This was a first: take a mythological or fairytale creature and write something about them. Well, selkies, or seal people, had been on my mind at the time, so let’s have a peek.
The legend origins of these creatures are from the Faroe Islands, Ireland, and Scotland. These stories depict seals shedding their skins to become human men and women. Usually this can only happen for a short time and/or at specific times. However if their skin is stolen then they are able to remain on land indefinitely until their skin is returned to them.
Selkie women tend to be the focus of these legends. The most common formula is this. The woman is on the beach, sometimes dancing in the moonlight with other seal-women. A man comes along and takes her sealskin. Thus trapped on land, she marries the man and usually has children with him. Then one day, one of her children find her sealskin and return it to her. Shortly thereafter, she returns to the sea, never to return unless it is to visit her children.
Not quite as common are the selkie men. They tend to be depicted as the lovers of unhappy wives. The woman can summon the seal-man by shedding seven tears into the sea. He then proceeds to woo her, creating an affair. (Really? But I suppose if a family is trying to find excuse or a way out of a scandal, just blame a selkie. Not fond of this part of the legends, but anyway.)
The reasons for these legends popping up have a few possible origins. Shipwrecked Spaniards, people who dressed in sealskin clothes, or simply a way to explain what back then was unexplainable: webbing between fingers and toes, seal-like faces, and scaly skin. One website I took a peek at suggested that people believed selkies represented those in purgatory or those drowned at sea.
Most of my life, I honestly had no knowledge of selkies. I can’t quite recall if it was The Magic Treehouse’s thirty-first book, Summer of the Sea Serpent, or if it was the retelling of a legend in a picture book entitled The Seal Prince. (I’d love to review both some day. The Seal Prince especially.) One of the characters Mary Pope Osborne introduces in her chapter book is a selkie girl and she is able to share some seal skins so that others can join her for some fun in the waves. Sheila MacGill-Callahan shares the story of a young girl who unknowingly befriends a seal-boy.
I still find it rare to find stories about selkies. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, or they just aren’t as popular as say mermaids or sea monsters. But a lovely jewel I found within the last couple years is a song performed by Heather Dale, “The Maiden and the Selkie.” It offers another view on the selkie legends, especially concerning the male selkie. It is also possibly one of the only selkie “legends” that has a happy ending. (I wouldn’t like it so much if it wasn’t the case.) It is based on the idea that while seal-women can survive for years as a human on land, a seal-man can survive on land only until midnight. Of course, what are two lovers to do if they wish to live a long life together? (Seriously, I am hoping to review this story within a song one day.)
I have actually developed such an interest/liking of these beings that I am forming my own version of them in a book series. Maybe when they decide to talk to me I’ll share what I find out.
Until next time. Bye
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