What is a selkie?
Selkies live in the sea as seals. On certain nights they come ashore, shed their skins and dance on the beach in human form. Whoever takes one of these skins has power over its owner, because without her skin she cannot return to the sea.
The selkie wife
The best-known tale almost always follows the same pattern. A fisherman or farmer hides a selkie woman’s skin. She marries him, has children and lives on land for years. One day one of the children finds the skin, often up in the rafters, and the mother returns to the sea at once. On Orkney the story is told of a farmer from Wastness. On the Faroe Islands, the story of the Kópakonan, the seal woman of Mikladalur, ends with a curse on the men of the village.
Origins
The word selkie is Scots and means seal. The tales are found along the coasts of Scotland, especially on Orkney and Shetland, as well as in Ireland, Iceland and the Faroes. Orkney is also the source of the ballad of the Great Selkie of Sule Skerry. In 1954 David Thomson collected selkie stories from coastal communities in The People of the Sea.
What the stories tell
Beneath the romance lies a harsh story: a woman is held captive, something is taken from her, and she leaves as soon as she can. The selkie tales are about life on the coast, about marriages that were not entered freely, and about longing for a life of one’s own.
Episode on this topic
- The Tragic Truth About Selkies: She Stole His Heart, He Stole Her Skin (in German)
- Related: Nøkken
Further reading
- David Thomson: The People of the Sea, 1954.
- “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry,” Child Ballad 113.