Selkie Out of Water

It is not everyday a Selkie is seen on land, the conditions must be perfect. A Selkie will only venture to shore and remove her cloak on a sunny day, when the sea fills with foam, and the gulls cry like newborn babes. On these special days a Selkie may feel inclined to disrobe and take on her human form to feel the sun on her skin.

It was on a day like this that the queen of the Selkies found herself sunbathing on the rocks. She knew that showing her human form was a risk but, she was the most powerful of the Selkies and held no fear. Unfortunately, fear would have served her well for then she may have paid better attention to her surroundings or hid her skin better.

Too caught up in the feeling of the sun caressing her human body, she did not see the young man descending the cliff face towards the caves where she had hidden her cloak. It was only when it was too late that she realized her skin was missing and she was now trapped as a human.

The young man hid her skin from her and came back to claim the Selkie as his bride. The Queen was livid to have become captive by a mortal, but she had no other choice but to wed the man.

The Queen lived for many years as the man's unwilling bride, never forgetting the sea or the rage she felt for having it stolen from her. She searched in vain for her skin but never found it, so instead she hatched a new plan.

The Queen became the ideal wife. She showered the man with affection and bore him many children. As each child came of age, she would teach them the beauty of the sea and how to access their Selkie form. Then one night as her family slept soundly, she crept into her young children's rooms and stole their skins. She sewed the small skins together creating a new cloak for herself and disappeared into the night, not even sparing a backwards glance to her children.

My mother told me this story often as a child, it was one of my favorites. She told me that the moral of the story was to be careful who you trust, even your own blood. When she told the story she acted like it was a fable or fairy tale. It wasn't until I turned 9 and developed my own Selkie skin that I learned the story was true. After my own skin grew my mother admitted that she was one of the children from the story, crippled by hey own mother. My heart broke for her. At just 9 years old I held my mother as she cried over her lost gift. I told myself, one day I would find The Queen of the Selkies and steal back my mother's skin. With just a few days until my 20th birthday, I was finally ready to chase down the dream of 9 year old me.