Selkies

I love all kinds of fairytales and folklore, but the tales of the selkies hold a particular allure for me. Perhaps it’s their connection to the ocean, their ability to shape-shift, or the inherent sadness that clings like another skin to their stories. If you aren’t familiar with selkies, they are creatures, typically female, with the ability to shed their sealskins and come to land in human form. The legends originated in the Northern isles of Scotland and, like most folktales, have evolved over the centuries. Most tales tell of a fisherman who spys a selkie in her human form, and devises to steal her skin and take her for his bride, for the legend tells that if a selkie is without her skin, she cannot return to the sea. But the pull to the water never fades for her, growing stronger each day and so, more often than not, the stories end with the selkie woman finding her skin and returning to the sea, leaving behind any children she bore with the fisherman.

Once I started reading about selkies I couldn’t stop, and I was inspired to include bits and pieces of the myth in the novel I’m writing. I think the stories of the selkies are rich on a number of levels, particularly in relation to understandings of mental health. Could it be that the recurring tale of the selkie woman choosing the ocean over her children be a metaphor for post-natal depression? Perhaps it was easier to tell young children that their mother hadn’t abandoned them, but was actually a seal woman and needed to return home, lest she waste away on land. Then there’s the idea of the sealskin itself. As people, we change and grow throughout our lives, shedding our skins to make room for new versions of ourselves. I think everyone has multiple facets to themselves, their personalities, and it’s important to acknowledge that we can shed our skins in multiple ways, many times over, but we cannot entirely leave our old skins behind. They remain a part of us, and it’s damaging to our soul to forget about who we once were. The characters in my novel all struggle to reconcile with the conflicting aspects of their personalities. The seals who live in the cove by their home both help and hinder each character in different ways throughout their journeys, as myth and reality begin to merge.

My novel blends historical fiction and mythology, and examines the complexities of motherhood, mental illness, place and belonging. It considers how we can belong to both people and place and looks at the consequences of separation from either. Layers of ambiguity permeate this novel, particularly in regard to the mythological elements of the selkies, the aim being to encourage readers to wonder if the magical details are genuinely occurring, or if they’re simply true for the characters experiencing them.