina Trujillo, Fernando Whitehead, Hal (2011). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://babel.banrepcultural.org/digital/collection/p17054coll23/id/588">"Ecological factors influencing group sizes of river dolphins : Inia geoffrensis and Sotalia fluviatilis"</a>. Marine Mammal Science. 28 (2): E124–E142.</cite><code class="cs1-code">{{cite journal}}</code>: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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<li id="cite_note-20"><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFBebej" class="citation web cs1">Bebej, Ryan. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/information/Inia_geoffrensis.html">"Inia geoffrensis Amazon river dolphin (Also: boto; pink river dolphin)"</a>. Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 11 March 2024.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-21"><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFMartin,_A.R.;_Da_Silva,_V.M.F.;_Rothery,_P.2008" class="citation journal cs1">Martin, A.R.; Da Silva, V.M.F.; Rothery, P. (Jun 23, 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610054">"Object carrying as socio-sexual display in an aquatic mammal"</a>. Biology Letters. 4 (3): 243–245. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbl.2008.0067">10.1098/rsbl.2008.0067</a>. <a href="PMC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMC (identifier)">PMC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2610054">2610054</a>. <a href="PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18364306">18364306</a>.</cite><code class="cs1-code">{{cite journal}}</code>: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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<li id="cite_note-Authorhouse-22">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Authorhouse_22-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Authorhouse_22-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Authorhouse_22-2">c</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Authorhouse_22-3">d</a> <cite id="CITEREFHall2003" class="citation book cs1">Hall, Jamie (2003). Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures. Authorhouse. pp. 55–88. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-1-4107-5809-5</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-24"><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFWaleska_Gravena,_Tomas_Hrbek,_Vera_M._F._Da_Silva,_Izeni_P._Farias2008" class="citation journal cs1">Waleska Gravena, Tomas Hrbek, Vera M. F. Da Silva, Izeni P. Farias (22 October 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2008.00237.x">"Amazon River dolphin love fetishes: From folklore to molecular forensics"</a>. Marine Mammal Science. 4 (24): 969–978. <a href="Bibcode_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bibcode (identifier)">Bibcode</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MMamS..24..969G">2008MMamS..24..969G</a>. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1748-7692.2008.00237.x">10.1111/j.1748-7692.2008.00237.x</a>.</cite><code class="cs1-code">{{cite journal}}</code>: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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<cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.triniview.com/TnT/Folklore.htm">"TNT Folklore"</a>. triniview.com. Retrieved 2017-01-16.</cite>

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<cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Ligahoo?m=0">"Caribbean History Archives"</a>. Gerard A. Besson. Retrieved 2017-01-16.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-27"><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFAleksandra_Kojic2016" class="citation web cs1">Aleksandra Kojic (2016-08-18). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.slavorum.org/veles-the-slavic-shapeshifting-god-of-land-water-and-underground/">"Veles – The Slavic Shapeshifting God of Land, Water and Underground"</a>. Slavorum. Retrieved 2017-09-08.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-katicic2008-28"><a href="#cite_ref-katicic2008_28-0">^</a> <cite id="katicic2008" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Radoslav_Kati%C4%8Di%C4%87" title="Radoslav Katičić">Katičić, Radoslav</a> (2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151018000746/http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/120570/96db5654f2d3025b46454ace91716506.pdf">Božanski boj: Tragovima svetih pjesama naše pretkršćanske starine</a> (PDF). Zagreb: IBIS GRAFIKA. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-953-6927-41-8</bdi>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/120570/96db5654f2d3025b46454ace91716506.pdf">the original</a> (PDF) on 2015-10-18.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-29"><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a> <a href="Joseph_Jacobs" title="Joseph Jacobs">Joseph Jacobs</a>, English Fairy Tales, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/laidlyworm.html">"The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh"</a>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEChild1965313–314-30"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChild1965313–314_30-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFChild1965">Child (1965)</a>, pp. 313–314.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-31"><a href="#cite_ref-31">^</a> Maria Tatar, p. 193, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-393-05163-3</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-32"><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a> Brady, Loretta Ellen. The Green Forest Fairy Book. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1920. pp. 132–169.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEWilson197694-33"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilson197694_33-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFWilson1976">Wilson (1976)</a>, p. 94.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-34"><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a> <a href="Marina_Warner" title="Marina Warner">Marina Warner</a>, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales And Their Tellers, p. 353 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-374-15901-7</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEColbert200128–29-35"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEColbert200128–29_35-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFColbert2001">Colbert (2001)</a>, pp. 28–29.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-Vladimir_Propp_p_57-36">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Vladimir_Propp_p_57_36-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Vladimir_Propp_p_57_36-1">b</a> <a href="Vladimir_Propp" title="Vladimir Propp">Vladimir Propp</a>, Morphology of the Folk Tale, p. 57, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-292-78376-0</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-37"><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a> Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 56, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977

