The Beldam, or known as The Other-Mother to some, she is usually depicted as a malevolent witch/fey creature or a a hybrid of a skeleton and an arachnid. Under her disguise as her victims' mothers (her victims usually being kids or young teenagers), the Beldam appears to be a very loving and charismatic maternal figure, especially for troubled or board victims of her’s. The Beldam, or the Other Mother, entices victims into her Other World by posing as their more caring mother and crafting a seemingly superior world. After the victims are entrapped, she sews buttons into their eyes, anchoring them to her realm, where she eventually devours their souls. The Beldam, referred to primarily as Other Mother, is a shape-shifter that takes on different forms to prey on children, and her name is hardly incidental. While "Beldam" is an archaic term used to refer to an ugly old woman or hag, the Beldam also derives from “La Belle Dame sans Merci," an 1819 ballad by John Keats. The beldam is a mythical figure that appears in European folklore and in Neil Gaiman's Coraline. The beldam is a dangerous woman who lures people into a false sense of security and then kills them. If the victims do sleep in their room in the other mother’s dimension, they get sent back instantly to their original bed in the real world.