The Selkie Bride of the Scottish Coast: Steal Her Skin, and She Cannot Leave

On the islands north of Scotland, old fishermen have told such a story.

At night, the moon was bright, and a group of seals crawled onto the beach, took off their skins, laid them on the rocks, turned into beautiful women, and danced on the sand.

A young fisherman passing by saw it and quietly stole one of the skins, hiding it at home. When the dance was over, the other women put on their skins and returned to the sea, but only the one who had lost hers remained on the shore, crying. The fisherman took her home and married her.

She bore him several children and was always gentle, yet she often stared blankly at the sea at night. Many years later, one day, a child rummaged through things in the house, found a gray skin, and showed it to his mother. She hugged the child once, put on the skin, and returned to the sea.

The fisherman never saw her again. Some say that when he rowed out to sea, seals would always swim beside the boat, with a familiar look in their eyes.

Such stories are most widespread in the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands, where they call such women "selkies." Further north, in the Faroe Islands, there is a similar story called "The Seal Woman," and in the village of Mikladalur on the island, a bronze statue stands by the sea: a woman half-human and half-seal, with her back to the village and facing the sea, holding a skin in her hand.

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