</li>

<li id="cite_note-38"><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a> Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p. 89, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEColbert200123-39"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEColbert200123_39-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFColbert2001">Colbert (2001)</a>, p. 23.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEGrantClute960"Transformation"-40">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGrantClute960"Transformation"_40-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGrantClute960"Transformation"_40-1">b</a> <a href="#CITEREFGrantClute">Grant & Clute</a>, p. 960, "Transformation". sfnp error: no target: CITEREFGrantClute (help)

</li>

<li id="cite_note-41"><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a> Stith Thompson, The Folktale, pp. 55–56, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEJones199584-42"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEJones199584_42-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFJones1995">Jones (1995)</a>, p. 84.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-43"><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a> Online text of Ch. VII in <a href="The_Wonderful_Adventures_of_Nils" title="The Wonderful Adventures of Nils">The Wonderful Adventures of Nils</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://archive.org/details/furtheradventure00lage/page/133/mode/2up">[1]</a>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger1999xix-44"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESteiger1999xix_44-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFSteiger1999">Steiger (1999)</a>, p. xix.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTETatar2004226-45"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTETatar2004226_45-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFTatar2004">Tatar (2004)</a>, p. 226.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-46"><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a> Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads! p. 60 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-691-06943-3</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTETatar2004136-47"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTETatar2004136_47-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFTatar2004">Tatar (2004)</a>, p. 136.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-48"><a href="#cite_ref-48">^</a> Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads! pp. 140–141 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-691-06943-3</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEWilson197689-49"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWilson197689_49-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFWilson1976">Wilson (1976)</a>, p. 89.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEChild1965306-50"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChild1965306_50-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFChild1965">Child (1965)</a>, p. 306.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger199967-51"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESteiger199967_51-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFSteiger1999">Steiger (1999)</a>, p. 67.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-52"><a href="#cite_ref-52">^</a> Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, pp. 174–5, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-691-06722-8</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-53"><a href="#cite_ref-53">^</a> Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p. 86 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-253-17461-9</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-54"><a href="#cite_ref-54">^</a> <a href="Jack_Zipes" title="Jack Zipes">Jack Zipes</a>, When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition, pp. 176–7 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-415-92151-1</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTESteiger1999385-55"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESteiger1999385_55-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFSteiger1999">Steiger (1999)</a>, p. 385.

</li>

<li id="cite_note-56"><a href="#cite_ref-56">^</a> This scene is omitted in the story as depicted in <a href="The_Once_and_Future_King" title="The Once and Future King">The Once and Future King</a>; see <a href="L._Sprague_de_Camp" title="L. Sprague de Camp">L. Sprague de Camp</a>, <a href="Literary_Swordsmen_and_Sorcerers" title="Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers">Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers</a>: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p. 266 <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-87054-076-9</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-57"><a href="#cite_ref-57">^</a> Erik J. Wielenberg, "Aslan the Terrible" pp. 226–7 Gregory Bassham ed. and Jerry L. Walls, ed. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-8126-9588-7</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-58"><a href="#cite_ref-58">^</a> James F. Sennett, "Worthy of a Better God" p. 243 Gregory Bassham ed. and Jerry L. Walls, ed. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-8126-9588-7</bdi>

</li>

<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEGrantClute858"Shapeshifting"-59"><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGrantClute858"Shapeshifting"_59-0">^</a> <a href="#CITEREFGrantClute">Grant & Clute</a>, p. 858, "Shapeshifting". sfnp error: no target: CITEREFGrantClute (help)

