The capture of a seal woman on a Feroese stamp |
Selkies or Seal-Folk are fae that shift from seal and human forms by means of their seal coats. Although
they mainly live in the waters around Scotland and Ireland as seals, sometimes the selkie folk would come ashore, shedding their seal coats to frolic about on land, most often in groups just like regular seals. In the folktales he collected from Shetlanders that had immigrated to British Columbia, J. A. Teit noted that all the sea-folk and animals had a special bond and would look out for each other, "thus gulls watched over the welfare of the seals when they were ashore, and warned them of the approach of danger; and seals did the same for mermaids" (193). Despite this neighborhood watch system many selkie-women would have their seal coats stolen by fishermen that had fallen in love with them on the spot. A selkie's seal skin is their most prized possession because it is the only way that they may return to the sea. Not only is a selkie trapped on land without their seal-skin, they must also submit to whoever has possession of their seal-skin. A selkie may marry a mortal man that has gotten hold of her seal skin like the story of the seal-maiden, although "other selkie/human romances appear to have been built on genuine mutual affection" (Paciorek 208).
For awhile I'd only heard and read stories of selkie-women but it turns out that there are male selkies, as well, and they are just as alluring as their female counterparts, "a selkie-man in human form was said to be to be a handsome creature, with almost magical seductive powers over mortal women" (orkneyjar). I've noticed that while a selkie-woman may be beautiful and alluring her seal-skin is usually stolen by a fisherman but the selkie-men seem to come ashore deliberately, leaving their seal skins in a safe place before offering their aid to “unsatisfied” mortal women or by being called by seven tears of a maiden (orkneyjar). Children from mortal and selkie unions were said to have webbed fingers and feet or be born in their own seal skin.
Ondine (2009) An Irish fisherman catches a woman in his net who appears to be a selkie |
I can't wait to visit Scotland and Ireland and she the seals there! Perhaps I'll catch myself a selkie-man...
Resources:
Froud, Brian and Allen Lee. Faeries. New York : Abrams, 1978. Print.
Paciorek, Andrew L.. Strange Lands: Supernatural Creatures of the Celtic Otherworld. Blurb. Print.
Teit, J. A. "Water-Beings in Shetlandic Folk-Lore, as Remembered by Shetlanders in British Columbia". The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 31, No. 120 (Apr. - Jun., 1918). pp. 180-201. Web. 12 Sept. 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/534874
Towrie, Sigurd. "The Selkie-Folk". Web. 17 Sept. 2013. http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/index.html
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