Shapeshifters covers the Selkie of Scottish and Irish folklore, a seal that can shed its skin to walk on land in human form. The category is reserved for creatures defined chiefly by the ability to change shape, as distinct from spirits that simply combine two forms permanently.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingBeings that change shape at will, or between human and animal form. Transformation is one of the largest motif classes in comparative folklore and cuts across every other group here rather than naming a kind of creature. 2 Learn More
The shapeshifters
This small group gathers a shapeshifter, a being able to change its form at will, whether between human and animal or among many shapes, a widespread type in world folklore that blurs the boundary between kinds.
The browser will find the figure the atlas classes here. The entry describes its nature and mythological role.
Browse By
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books and Local Legends
Stith Thompson, Indiana University Press, 1958D0-D699, Transformation
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.