</li>

<li id="cite_note-60"><a href="#cite_ref-60">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/doctor-who-the-faceless-ones-dvd-blu-ray-steelbook/">"Doctor Who The Faceless Ones Blu-ray"</a>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-62"><a href="#cite_ref-62">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01fs2f0">"Clip: Horror of Fang Rock: Part 4"</a>. <a href="BBC" title="BBC">BBC</a>. 24 September 1977.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-63"><a href="#cite_ref-63">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFMeyer2008" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Stephenie_Meyer" title="Stephenie Meyer">Meyer, Stephenie</a> (2008). <a href="Breaking_Dawn" title="Breaking Dawn">Breaking Dawn</a>. <a href="Little%2C_Brown_and_Company" title="Little, Brown and Company">Little, Brown and Company</a>. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780316032834</bdi>.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-64"><a href="#cite_ref-64">^</a> <cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.superherodb.com/elastigirl/10-870/">"Elastigirl (Helen Parr) - Incredibles - Superhero Database"</a>. www.superherodb.com. Retrieved 2024-10-03.</cite>

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<li id="cite_note-65"><a href="#cite_ref-65">^</a> <cite id="CITEREFSchmidt2018" class="citation web cs1">Schmidt, Sara (2018-09-06). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://screenrant.com/incredibles-elastigirl-body-trivia/">"The Incredibles: 25 Weirdest Things About Elastigirl's Body"</a>. ScreenRant. Retrieved 2024-10-03.</cite>

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</ol></div></div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Bibliography">Bibliography</h3></div>

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<ul><li><cite id="CITEREFChild1965" class="citation book cs1">Child, Francis James (1965). The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Vol. 1. Dover Publications.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFColbert2001" class="citation book cs1">Colbert, David (2001). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/magicalworldsofh00colb">The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter</a>. 2001. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-9708442-0-4</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFGrantClute1999" class="citation book cs1">Grant, John; Clute, John (15 March 1999). <a href="The_Encyclopedia_of_Fantasy" title="The Encyclopedia of Fantasy">The Encyclopedia of Fantasy</a>. Macmillan. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-312-19869-8</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFJones1995" class="citation book cs1">Jones, Steven Swann (1995). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/fairytalemagicmi00jone">The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination</a>. Twayne Publishers. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-8057-0950-9</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFSmith2006" class="citation book cs1">Smith, Frederick M. (2006). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CuB7K3bDWDsC">The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature</a>. Columbia University Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-231-13748-6</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFSteiger1999" class="citation book cs1">Steiger, B. (August 1999). The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings. Visible Ink Press. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-1-57859-078-0</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFTatar2004" class="citation book cs1">Tatar, Maria (2004). The Annotated Brothers Grimm. W. W. Norton & company. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-393-05848-4</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li><cite id="CITEREFWilson1976" class="citation book cs1">Wilson, Anne (1976). Traditional Romance and Tale. D.S. Brewer, Rowman & Littlefield. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0-87471-905-4</bdi>.</cite></li></ul>

</div>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Further_reading">Further reading</h2></div>

<ul><li><cite id="CITEREFHall2003" class="citation book cs1">Hall, Jamie (2003). Half Human, Half Animal: Tales of Werewolves and Related Creatures. AuthorHouse. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>1-4107-5809-5</bdi>.</cite></li>

<li>Kachuba, John B. 2019. Shapeshifters: A History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</li>

<li>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.</li>

<li>Zaytoun, Kelli D. ""Now Let Us Shift" the Subject: Tracing the Path and Posthumanist Implications of La Naguala/The Shapeshifter in the Works of <a href="Gloria_Anzald%C3%BAa" title="Gloria Anzaldúa">Gloria Anzaldúa</a>." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 40.4 (2015): 69–88.</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li> Media related to <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shapeshifting" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:Shapeshifting">Shapeshifting</a> at Wikimedia Commons</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191013224350/http://realshapeshifters.com/">Real Shapeshifters Website</a> Dedicated to the study of shape-shifting phenomena (realshapeshifters.com)</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060603215745/http://www.jeannelaws.com/articles.htm">Shapeshifters in Love</a> – A series of articles about shape-shifting characters in romance and speculative fiction.</li></ul>

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</style><div id="Fantasy_fiction451" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="Fantasy" title="Fantasy">Fantasy fiction</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div>

