Selkies (or silkies, selchies, roane) are seal-people, shape-shifters of a sort, living off the coast of the Orkney Isles and the Hebrides. When a selkie comes ashore, they remove their seal skin, and hide it well. Should a human male find the hidden skin and hides it from her, she is bound to him, and they usually marry. But, if at any time the selkie finds her skin, usually with the unwitting help of her children, she will return to the sea, her home, abandoning her husband and children. Male selkies have also been known to take human lovers. Though male selkies often court human females they hardly ever form lasting relationships with them. The males seem more inclined to spend their time raising storms and damaging the boats of the seal-catchers in revenge for the indiscriminate slaughter of seals. Roanes are said to be the gentler of the seal-folk for they do not participate in these acts of vengeance.
Some of the old folk said that, like faeries, they were fallen angels who were condemned to become seals while others insisted that they were once human beings who, for some grave misdemeanour were doomed to assume the form of a seal and live out the rest of their days in the sea. Or that the selkie-folk were simply the souls of people who had drowned and one night each year were permitted to return to their original human form. I have compiled some stories,
poems and songs for your enjoyment.
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