The Devil Inside: Where Are the Abortions in Folklore?

Greenhough, Amy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2421-8252 (2022) The Devil Inside: Where Are the Abortions in Folklore? In: ICFA THE GLOBAL FANTASTIC, 7-9 october 2022, online. (Unpublished)

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Abstract / Summary

In Phillippine mythology, the Tiyanak is a demon who takes the form of a baby. In disguise, the monster can lure humans with its cry, taking delight in tricking and attacking its victims. This demon’s form as a baby is not common – folklore tends far more often towards stories of demons who eat or steal babies (the Malay penanggalan or the Japanese Yamauba, for example) than towards monsters in the form of babies. Not hugely surprising, and yet, demon infants or babies do exist in other parts of the world – the Konaki-jiji is said to take the form of a baby or an old man, for example, and once picked up, turn to stone to crush its victim. Of course, the demon baby need not be a representation of an unwanted child – the magical manifestation of the feelings of a mother who wishes to abort her child (in the case of the Scandinavian myling it might be the child seeking revenge on its mother for infantide), and yet, without considering the narratives of demon babies and infants, it is very hard to find much evidence of unwanted pregnancy and/or abortion in folk or fairy tales at all.

Evidence of abortion exists as far back as the pre-modern era, and has been mentioned, even if only with condemnation, in historical and religious texts from across the world. But if abortion - in the form of pessaries, herbs, or even strenuous exercise or diving(!) - have been taking place for so long in so many parts of the globe, where are they in our folklore? And what can be made of its exclusion? This paper will explore depictions of satanic infants and foetuses in folklore and myth from across the world, as well as narratives related to the experience of abortion, and consider the extent to which global folklore has engaged with the practice of abortion, and how much it has kept it hidden under the veil of magic. It will also (when applicable) examine the impact of colonisation on such narratives.

Perhaps all of the demon babies of folklore are the unbaptised souls of aborted children - Or perhaps they reveal a little more about the shackles of unwanted pregnancy than we might have cared to notice. Like the abortions that have been for so long pushed into the shadows, just because something isn’t visible, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

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