<ul><li><a href="History_of_fantasy" title="History of fantasy">History</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_literature" title="Fantasy literature">Literature</a></li>

<li><a href="Magic_in_fiction" title="Magic in fiction">Magic</a></li>

<li><a href="Early_history_of_fantasy" title="Early history of fantasy">Sources</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Subgenres</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Accidental_travel" title="Accidental travel">Accidental travel</a></li>

<li>Action-adventure

<ul><li><a href="Lost_world" title="Lost world">Lost world</a></li>

<li><a href="Sword_and_sorcery" title="Sword and sorcery">Sword and sorcery</a></li>

<li><a href="Wuxia" title="Wuxia">Wuxia</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Alternate_history" title="Alternate history">Alternate history</a></li>

<li><a href="Chuanyue" title="Chuanyue">Chuanyue</a></li>

<li><a href="Contemporary_fantasy" title="Contemporary fantasy">Contemporary</a></li>

<li><a href="Children's_fantasy" title="Children's fantasy">Children's fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_comedy" title="Fantasy comedy">Comedy</a>

<ul><li><a href="Bangsian_fantasy" title="Bangsian fantasy">Bangsian</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Dark_fantasy" title="Dark fantasy">Dark fantasy</a>

<ul><li><a href="Grimdark" title="Grimdark">Grimdark</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Fairy_tale_parody" title="Fairy tale parody">Fairy tale parodies</a></li>

<li><a href="Fairytale_fantasy" title="Fairytale fantasy">Fairytale fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantastique" title="Fantastique">Fantastique</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_of_manners" title="Fantasy of manners">Fantasy of manners</a></li>

<li><a href="Hard_fantasy" title="Hard fantasy">Hard fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="High_fantasy" title="High fantasy">High fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Historical_fantasy" title="Historical fantasy">Historical fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Isekai" title="Isekai">Isekai</a></li>

<li><a href="LitRPG" title="LitRPG">LitRPG</a></li>

<li><a href="Low_fantasy" title="Low fantasy">Low fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Magical_girl" title="Magical girl">Magical girl</a></li>

<li><a href="Mythic_fiction" title="Mythic fiction">Mythic</a>

<ul><li><a href="Mythpunk" class="mw-redirect" title="Mythpunk">Mythpunk</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Mythopoeia" title="Mythopoeia">Mythopoeia</a></li>

<li><a href="Omegaverse" title="Omegaverse">Omegaverse</a></li>

<li><a href="Progression_fantasy" title="Progression fantasy">Progression</a></li>

<li><a href="Romantic_fantasy" title="Romantic fantasy">Romantic</a></li>

<li><a href="Science_fantasy" title="Science fantasy">Science fantasy</a>

<ul><li><a href="Dying_Earth_(genre)" title="Dying Earth (genre)">Dying Earth</a></li>

<li><a href="Planetary_romance" title="Planetary romance">Planetary romance</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Gods_and_demons_fiction" title="Gods and demons fiction">Shenmo</a></li>

<li><a href="Urban_fantasy" title="Urban fantasy">Urban fantasy</a>

<ul><li><a href="Occult_detective_fiction" title="Occult detective fiction">Occult detective fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Paranormal_romance" title="Paranormal romance">Paranormal romance</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Weird_fiction" title="Weird fiction">Weird fiction</a>

<ul><li><a href="New_weird" title="New weird">New weird</a></li>

<li><a href="Weird_West" title="Weird West">Weird West</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_Western" class="mw-redirect" title="Fantasy Western">Fantasy Western</a></li>

<li><a href="Xianxia" title="Xianxia">Xianxia</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Media</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:7em"><a href="Fantasy_film" title="Fantasy film">Film</a> and <a href="Fantasy_television" title="Fantasy television">television</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="List_of_fantasy_anime" title="List of fantasy anime">Anime</a></li>

<li><a href="Lists_of_fantasy_films" title="Lists of fantasy films">Films</a>

<ul><li><a href="List_of_highest-grossing_fantasy_films" title="List of highest-grossing fantasy films">highest-grossing</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_fantasy_television_programs" title="List of fantasy television programs">Television programs</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:7em"><a href="Fantasy_literature" title="Fantasy literature">Literature</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="List_of_fantasy_authors" title="List of fantasy authors">Authors</a></li>

