The Selkies
In northern island lore, seals could shed their skins and walk ashore as people, and a stolen skin could keep a selkie on land.
What was reported
Selkies are the seal folk of the folklore of Orkney, Shetland, the Faroe Islands and Ireland: seals who can take off their skins and come ashore in human form, often to dance on moonlit beaches.
In the most common tale, a man hides a selkie woman's skin so she can't return to the sea, and she becomes his wife. Years later she finds the skin and goes back to the water, sometimes watching her children from the waves.
Explanations offered
Folklorists suggest the stories grew from the human-like eyes and calls of seals and from island communities' close bond with the sea. Some families in the Northern Isles once claimed selkie ancestry. In the Faroes, a statue of the seal woman, Kópakonan, stands at Mikladalur.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Shetland, Scotland
- Witnesses
- Islanders of Orkney, Shetland, Ireland and the Faroes
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.