What is a Selkie?

A selkie is a shape-shifting creature who can take the form of either a seal or a human. Legends of the seal people come from northern Europe, predominately in areas settled by Norse Vikings: The Scottish isles, coasts of Ireland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. I’ve heard rumors that there may be a selkie story or two from Norway and Denmark, but haven’t been able to track them down. If you know of any, please contact me!

Because the greatest number of selkie stories appear to come from Ireland and Scotland, many assume they have Celtic origins. I’m not convinced. Those regions of Scotland and Ireland were settled by Norse Vikings and still bear many place names and family names of Scandinavian origin. Then again, Scottish and Irish slaves were taken to Iceland and the probably the Faroe Islands. Could they have brought the selkie legends with them? These two possible origins are closely intertwined, and, to my knowledge, haven’t been definitively traced. I’ll keep looking, though.

In the legends, there are male and female selkies, and most of the time they prefer to stay in their seal form. But every now and then—the exact timing varies: every full moon, once or twice a year—they come ashore to a remote beach and remove their sealskins and dance on land in their human forms. Then they put their sealskins back on and slip into the sea.

The problems arise when they come into contact with the human folk.

Most selkie stories fall into one of three main themes:

A human man steals a selkie woman’s skin and she is forced to become his wife—until she finds her skin and can return home to the sea.
A selkie man could be a desirable lover for a human woman saddled with a disappointing husband.
A human seal hunter might find that the seal he injured or skinned was a selkie and he is required to heal it or return the skin.
There is a subgroup of the first two categories, which I call the family legend. A surprising number of families across the selkie lands of Northern Europe claim to be descended from a selkie—usually a selkie woman, but sometimes a selkie man.

These legends were originally collected and published by folklorists in the 1800s. I’ve searched out many of these old, old tales and will share them here.