Inquiring minds want to know.....what is a Selkie.......
Selkies (silkies, selchies, roane) are seal people, shape-shifters, living in the seas off of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, and along the many coasts if Ireland.
When a Selkie comes ashore, they remove their seal skins and hid it well. Should a human find the hidden skin and manage to hide it from the Selkie, the two are bound together. But if at any time, the Selkie finds the hidden skin, the Selkie returns to the sea, the home that it's been long for.
Some old folks say the Selkies are like magical spirits, that they once were fallen angels who were condemned to live in the sea, while others folks insist they were once were human beings or the souls of people who were drowned at sea and allowed to re-appear as humans one night every year.
As a theatre company living in the two worlds of America and Ireland, we fell in love with these stories, tales of transformation, of changelings, of shape-shifters - not unlike theatre itself
Two beautiful films inspired by the old Selkie tales are The Secret Of Roan Inish and the recent Ondine. We highly recommend them both! We will re-visit some our favorite Selkie tales with you in the coming months on this blog...Thank you, Julie! GBM / 7-24-11
