Are selkies real

Answer 1

No its a Scottish legend.ithe and seductive selkies are creatures of legend. Even among the other Kith there are few today who can say for sure that the last chapter has not been written about the people of the seals -- their book closed forever when the doors to the Dreaming were shut behind them and Arcadia lost. Such ignorance is not uncommon among the remnants of the fae though and the answer to the puzzle of where the selkies have gone lies not in the courts of the Sidhe but in the depths of the sea instead.

Selkie legends abound in the isles around Great Britain where fisher folk live alongside the seals. The great seal, the grey seal, the crested seal and others, are called the selkie folk because it is believed that their natural form is human. That they live in an underwater world or on lonely skerries and put on seal-skins and the appearance of seals to enable them to pass through the waters from one region of air to another. The human-like quality of their cries and their human eyes only reinforce this belief. The smaller, more common seals are generally not said to be selkies; only with their larger brethren is there a question about what is real and what is part of the Dreaming.

Selkies of the Seelie court are sometimes, in the oldest legends, referred to as roane. Roane tend to be mild and innocent, bearing little resentment against mortals in general and being steadfastly loyal. A legend often told, The Selkie that Deud No' Forget, tells of a fisherman who came upon a roane giving birth to her pups upon a rocky shore one night. He would have stolen the pups to sell their skins but he could not bear the human anguish with which their seal mother cried so he relented. Forty years later that same roane mother saved his life when he was cut off from land and set afloat by the rising tide.

Selkies of the Unseelie court, though, are not so soft-hearted as their brethren. Such fae have avenged the death of their kin by raising storms and sinking the boats of seal-catchers. In another tale, an islander who made his living by the killing of seals was confronted by a stranger on horseback offering to buy a large number of skins. Hoping to make a good sale, the seal-hunter mounted behind him and was carried away at a wild gallop which ended on a precipice overlooking the sea. There his strange companion grasped him and plunged with him into the waters. Down they went, and down, till at length they reached the abode of the selkie folk. Here he was made to heal the stranger's father, a seal whom the hunter had wounded that morning. Only after swearing never to slay a seal again was the man given a safe conduct home.

In the old tales, it is often said that a Selkie can only take human form on certain nights in the year. Midsummer's eve. All Hallows. But the world makes up its stories for things they cannot understand; some say that Selkies were most often seen as humans on these days because they are more likely to come to the water's edge for their festivals and these are festival nights for all of the fae. Even in the time before the sundering selkies did not keep themselves totally apart from mortal folk. Male selkies were thought to have had many trysts with women, both married and unmarried. Selkie men tend to be quite handsome and charming with almost magical seductive powers over mortal women.

The oldest tales suggest that to call a selkie man, a mortal woman need simply shed seven tears or seven drops of blood into the sea at high tide. Many a woman was left forlorn and with child when her lover returned to the sea; and return he always did for the sea is his true home. After a seven year wait, selkies often returned to claim their children, sometimes callously offering a nurse's fee to the mother for caring for her own child. Sometimes these tales end in tragedy with the woman's mortal husband killing the selkie child he helped raise, mistaking it for a seal.

And, if the selkie men are attractive in the eyes of mortal women, selkie maids are no less charming in the estimation of men. More than a few young men either trick or try to steal a selkie-girl's seal skin and force the beautiful maiden to marry them, eventually siring children. Once separated from their skin, a selkie cannot return to the sea from which she was born until it is restored. These tales usually end sadly, though, for the pull of the sea on a selkie is relentless. Sometimes it is the children who return her skin to her, freeing her to return to her ancestral home, often taking them with her.

Selkie kinain are often known as the 'Sliocha nan Ron' or 'Sliechd nan Ron', meaning children or offspring of the seals. They are believed to be under the enchantment of the selkies and to carry the seal blood within them. An example of one such family are the MacCodrums of North Uist in the Western Islands. Fae blood runs thinly, though, and without consistency. However, it is said that some of these kinain can, in fact, take on the form of a seal with the proper magic. But, not being true changelings, once they have done so they can no longer return to live on the dry land. Often in the Hebrides local people have heard strange, sorrowful music out at sea that would move them deeply. This is the 'Dan nan Ron', the song of the seals, which was greatly feared for it was sung by both selkies and their kinain who had given up mortal form for the watery depths.

Selkies tend to be lithe and enticing. Their dress and manners tend to suggest a simple, innocent mind although Selkies of the Unseelie court may appear menancing and dark. They are usually dark of hair, brown or black, with darker skin than the typical Irish or Scottish folk who once lived on the shores they inhabited. They often have gentle, lilting voices. Transformed, they resemble nothing more than their sea-dwelling brethren. Selkies are often said to have thinly webbed fingers and toes and this is one of the distinguishing features of the MacCodrums.

There are eastern legends that might suggest that selkies are not the only fae who shared a world with their animal cousins. Haroun al Raschid, in the Arabian Nights, recounts a tale called the "The Melancholy Youth" with all of the same elements as as the more common tales of selkie maids. Forced to marry a young man who has taken her skin -- bathing maidens, the skins, the wedding, the flight --- all the essentials remain as they do in tales from Orkney and the Hebrides. But if these tales ring true, these fae of the dove must have been lost to the Dreaming for the stories are hundreds of years old and none more recent have come to light. Even the Eshu who share a common ancestry know no more recent stories of their plight