Episode 50: Water Fae: Selkies

The folklore of Selkies in a nutshell, how I reimagined them for my writing, and this faery translated into Afrikaans.

Written and narrated by Ronel Janse van Vuuren.

Copyright 2022 Ronel Janse van Vuuren — All rights reserved.

Learn more about Selkies here.

Get the transcript here.

Music: Secrets by David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios.com) and Dramatic Heartbeat by FesliyanStudios.com

Transcript

You’re listening to the Faeries and Folklore podcast by Ronel.

I’m dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. With nearly a decade of digging around in dusty folklore books, researching creatures of imagination that ignited my curiosity, I’m here to share the folklore in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing in an origin of the fae.

This is the Faeries and Folklore podcast.

Hi, I’m your host Ronel Janse van Vuuren. You can just call me Ronel. In today’s episode, we’re continuing our exploration of the fae realm.

This episode is brought to you by my book Once… Tales, Myths and Legends of Faerie available in eBook, audiobook and paperback. Learn more at ronelthemythmaker.com/my-books.

We’re continuing our exploration of Water Fae.

Today’s Faery: Selkies

Folklore in a nutshell by Ronel

A common element in all selkie folklore is that they need their sealskins to return to the sea. So if they are disturbed while on land, they will snatch up their skins and return to the water. These Seal-Faeries are cursed with a constant longing for what they do not have: when they walk on land as a human, they yearn for the sea; when they are swimming in the water as seals, they yearn for the land.

In most tales involving the selkie wife, a selkie woman sunbathes on the beach/dances in the moonlight/enjoys being in her human form and a mortal man steals her sealskin, forces her to marry him and bear his children. The selkie woman does as expected, biding her time to take back her sealskin and return to the ocean. Sometimes the selkie woman will return for her children, and sometimes she abandons them along with her mortal husband. (The issue of consent is one for a whole other blog post.)

Selkie men are unusually attractive and mortal women crave their attention – so much so, that some would weep seven tears into the ocean at high tide to meet one. And if a woman goes missing at sea, it is said that she has gone to live with her selkie lover.

Some tales – especially in Shetland – tell of attractive selkies luring islanders into the sea during Midsummer’s Eve, the humans not to be seen again.

These seal-faeries are cursed with a constant longing for what they do not have: when they walk on land as a human, they yearn for the sea; when they are swimming in the water as seals, they yearn for the land.

And now for my interpretation of the fae in an origin of the fae: selkies

They are able to shape-shift between their seal and human forms.

Selkies mostly live in the human realm.

The biggest taboo of their kind is to mix with other Fae (through marriage, etc.).

Though they do occasionally marry their own kind, it is more common for them to seek a human mate. They entrap an unmarried human by leaving their Other-Skin (the seal pelt) for the human to find. The human is unable to give the Other-Skin away, allow the Selkie to reclaim it, or otherwise harm it. They are bound to their Selkie-mate through this pelt. It is thought that someone powerful had cursed Selkies (and thus humans) to always fall prey to the magic of the Other-Skin.

It does happen that during the Tithe freedom from this curse can be bought from either the Faery Queen or the Dark King (usually the Tithe happens every seven years…). Though some have found the price for freedom to be too steep.

Selkies are known as the good folk to some. They help fishermen to gather enough food from the sea in times of need by singing in the language of the ocean. They are gentle creatures. Though they are known to cause storms and avenge the indiscriminate murder of seals and selkies.

Their homes are usually deep in the ocean, most often a natural vault made of pearls or coral.

As a little bonus, let’s look at the translation of selkies into Afrikaans: Robbefeë (this is of my own making).

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the faeries and folklore podcast and that you’ve learned something new about faeries.

Remember that you can get a transcript of this episode in the description. If you’re new to the podcast, why not go and grab your free copy of Unseen, the second book in the Faery Tales series, on my website ronelthemythmaker.com? Loads of folklore, magic and danger await! Take care!

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