The Selkie Wife

Far in the north of Scotland, there are islands where the wind blows and the seals sing on the rocks. The people there say that some seals are selkies. In the sea they are seals, but on land they can slip off their soft gray skins and become people.

One bright night, a young fisherman was walking along the shore. He heard laughing and singing, and he hid behind a rock to look. On the sand, a group of selkies were dancing in the moonlight, with their sealskins lying in a pile. One selkie woman had long dark hair and the kindest eyes he had ever seen. The fisherman quietly picked up her sealskin and tucked it under his coat.

When the dance was over, the selkies pulled on their skins and slid back into the water. But the woman with the dark hair could not find her skin. The fisherman stepped out and spoke to her gently. “Please stay with me,” he said. “I will love you and take care of you always.” The selkie woman looked out at the sea for a long time, and then she took his hand.

So she went to live in his little stone house, and they were married. She was a loving wife, and soon they had three children. She sang them old songs of the sea, and she taught them to swim like little fish. But often, in the evening, she stood on the shore and looked out at the waves.

One day, the youngest child was playing hide-and-seek in the barn. Tucked high up in the roof, she found something soft and gray. “Mama, what is this?” she asked, holding it up. Her mother’s eyes filled with tears, for it was her own sealskin.

The selkie woman hugged each of her children tightly. “I love you all very much,” she said, “but the sea is my home, and I must go back.” “Whenever you come to the shore, I will be near.” Then she pulled on her sealskin, slipped into the water, and swam away.

The fisherman and the children missed her very much. But every day, a big gray seal with kind eyes swam close to the rocks to watch the children play. And whenever the fisherman went out in his boat, his nets were always full of fish. The children grew up loving the sea, and they always waved to the seals as they passed.