Editing Shapeshifting (section)

===Norse and Teutonic===
[[File:Galligantus - Project Gutenberg eText 17034.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|"The giant [[Galligantua]] and the wicked old magician transform the duke's daughter into a white [[red deer|hind]]." by [[Arthur Rackham]]]]

There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales.<ref>Perabo, L. D. 2017. Shapeshifting in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature, Roda da Fortuna. Revista Eletrônica sobre Antiguidade e Medievo, 6(1): 135–158.</ref>

In the [[Lokasenna]], [[Odin]] and [[Loki]] taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century [[Edda]] relates Loki taking the form of a [[mare]] to bear Odin's steed [[Sleipnir]] which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear [[Fenrir]].<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/lokimyth/g/Loki.htm
|title=Loki – Norse Trickster Loki
|publisher=about.com
|access-date=2010-06-18
|last= Gill |first= N. S.
}}; [[Stephan Grundy]], "Shapeshifting and Berserkergang," in ''Translation, Transformation, and Transubstantiation'', ed. Carol Poster and Richard Utz (Evanston: IL: Northwestern University Press, 1998), pp. 104–22.
</ref>

[[Svipdagr]] angered [[Odin]], who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess [[Freyja]], 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.{{Citation needed|reason=It is unclear which saga, myth, or story states this, and the articles on Svipdagr and the poems he appears in do not appear to corroborate this claim at all.|date=March 2019}} In the ''[[Hyndluljóð]]'', Freyja transformed her protégé [[Óttar (mythology)|Óttar]] 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 [[Volsunga saga]] contains many shapeshifting characters. [[Siggeir]]'s mother changed into a wolf to help torture his defeated brothers-in-law with slow and ignominious deaths. When one, [[Sigmund]], survived, he and his nephew and son [[Sinfjötli]] killed men wearing wolfskins; when they donned the skins themselves, they were cursed to become [[werewolf|werewolves]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adkins |first1=Christopher David|date=2023 |title=Carnivore Incarnate: Wicked Wolves and Noble Bears in Norse Tales of Shapeshifting|journal=Preternature |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.5325/preternature.12.1.0001|issn=2161-2196}}</ref>

[[File:Ring12.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|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]]'']]

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

[[Fafnir]] 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 [[Greed (deadly sin)|greed]]—while guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother, [[Ótr]], enjoyed spending time as an otter, which led to his accidental slaying by Loki.

In [[Scandinavia]], 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 [[Shamanism|shaman]]s, and all the girls Maras.{{Citation needed|reason=This claim does not appear to be backed up by any other sources; the article on the Mara explicitly contradicts this claim.|date=March 2019}}

The [[Nisse (folklore)|Nisse]] is sometimes said to be a shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to [[Hulder]].

[[File:Sammon puolustus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Louhi]], Mistress of the North, attacking [[Väinämöinen]] in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her back as she tries to steal [[Sampo]]; in the [[Finland|Finnish]] [[epic poetry]] ''[[Kalevala]]'' by [[Elias Lönnrot]]. <small>(''[[The Defense of the Sampo]]'', [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela]], 1896)</small>]]

[[Gunnhild, Mother of Kings]] (''Gunnhild konungamóðir'') (c. 910 &nbsp;–&nbsp; c. 980), a quasi-historical figure who appears in the [[Icelandic Sagas]], according to which she was the wife of [[Eric Bloodaxe]], 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 ''[[Mother of Kings]]'' by [[Poul Anderson]],<ref>[[Tor Books]], 2003</ref> which considerably elaborates on her shapeshifting abilities.

In the [[Finland|Finnish]] epic poem [[Kalevala]] of ancient folklore, [[Louhi]], Mistress of the North, attacks [[Väinämöinen]] in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her back as she tries to steal [[Sampo]].