Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Plan B and other Reports Graduate Studies 5-2021 The Sea Calls: A Selkie's Liminal Existence Frances Avery Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports Part of the Celtic Studies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Avery, Frances, "The Sea Calls: A Selkie's Liminal Existence" (2021). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 1550. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/1550 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Plan B and other Reports by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SEA CALLS: A SELKIE’S LIMINAL EXISTENCE by Frances Avery A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in English Approved: ___________________________ ___________________________ Lynne S. McNeill, Ph.D. Beth Buyserie, Ph.D. Major Professor Committee Member ___________________________ Claudia Schwabe, Ph.D. Committee Member UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2021 ii Copyright © Frances Avery 2021 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT The Sea Calls: A Selkie’s Liminal Existence by Frances Avery, Master of Arts Utah State University, 2021 Major Professor: Lynne S. McNeill Department: English Traditionally, the selkies (or seal people) of Scottish-Irish lore exist between spaces: the land and the sea, human and animal, childbearing and childless. Their existence at sea is voluntary but their existence on land is forced. Once the selkie has left behind its sealskin and both the literal and metaphorical sealskin has been stolen, the selkie becomes subject to human will. The lenses of body, reclamation, violation, and abuse prove that the reason why selkies have faded from popularity is because the lessons are too mature for a young audience. A feminist and queer reading and interpretation of this traditional tale not only demonstrates the sexual and domestic subjugation that marginalized characters in folklore endure, but also explores the non-belonging that occurs when existing in the liminal. (56 pages) iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Lynne S. McNeill for her constant support, reinforcement, and guidance through this process of completing a master’s thesis. Additionally, I would like to thank my other committee members, Dr. Beth Buyserie, and Dr. Claudia Schwabe, for their care and assistance throughout the entire process. I give special thanks to my family and loved ones for supporting this wild endeavor, enduring endless hours of me sharing my research, providing myriad of pep talks, and being extremely patient during the emotional breakdowns and midnight caffeine purchases. I could not have achieved this without you. Thank you to my mother who introduced me to selkie stories, gave me a thousand pep talks, and has always and will always support my academic endeavors. Thank you for listening to me when I shared the latest discovery and addition to this thesis. Thank you for putting up with me as I wept in fear of not finishing. Thank you for watching The Secret of Roan Inish over and over again when I was a child. Thank you for braiding my hair just like Fiona’s. Thank you for encouraging me to live up to my potential. Thank you to the artists whose work I used throughout this thesis. Their willingness to offer their art and any commentary is greatly appreciated. Thank you to the women who came before me, both in my family and in this discipline, for trailblazing a path that I can follow. I am very blessed to have their guidance and love from near and far. v Finally, to young me: thank you for dreaming big, enduring trauma, and consistently forcing current me to be better, kinder, and smarter. Thank you for doing your best. Frances Avery CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................iv Introduction ......................................................................................................................3 Her Origins.......................................................................................................................8 Selkies in Film and Art ....................................................................................................12 Selkies, Subjugation, and Entrapment .............................................................................28 Duality..............................................................................................................................30 Liminal or Littoral............................................................................................................33 The Symbolism of Water .................................................................................................35 Violations of Agency, (Re)Capturing Herself, and the Orientations of Body .................37 Conclusion: What Selkies Teach Us Now .......................................................................45 References ........................................................................................................................47 List of Images ..................................................................................................................50 1 Figure 1: Selkie Soul, Caroline, The Mercurial Moon 2 “Once a selkie finds her seal skin again, neither chains of steel nor chains of love can keep her from the sea.” -Tadgh Coneelly, The Secret of Roan Inish 3 Introduction The story begins with a fisherman spying a lone seal upon a rock and, because seals do not normally bask alone, he watches it rest and then it begins to wriggle—a head emerges from the seal skin and then shoulders, a torso, hips, finally legs. A human woman steps out from her sealskin, neatly folds it up, leaves it on the rocks, and walks up the beach. Intrigued and under the spell of her intoxicating beauty and mystery, the fisherman picks up her sealskin and tucks it under his arm. As he does this, the selkie woman essentially becomes his property. She follows him to his house, he introduces her to his family, they fall in love (but perhaps that is induced by her sealskin being stolen,) get married, and have a litter of children. One day, several years after they establish their family, one of their children tells the selkie woman that they saw their father hiding an odd coat. Excited by this, the selkie woman runs to the house, finds her skin, and returns to her original ocean home never to be seen again except in her seal form; the only trait that is recognizable is her eyes. In essence, a man picks up the abandoned sealskin and the woman who would normally inhabit it is enslaved and made into a wife and mother without her consent; some magical power connects her to her skin, and she must follow it wherever it goes. Of course, there are many other versions of this story but this is the main plot associated with the traditional motifs B651.8 or B601.18 (Thompson); Christiansen’s migratory legend type ML 4080, ‘The Seal Woman’; or as a subtype of AT 400 (ATU 400), ‘The Man on a Quest for his Lost Wife.’ Donald Archie MacDonald classifies it, in his own classification scheme, as F75 ‘Man captures fairy woman by hiding her seal’s 4 skin (McEntire 126.) Other stories tell of a seal who is caught in a fisherman’s net and he saves her life; some stories state that the selkie is never held against her will; one story iterates that the woman the fisherman brings home from a faraway island is not a mythical creature, she is just from a different tribe. No matter how the story is told, the fact remains that the tale persists. The selkie herself persists because she is strong, independent, resourceful, resilient, persevering, sensual and sexual, unafraid, and self- reliant. The selkie woman has been alive for decades before me and she will live for decades after. The discipline of folklore recognizes that tales of the selkie persist over time, but the reason behind that continuing relevance is not immediately clear. Mermaid stories quickly gained popularity in literature and popular culture due to their more appealing main character, fast-paced story, and sexy depictions, but selkie stories have been here all along, just out of the limelight. It takes a little more digging to understand why the selkie story has remained on the backburner for so long. My own awareness of the selkie began when I was only six, by which time my wonderful mother had exposed me to all sorts of bizarre and slightly age-inappropriate forms of media: ballet, opera, the symphony, and odd and uncommon folklore. I lovingly blame her for my fascination with selkies. The Secret of Roan Inish (1995) was my favorite movie and I watch it today with the same awe and disbelief that I did when I saw it for the first time. The Irish landscape, the uncontrolled ocean, the lore, the music all captured me, and I could not look away—I would not look away. Every detail of the movie overwhelmed me, and I was in love. Now, as an adult, when I ask my mother why I was in love with the movie so much, she tells me that I loved Fiona’s hair, and then she changes