Rare Scottish Stories #8 The Seal Woman’s Stolen Skin - A Love Story?

The seal woman in human form.

In times of old here in Scotland, there lived a young crofter who worked a patch of land by the sea. To make a modest living, he sold his catch of crab and lobster and a few essential crops to locals. What he had wasn’t much by anyones standards but it was enough to keep him going for now. One evening as he went to retrieve his boat, he heard the voices of several women laughing and dancing on the shore, as lovely as the tinkling of bells. With long silken hair and a joyous nature, the crofter knew sure enough that these naked women must be selkies.

His instincts told him not to disturb their merriment so he peered over the rocks at the rare sight. Joining hands and dancing in a circle, the women did not notice the crofter making his way closer. It was then he noticed the seal skins, laid out carefully and individually, shimmering like warm oil on the rocks. As the sun began to set the crofter watched on in amazement and true, the women were all magnificent in their own way but one in particular caught his eye. This seal woman had long blonde hair that appeared almost golden and her pale, almost translucent skin was stained a rosy pink by the sunset. Her large eyes were as dark as the bottom of the sea and the crofter waited patiently for his moment. Lust had turned his heart selfish and curdled his sense of right and wrong. Still he waited.

The sun set turned the peaches and reds of the sky to a pale midnight blue and one by one, the seal women retrieved their skins, slipping them onto their slender bodies and returning to the sea. The last to do so was the object of the crofters affections and as the seal woman came to collect her skin, the crofter jumped up from his hiding place and stole away her skin from her hands. From the water, the seal women whimpered their distress but there was nothing they could do. As the seal women swam back off into the sea and disappeared, the head of a bull seal popped up from the still seawater and watched on with tears in his eyes - it was the husband of the women left on shore.

The seal woman begged and begged the crofter to please return her skin to her so that she could go back to her husband, her friends and her family in the sea but would not. He told her that he would be keeping her skin as he could not bear to never see her again. Instead he promised her that if she would become his wife, that he would make her very happy and care for her as long as she lived. The poor seal woman was trapped and reluctantly went back to his cottage, despair in her heart. The crofter tried to sooth her with kind words but the seal womens' heart longed for her old life. At the cottage, the crofter waited until the seal woman had fallen asleep and wrapped the skin in blankets, placed it in a wooden box, covered it in straw and hid it in a dark corner of the byre where she would never think to look. His new found love was true to him but not to his new wife that he had so heartlessly stolen from.

Over a decade passed and the couple had seven healthy children, which the woman was a fantastic mother to. She had made the little cottage a warm and loving home and the crofter worked hard to provide for his family. It is true to say that the crofter loved his wife with his whole heart and it was true that the woman had grown quite fond of him too and she was not unhappy. Needless to say, her heart still yearned for the sea and she could never allow herself to fully settle. Many a night when everyone in the cottage was asleep, the woman would tip toe out the door and go down to the shore and stare into the water. She hoped that one of her kin would show themselves but this never happened. Her heart longed for her first husband and life in the sea. As she looked out at the still water, she wondered if he had re-married and forgotten about her. Sighing in the stillness of the night, she would always return back to the cottage and slip back into bed with her human husband.

One day while the crofter was hard at work in the fields and she was preparing food for the children, one of her offspring came running into the kitchen proclaiming to have found a box! Inside he had found a skin and handed it dutifully to his mother. She took the soft waxy skin in her arms as her eyes filled with salty tears. She brought the fur to her face and breathed in the warm, salty scent of the sea. It was as luscious and warm as the day she had lost it all those years ago and finally a little piece of her former self had been returned to her.

When the crofter returned home later that night, he found a pot of soup boiling on the fire and all seven children sleeping soundly in their beds. There was no sign of his wife and suddenly a pang of fear struck his heart and his eyes widened in terror. He ran out to the byre and sure enough, the seal skin was gone. As was his wife.

It took years for the crofter to re-marry as he mourned the loss of his first wife and first love tremendously. Eventually his grief settled and he re-married a good, humble woman who loved his seven children like they were her own, made a warm and loving home. The crofter was content in his new life in many ways but each night, as the sun was setting, he would make his way down to the beach and look out across the water - hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman he could not claim as his own.

This is the classic Scottish love of the selkie and the crofter, treasured all around the world. It is a reminder that love cannot be forced and the natural course of life and destiny will always resume.

Na gabh an ni nach leatsa gu brath (Never take that which is not yours).