What happens when you give a selkie their coat?

What happens when you give a selkie their coat?

The Visitors is a little bit about selkies. Selkies are seals, and they are also people. They have a fur coat that allows them to take the form of a seal. When they step out of the coat, they become human.

What is the story of the selkie?

The story of a selkie, a seal woman, who loses her skin and can’t go back to the sea. The Selkie folk are seal people – seals who can shed their skins and take human form to dance on the shore. The best known is the story of the fisherman who steals a Selkie’s skin so that the woman must stay human.

Are selkies evil?

While most mythological sea or water creatures were thought to be nasty and evil, the selkies were not; perhaps the kind and soulful eyes of the seal have allowed the character of the selkie to develop this way.

What powers do selkies have?

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”.

Can selkies breathe underwater?

Amphibious respiration: Selkies, due to being related to merfolk, are able to breathe underwater and in air.

Where did the selkie myth come from?

They are found in folktales and mythology originating from the Northern Isles of Scotland. The folk-tales frequently revolve around female selkies being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their sealskin, thus exhibiting the tale motif of the swan maiden type.

Can selkie be men?

The selkie-men were renowned for their many encounters with human females — married and unmarried. A selkie-man in human form was said to be a handsome creature, with almost magical seductive powers over mortal women.

What is the difference between selkies and mermaids?

Irish folklore is no different – as an island nation, our stories are very much inspired by the sea, and we have not one, but two forms of mermaid like creature. The selkie is part human, part seal. They appear as seals in the water, and once on land, they remove the skins to reveal their human-like form.

Can men be selkie?

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.

How could you summon a male selkie?

Ladies, if you want to summon a male selkie, shed seven tears into the sea. Legendary folk duo The Corries did a folk song about a male selkie, The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry.

Are selkies and mermaids the same?

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 (‘maiden of the sea’ i.e. mermaids) and clearly have the seal-like attributes of selkies.

What is a selkie in Celtic mythology?

In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies (also spelled silkies, sylkies, selchies) or selkie folk (Scots: selkie fowk) meaning ‘ seal folk ‘ are mythological beings capable of therianthropy, changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. They are found in folktales and mythology originating from the Northern Isles of Scotland.

Did Shetland’s selkies turn people into seals?

In Shetland, some stories bring us tales of selkies luring islanders into the sea where the lovelorn humans never return to dry land. The sea-folk were also believed to revert to human shape and breathed air, but they had the ability to transform into seals as well, using their seal-skin, each of which was unique and irreplaceable.

Do selkies come back to human form?

Sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them returned to their seal form. 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.

What happens to the selkie in a folktale?

Sometimes, one of her children discovers or knows the whereabouts of the skin. Sometimes it is revealed she already had a first husband from her own kind. 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.