Shapeshifting Facts for Kids

Tsarevna Frog (or The Frog Princess), by Viktor Vasnetsov, tells of a frog which metamorphoses into a princess

Beauty and the Beast, by Anne Anderson, illustrates the popular children's tale

Shapeshifting is the act of being able to change into another being or form. The idea of shapeshifting has been around since the Middle Ages. It has been used in literature and epic poems, including works such as Peleus and Thetis and the Iliad. The trend of shapeshifting is still being done today. It is a theme in children's literature, and works of popular culture.

Images for kids

Louhi, Mistress of the North, attacking Väinämöinen in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her back when she was trying to steal Sampo; in the Finnish epic poetry Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. (The Defense of the Sampo, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1896)
"The giant Galligantua and the wicked old magician transform the duke's daughter into a white hind." by Arthur Rackham
Loge feigns fear as Alberich turns into a giant snake. Wotan stands in the background; illustration by Arthur Rackham to Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold
1722 German woodcut of a werewolf transforming
Vertumnus, in the form of an old woman, wooing Pomona, by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout.
The Children of Lir, transformed into swans in Irish tales
Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo pursuing an unwilling Daphne who transforms into a laurel tree
"Madame White Snake" Picture on long veranda in the Summer Palace, Beijing, China
Kuzunoha the fox woman, casting a fox shadow
"Svipdag transformed" by John Bauer
Sister Alenushka Weeping about Brother Ivanushka by Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian variant of Brother and Sister: Alenushka laments her brother's transformation into a goat.

Shapeshifting facts for kids

Images for kids

See also