Selkie
 2007 Faroese stamp depicting a selkie | |
| Creature information | |
|---|---|
| Grouping | Mythological |
| Similar entities | |
| Origin | |
| Habitat | water, ocean |
Selkies are mythological creatures that can shapeshift between seal and human forms by removing or putting on their seal skin. They feature prominently in the oral traditions and mythology of various cultures, especially those of Celtic and Norse origin. The term "selkie" derives from the Scots word for "seal", and is also spelled as silkies, sylkies, or selchies. Selkies are sometimes referred to as selkie folk (Scots: selkie fowk), meaning "seal folk".[a] Selkies are mainly associated with the Northern Isles of Scotland, where they are said to live as seals in the sea but shed their skin to become human on land.
Selkies have a dual nature: they can be friendly and helpful to humans, but they can also be dangerous and vengeful. Selkies are often depicted as attractive and seductive in human form, and many stories involve selkies having romantic or sexual relationships with humans, sometimes resulting in children. Selkies can also be coerced or tricked into marrying humans, usually by someone who steals and hides their seal skin, preventing them from returning to the sea. Such marriages are often unhappy, as the selkie always longs for the sea and may eventually escape if they find their skin.[1]
Selkies have counterparts in other cultures. They are sometimes confused with other seal-like creatures, such as the mermaids or the finfolk. Selkies have inspired many works of art, literature, music, and film.
Terminology
[edit]The Scots language word selkie is diminutive for selch which strictly speaking means 'grey seal' (Halichoerus grypus). Alternate spellings for the diminutive include: selky, seilkie, sejlki, silkie, silkey, saelkie, and sylkie.[2]
The term selkie according to Alan Bruford should be treated as meaning any seal with or without the implication of transformation into human form.[3]
W. Traill Dennison insisted selkie was the correct term to be applied to these shapeshifters, to be distinguished from the merfolk, and that Samuel Hibbert committed an error in referring to them as mermen and mermaids.[4] However, when other Norse cultures are examined, Icelandic writers also refer to the seal-wives as merfolk (marmennlar).[5]
There also seems to be some conflation between the selkie and finfolk. This confounding only existed in Shetland, claimed Dennison, and that in Orkney the selkie are distinguished from the finfolk, and the selkies' abode undersea is not "Finfolk-a-heem";[6] this notion, although seconded by Ernest Marwick,[7] has been challenged by Bruford.[8]
There is further confusion with the Norse concept of the Finns as shapeshifters,[8] Finns (synonymous with finfolk[9]) being the Shetland dialect name for dwellers of the sea who could remove their seal-skin and transform into humans according to one native correspondent.[b][11]
- Gaelic terms
In Gaelic stories, specific terms for selkies are rarely used. They are seldom differentiated from mermaids. They are most commonly referred to as maighdeann-mhara in Scottish Gaelic, maighdean mhara in Irish, and moidyn varrey in Manx[12] ('maiden of the sea' i.e. mermaids) and clearly have the seal-like attributes of selkies.[13] The only term that specifically refers to a selkie but which is only rarely encountered is maighdeann-ròin, or 'seal maiden'.[14]
Scottish legend
[edit]Many of the folk-tales on selkie folk have been collected from the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland).[15]
In Orkney lore, selkie is said to denote various seals of greater size than the grey seal; only these large seals are credited with the ability to shapeshift into humans, and are called "selkie folk". The type of large seals that might have been seen on the islands include the Greenland seal (also known as the Harp Seal) and the crested seal (also known as the hooded seal).[16] Something similar is stated in Shetland tradition, that the mermen and mermaids prefer to assume the shape of larger seals, referred to as Haaf-fish.[17]
Selkie wife and human lover
[edit]A typical folk-tale is that of a man who steals a female selkie's skin, finds her naked on the sea shore, and compels her to become his wife.[18] But the wife will spend her time in captivity longing for the sea, her true home, and will often be seen gazing longingly at the ocean. She may bear several children by her human husband, but once she discovers her skin, she will immediately return to the sea and abandon the children she loved. Sometimes, one of her children discovers or knows the whereabouts of the skin.[c][d] Sometimes it is revealed she already had a first husband of her own kind.[19][22] Although in some children's story versions, the selkie revisits her family on land once a year, in the typical folktale she is never seen again by them.[23] In one version, the selkie wife was never seen again (at least in human form) by the family, but the children would witness a large seal approach them and "greet" them plaintively.[24]
Male selkies are described as being very handsome in their human form, and having great seductive powers over human women. They typically seek those who are dissatisfied with their lives, such as married women waiting for their fishermen husbands.[16] In one popular tattletale version about a certain "Ursilla" of Orkney (a pseudonym), it was rumoured that when she wished to make contact with her male selkie she would shed seven tears into the sea.[25] In one Scots ballad, The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, the male selkie returns after years of her raising their child, he then takes the child to be raised as a seal and gives her gold as a fee.[26]
Children born between human and seal-folk may have webbed hands, as in the case of the Shetland mermaid whose children had "a sort of web between their fingers",[27] or "Ursilla" rumoured to have children sired by a male selkie, such that the children had to have the webbing between their fingers and toes made of horny material clipped away occasionally. Some of the descendants actually did have these hereditary traits, according to Walter Traill Dennison, who was related to the family.[28][29]
Binding rules and sinful origin
[edit]Some legends say that selkies could turn human every so often when the conditions of the tides were correct, but oral storytellers disagreed as to the time interval.[16] In Ursilla's rumour, the contacted male selkie promised to visit her at the "seventh stream" or springtide.[28] In the ballad The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, the seal-husband promised to return in seven years; the number "seven" being commonplace in balladry.[30]
According to one version, the selkie could only assume human form once every seven years because they are bodies that house condemned souls.[21] There is the notion that they are either humans who had committed sinful wrongdoing,[16] or fallen angels.[16][27]
Superstitions
[edit]It was only during hard times that the people of the Scottish Isles would kill seals to make use of their skin and blubber. It was thought that the killing of a seal would result in misfortune for the perpetrator.
Ernest Marwick recounts the tale of crofters who brought their sheep to graze upon a small group of holms within the Orkney Islands. During the summer, a man placed seven sheep on the largest holm. While on his way home from grazing sheep, the man killed a seal. That night, all of the man's sheep disappeared, however, the other crofters, who had not killed a seal, did not lose their sheep.