Sealed with a kiss.. geddit?
Selfie folk are shapeshifters. They live most of their lives as seals, but, from time to time, they come to shore, shrug off their sealskins and dance, or explore, while in the shape of humans. These selkies, when in human form, are said to be beautiful and graceful. The Irish say that those of them that are known as the “black irish”, i.e. handsome Irish, with a swarthy, Italianate, complexion, are, in fact the offspring of selkie/human breeding. The offspring of such a pair are said to have webbed toes, and are good swimmers, unlikely to drown. A selkie’s seal form is usually said to be one of the larger seals.
Female selkies are said to sing to lure fishermen to their deaths. Their song is said to be beautiful and able to carry over the water for a considerable distance. Apparently, the male selkies cannot abide a human woman in distress and, if coming across one, will throw off their skin so as to be able to help the woman. A human woman can call a selkie male by shedding seven tears upon the water, when by a beach, while calling for help.
A great number of selkie tales come from Scotland (selk is Scots for grey seal), although there are Norse (Icelandic/Norwegian) tales as well, in Middle Earth.
It has been said that, if you can steal a selkie’s seal skin, whilst she is out of the water, you can compel her to marry you. You must hide the skin, however, for even if it is several years later and you have children, together, if she finds it, she will don it and return to the sea.
This tale is told by an old woman who claims to be the granddaughter of a Selkie. Apparently her grandfather had been a fisherman up in the North of Ireland, and had been a man of uncommon good looks. He was very poor and only had one boat and net to his name. Every time he would go out fishing he would leave some fish for the seals that lived there and they gre to love him. The would often wait for him on the rocks and follow his boat out to sea showing him where the fish were.
Her grandfather had a deep bond with these seals and when some hunters came to hunt the seals for their fur he scared all the seals away and sent the hunters to the wrong beach. He would spend so much time with the seals at sea that the villagers said he had lost his heart to a Selkie.
He married a beautiful girl with huge dark eyes and black hair. He told the villagers that she was a stranger from a village down south, but everyone knew she was a Selkie. She was very kind and soft spoken and would often be seen sitting on the rocks with the seals and her husband. They lived happily and had many children.
One Sunday when coming out of church, some of the village women joked with the wife that she was so fair, that her husband had got her to marry him by hiding her coat. The wife looked a little saddened but in her soft voice told them that she loved her husband and she gave him her coat to keep him warm and safe the at sea. The women were never sure if this was a joke, and this was never cleared up. Many years later, when the fisherman and his wife died, they found in her wardrobe an old seal skin coat, which turned to dust when it was touched.
When asked by the recorder if the old woman had any selkie like ability, the old woman simply stated that “you don’t see as many seals around now as you used to.”
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