Description
The Selkie
The Selkie is one of many fairy creatures in Gaelic Folklore. A Selkie is in essence a seal which may shed its seal skin and take human form.
The stories generally have them as female but some times there are male Selkies too.
In the human form the Selkie is strikingly beautiful and alluring, but vulnerable to any human who gains possession of her skin. In some cases, she is depicted as a slave, but in others [ as in the poem below says ] she falls in love with the human who holds her skin. Nevertheless she is a seal at heart, and cannot resist the sea if she finds her skin. Tragically, neither she nor her human husband can ever forget the life of love they shared, but she is never able to willingly give up the freedom of the sea.
I am passionate about my calling in bog oak sculptures, because I am allowing the beauty of these ancient remnants of Irish natural history to tell us about their story in a new and unique way.
The Selkie
None can tell a Selkie from a seal,
but her human beauty seems unreal.
With sealskin hid in sand
she walks upon the land
and may as a woman love and feel.
If a man should find a silken skin
that a Selkie had been swimming in,
and hides it in his home,
he will not be long alone,
for the Selkie loves the finder then.
Still, a Selkie cannot forget the sea
where she once could swim and frolic free.
So if she finds her skin,
she must go back again,
even though in love she will always be.
If a seal is seen swimming near the land
where a man is waiting on the sand,
a Selkie she may be,
alone and sad as he,
lost in love for both the sea and man.
None can tell a Selkie from a seal,
who may like a woman love and feel.
As both she will rarely seen,
and never in between,
but the one who loved her knows she is real