<li><a href="Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series" title="Ballantine Adult Fantasy series">Ballantine Adult Fantasy series</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_comics" title="Fantasy comics">Comics</a>

<li><a href="The_Encyclopedia_of_Fantasy" title="The Encyclopedia of Fantasy">The Encyclopedia of Fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_Masterworks" title="Fantasy Masterworks">Fantasy Masterworks</a></li>

<li><a href="Internet_Speculative_Fiction_Database" title="Internet Speculative Fiction Database">Internet Speculative Fiction Database</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_fantasy_novels" class="mw-redirect" title="List of fantasy novels">List of novels</a>

<li><a href="List_of_fantasy_story_collections" title="List of fantasy story collections">List of story collections</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_science_fiction_publishers" title="List of science fiction publishers">Publishers</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:7em"><a href="Fantasy_fiction_magazine" class="mw-redirect" title="Fantasy fiction magazine">Magazines</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Fantastic_(magazine)" title="Fantastic (magazine)">Fantastic</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantastic_Adventures" title="Fantastic Adventures">Fantastic Adventures</a></li>

<li><a href="Locus_(magazine)" title="Locus (magazine)">Locus</a></li>

<li><a href="The_Magazine_of_Fantasy_%26_Science_Fiction" title="The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction">The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Science_Fantasy_(magazine)" title="Science Fantasy (magazine)">Science Fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Unknown_(magazine)" title="Unknown (magazine)">Unknown</a></li>

<li><a href="Weird_Tales" title="Weird Tales">Weird Tales</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:7em">Other</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Dungeons_%26_Dragons" title="Dungeons & Dragons">Dungeons & Dragons</a></li>

<li><a href="F%C3%A9erie" title="Féerie">Féeries</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_podcast" title="Fantasy podcast">Podcasts</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Awards</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Balrog_Award" class="mw-redirect" title="Balrog Award">Balrog</a></li>

<li><a href="British_Fantasy_Award" title="British Fantasy Award">British Fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Crawford_Award" title="Crawford Award">Crawford</a></li>

<li><a href="Dragon_Awards" title="Dragon Awards">Dragon</a></li>

<li><a href="Gandalf_Award" title="Gandalf Award">Gandalf</a></li>

<li><a href="David_Gemmell_Awards_for_Fantasy" title="David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy">Gemmell</a></li>

<li><a href="International_Fantasy_Award" title="International Fantasy Award">International Fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Japan_Fantasy_Novel_Award" title="Japan Fantasy Novel Award">Japan Fantasy</a></li>

<li><a href="Locus_Award" title="Locus Award">Locus</a></li>

<li><a href="M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s_d'Or" title="Méliès d'Or">Méliès d'Or</a></li>

<li><a href="Mythopoeic_Awards" title="Mythopoeic Awards">Mythopoeic</a></li>

<li><a href="Nebula_Award" title="Nebula Award">Nebula</a></li>

<li><a href="Saturn_Awards" title="Saturn Awards">Saturn</a></li>

<li><a href="T%C3%A4htifantasia_Award" title="Tähtifantasia Award">Tähtifantasia</a></li>

<li><a href="World_Fantasy_Award" title="World Fantasy Award">World Fantasy</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="Fantasy_fandom" title="Fantasy fandom">Fandom</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<li><a href="Fanspeak" title="Fanspeak">Fanspeak</a></li>

<li><a href="Filk_music" title="Filk music">Filk music</a></li>

<li><a href="Harry_Potter_fandom" title="Harry Potter fandom">Harry Potter fandom</a></li>

<li><a href="The_Inklings" class="mw-redirect" title="The Inklings">The Inklings</a></li>

<li><a href="Lovecraft_fandom" title="Lovecraft fandom">Lovecraft fandom</a></li>

<li><a href="Mythopoeic_Society" title="Mythopoeic Society">Mythopoeic Society</a></li>

<li><a href="Tolkien_fandom" title="Tolkien fandom">Tolkien fandom</a></li>

<li><a href="Tolkien's_influence_on_fantasy" class="mw-redirect" title="Tolkien's influence on fantasy">Tolkien's influence</a></li>

<li><a href="Works_inspired_by_J._R._R._Tolkien" class="mw-redirect" title="Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien">Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien</a></li>

