SWIMMING HISTORY
32 APRIL !"!# | Outdoor Swimmeraaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41 outdoorswimmer.com SWIMMING HISTORY
returned by inquisitive, eerily human eyes,” the Windsor Library notes. Over time, the concept of the selkie evolved into a mostly benign seal- human amalgamation. In the ocean, the creature is a seal. But when it hauls out of the sea, usually around the summer solstice, the animal can shed its seal skin and walk upright as a dazzlingly beautiful human. “Once ashore, the selkie-folk would cast o" their magical sealskins Leg!nds "f to become human, and bask in the sun on lonely stretches of sand,” the Library reports. “If the sealskin was lost, or stolen, however, the creature was doomed to remain in human form until the skin could be recovered, for it was the only way for the selkie to return to its original form, and hence to its home in the sea. Because the skin was so precious, selkies would hastily snatch them #he Selkies up and rush back into the safety of Tales of part-seal-part-human ‘seal folk’ the water if someone disturbed them while they were on land.” have long been part of northern European !e legends state that male selkies have remarkable powers of seduction, folklore. Elaine K Howley explores the stashing their sealskins in a safe place and making their way inland to bed enchanting stories of selkies and Finfolk human lovers. In search of unsatis$ed women, the selkie men pursued their that dwell mostly under the sea prey, with no regard to the marital status of the target. Women who disappeared while at sea or who were lost to the incoming tide were said to variety of tales related to transformed them into a semi- have run o" with a selkie man. selkies (part-seal-part- mythical race shrouded in mystery Selkie women, for their part, human creatures) populate and darkness,” the Windsor Library are also stunningly beautiful, the mythology of many reports. A classic story of a dominant though they’re typically cast as less Anorthern, coastal regions – Ireland, group “other-izing” people di"erent sexually voracious than their male Scotland, Iceland, and Denmark. And from themselves. counterparts. !ey’re also subject to these stories largely derive from tales As Norwegian sailors pushed the brutality of land-based men. of the Finfolk in Gaelic and westward in their expansion to the “Selkie lore is full of tales of Norse mythology. islands to the north and west – Iceland, cunning young men acquiring a According to information provided the Faroes, Orkney, and the Hebrides selkie-girl’s sealskin by the# or deceit. by the Windsor Public Library in – they brought stories of the Finnar !e poor creatures would be le# with Ontario, Canada, these legends trace with them. As happens with folklore, no choice but to marry their captors,” their roots back to the Sami people over centuries of retelling, the Finnar the Windsor Library reports. of Scandinavia, an indigenous and eventually shape-shi#ed into the !is distressing aspect of the nomadic people who roamed across Finfolk, a race of people who were as mythology harkens back to an era the northern-most parts of Norway, much at home in the sea as on land. when women were forced to rely Sweden, Finland, and Russia. “!e shape-shi#ing element of the on men for their existence. “How !e Sami lived separately and quite Finfolk detached and further evolved consensual can these marriages be di"erently from their Norwegian into a separate race of skin-shedding when he’s holding your skin hostage?” contemporaries. As pagans who selkie-folk,” the Windsor Library Levinson asks. practiced a shamanistic religion, reports. Selkie is the Gaelic word for O#en, these stories end with one the Sami’s near-magical powers and seal, and seals are a common sight of the selkie’s children discovering connection to nature elevated them from the various lands where the the hidden seal skin and the selkie to the status of sorcerers and became Vikings settled. “It’s quite common immediately returning to the sea. known as the Finnar of Old Norse for people on the shore to look out Sometimes the children go with her, mythology. Fearful of their natural over the water and see seal heads other times they remain behind to abilities, “Norwegian imagination bobbing above the waves, their gaze look a#er the human father. outdoorswimmer.com aaa0067e-a8ab-449b-bd64-4cceb84a8f41Outdoor Swimmer | APRIL !"!# 33 SWIMMING HISTORY