<li><a href="World_Fantasy_Convention" title="World Fantasy Convention">World Fantasy Convention</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="Fantasy_trope" title="Fantasy trope">Tropes</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="Legendary_creature" title="Legendary creature">Creatures</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Angel" title="Angel">Angels</a></li>

<li><a href="Demon" title="Demon">Demons</a>

<ul><li><a href="Devil" title="Devil">Devils</a></li>

<li><a href="Ghoul" title="Ghoul">Ghouls</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Elemental" title="Elemental">Elementals</a></li>

<li><a href="Fairy" title="Fairy">Faeries</a></li>

<li><a href="Familiar" title="Familiar">Familiars</a></li>

<li><a href="Fire-breathing_monster" title="Fire-breathing monster">Fire-breathing monsters</a>

<ul><li><a href="Chimera_(mythology)" title="Chimera (mythology)">Chimera</a></li>

<li><a href="Dragon" title="Dragon">Dragons</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Gargoyle_(monster)" title="Gargoyle (monster)">Gargoyles</a></li>

<li><a href="Nymph" title="Nymph">Nymphs</a></li>

<li>

<ul><li><a href="Werecat" title="Werecat">Werecats</a></li>

<li><a href="Werewolf" title="Werewolf">Werewolves</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Skin-walker" title="Skin-walker">Skin-walkers</a></li>

<li><a href="Supernatural#Spirit" title="Supernatural">Spirits</a></li>

<li><a href="Talking_animals_in_fiction" title="Talking animals in fiction">Talking animals</a></li>

<li><a href="Undead" title="Undead">Undead</a>

<ul><li><a href="Personifications_of_death" title="Personifications of death">Death</a></li>

<li><a href="Ghost" title="Ghost">Ghosts</a></li>

<li><a href="Lich" title="Lich">Liches</a></li>

<li><a href="Mummy_(undead)" title="Mummy (undead)">Mummies</a></li>

<li><a href="Skeleton_(undead)" title="Skeleton (undead)">Skeletons</a></li>

<li><a href="Vampire" title="Vampire">Vampires</a></li>

<li><a href="Zombie" title="Zombie">Zombies</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Unicorn" title="Unicorn">Unicorns</a></li>

<li><a href="Y%C5%8Dkai" title="Yōkai">Yōkai</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="List_of_stock_characters" title="List of stock characters">Characters</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Barbarian" title="Barbarian">Barbarian</a></li>

<li><a href="Caveman" title="Caveman">Caveman</a></li>

<li><a href="Damsel_in_distress" title="Damsel in distress">Damsel in distress</a></li>

<li><a href="Donor_(fairy_tale)" title="Donor (fairy tale)">Donor</a></li>

<li><a href="Dragonslayer" title="Dragonslayer">Dragonslayer</a></li>

<li><a href="Fairy_godmother" title="Fairy godmother">Fairy godmother</a></li>

<li><a href="Hero" title="Hero">Heroes</a></li>

<li><a href="Magician_(fantasy)" title="Magician (fantasy)">Magicians</a></li>

<li><a href="Occult_detective_fiction" title="Occult detective fiction">Occult detective</a>

<li><a href="Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft">Witches</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="Magic_in_fiction" title="Magic in fiction">Magic system</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Classical_element" title="Classical element">Elements</a></li>

<li><a href="Black_magic" title="Black magic">Dark</a>/<a href="Gray_magic" title="Gray magic">neutral</a>/<a href="White_magic" title="White magic">light</a></li>

<li><a href="Ceremonial_magic" title="Ceremonial magic">Ceremonial</a></li>

<li><a href="Magic_item" title="Magic item">Magic item</a>

<ul><li><a href="Grimoire" title="Grimoire">Grimoire</a></li>

<li><a href="Magic_ring" title="Magic ring">Magic ring</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_magical_weapons" title="List of magical weapons">Magical weapons</a>

<ul><li><a href="Magic_sword" title="Magic sword">Magic sword</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Runes" title="Runes">Runes</a></li>

<li>Schools

<ul><li><a href="Alchemy" title="Alchemy">Alchemy</a></li>

<li><a href="Demonology" title="Demonology">Demonology</a></li>

<li><a href="Divination" title="Divination">Divination</a></li>

<li><a href="Egregore" title="Egregore">Egregore</a></li>

<li><a href="Evocation" title="Evocation">Evocation</a></li>

<li><a href="Incantation" title="Incantation">Incantation</a></li>

<li><a href="Necromancy" title="Necromancy">Necromancy</a></li>

<li><a href="Runic_magic" title="Runic magic">Runecraft</a></li>

<li><a href="Shamanism" title="Shamanism">Shamanism</a></li>

<li><a href="Thaumaturgy" title="Thaumaturgy">Thaumaturgy</a></li>

<li><a href="Theurgy" title="Theurgy">Theurgy</a></li>

<li><a href="Witchcraft" title="Witchcraft">Witchcraft</a></li></ul></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="Fantasy_races" class="mw-redirect" title="Fantasy races">Fantasy races</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Centaur" title="Centaur">Centaurs</a></li>

<li><a href="Dwarf_(folklore)" title="Dwarf (folklore)">Dwarves</a></li>

<li><a href="Elf" title="Elf">Elves</a></li>

<li><a href="Ent" title="Ent">Treants</a></li>

<li><a href="Giant" title="Giant">Giants</a></li>

<li><a href="Gnome" title="Gnome">Gnomes</a></li>

<li><a href="Goblin" title="Goblin">Goblins</a></li>

<li><a href="Gremlin" title="Gremlin">Gremlins</a></li>

<li><a href="Halfling" title="Halfling">Halflings</a></li>

<li><a href="Hobgoblin" title="Hobgoblin">Hobgoblins</a></li>

<li><a href="Kobold" title="Kobold">Kobolds</a></li>

<li><a href="Leprechaun" title="Leprechaun">Leprechauns</a></li>

<li><a href="Merfolk" title="Merfolk">Merfolk</a>

<ul><li><a href="Mermaid" title="Mermaid">Mermaids</a></li>

<li><a href="Merman" title="Merman">Mermen</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Ogre" title="Ogre">Ogres</a></li>

<li><a href="Troll" title="Troll">Trolls</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="List_of_mythological_places" title="List of mythological places">Places and events</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Quest" title="Quest">Quests</a></li>

<li><a href="Fantasy_world" title="Fantasy world">Worlds</a>

<li><a href="Subterranean_fiction" title="Subterranean fiction">Hollow Earth</a></li>

<li><a href="Astral_plane" title="Astral plane">Astral plane</a>

<ul><li><a href="Dream_world_(plot_device)" title="Dream world (plot device)">Dreamworld</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Castle" title="Castle">Castle</a></li>

<li><a href="Enchanted_forest" title="Enchanted forest">Enchanted forest</a></li>

<li><a href="Thieves'_guild" title="Thieves' guild">Thieves' guild</a></li>

<li><a href="List_of_fictional_schools#Magic_schools" title="List of fictional schools">Magic school</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em">

<ul><li><a href="Allegory" title="Allegory">Allegory</a></li>

<li><a href="Epic_poetry" title="Epic poetry">Epic poetry</a></li>

<li><a href="Fable" title="Fable">Fable</a></li>

<li><a href="Fairy_tale" title="Fairy tale">Fairy tale</a></li>

<li><a href="Ghost_story" title="Ghost story">Ghost stories</a></li>

<li><a href="Gothic_fiction" title="Gothic fiction">Gothic fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Horror_fiction" title="Horror fiction">Horror fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="LGBT_themes_in_speculative_fiction" class="mw-redirect" title="LGBT themes in speculative fiction">LGBT themes in speculative fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Mecha" title="Mecha">Mecha</a></li>

<li><a href="Myth" title="Myth">Mythology</a></li>

<li><a href="Science_fiction" title="Science fiction">Science fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Supernatural_fiction" title="Supernatural fiction">Supernatural fiction</a></li>

<li><a href="Superhero_fiction" title="Superhero fiction">Superhero</a></li>

<li><a href="Tokusatsu" title="Tokusatsu">Tokusatsu</a>

<ul><li><a href="Kaiju" title="Kaiju">Kaiju</a></li></ul></li>

<li><a href="Urban_legends_and_myths" class="mw-redirect" title="Urban legends and myths">Urban legend</a></li></ul>

</div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div>

<ul><li> <a href="Outline_of_fantasy" title="Outline of fantasy">Outline</a></li>

<li> Category</li></ul>

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