Once upon a time, in the cold northern lands, a weary hunter was returning home, late at night. His journey took him close to the seashore, where the full moon bathed the waters and the sands shone white as pearl. He pushed through the bushes and then, to his amazement, saw three beautiful women dancing naked, where the waves rippled about their slender feet.
Memorized, the hunter watched, and it seemed to him that eerie music played in the light sea-breeze. He looked down, and there on the sands lay three seal-skins, one for each of the graceful dancers. The hunter had heard tales of seal-women, whose soulful eyes betrayed the fact that they had human souls. He was lonely, and longed for a wife to share his nights. He looked again at the lovely dancers and, on impulse, seized on of the skins and buttoned it up inside his jerkin.
The dance was ending. With silvery laughter the women skipped over to retrieve their skins, slipping inside them and diving into the waves. Only one, the most beautiful of all, could not find her skin and was looking for it in increasing panic as the hunter confronted her.
"I have your skin," he told her. "Come with me and marry me. I will give you back your skin after seven years, and you may do as you please." Secretly, the hunter believed that the seal-woman would be so happy with him that she would give up all thoughts of the cold ocean in favor of the warmth of his hearth. How little he understood the call of the waves and their haunting music.
What could the poor seal-maiden do? She consented and went away with the hunter, and they lived together happily enough. She did all that was expected of her. Only her huge, gray eyes were distant, gazing every so often toward the sea. She bore the hunter a son and loved him dearly, but her skin grew dry and cracked, and her beautiful face was sad. At the end of seven years she came to her husband and begged for her seal-skin, but he became angry. "Would you leave your son?" He challenged her. "Would you go and disappear into the waves?"
The seal-woman became even quieter and more sorrowful, and her eyes became larger and larger, like great pools. Yet never did she shed a tear, for some sorrows are too great for crying. Her son loved her dearly and did all he could to cheer her up. He listened to his parents talking and realized the truth about his mother. Unable to bear the thought of her unhappiness, he took to following his father around stealthily, until one day he saw him dig up a seal-skin, check that it was intact and inter it again.
The boy was overjoyed. Now he could make his mother smile. He waited until his father was out hunting and returned to where the skin was buried. Swiftly, he dug it up and ran with it to his mother. How her gray eyes shone when she saw her skin. Hardly stopping to embrace the boy, she ran toward the shore, where she slipped into the skin and made for the waters. The boy ran after her, crying, "Mother, don't leave me--please take me with you!" For an instant the seal-woman hesitated. Then she caught hold of the boy, breathed her magic breath into him and carried him with her, beneath the waves.
In the underwater world, the boy learnt many wondrous things, absorbing the wisdom and grace of his mother's people. But he knew he could not stay for ever, for his destiny lay in the earthly world, with his father. When the time was right, his mother took him back to the shore and, kissing him for the last time, took sorrowful leave of him.
The devastated hunter was overjoyed to see his boy back again, and helped him to adapt once more to life on land. But every time the lad looked out at the moonlit strand, he could feel the presence of his mother. At length he became a renowned musician, and his greatest pleasure was to sit upon the beach and play, while the seal-people cavorted far out on the waves.
What the story means
The story of the Selkie comes from the Scottish Islands of Orkney and Shetland. There are several versions, which vary slightly, but they all have the same theme. The hauntingly beautiful Selkies were known to mate occasionally with humans and to awaken in them a yearning for the Otherworld. Inevitably, the union ended in tragedy, for the Selkie must return to her watery home and, if trapped, eventually escaped, just as water runs from between the fingers of a cupped hand.
The story shows that the greatest gift arising from a mating between a human and fairy is creative inspiration. It is a mistake to try to control and imprison the elusive magic of the fairy, for that is to destroy the very thing one loves--and it is courting disaster to break a promise, as the hunter-husband did. However, in the son of the huntsman and the Selkie, the fairies' gifts are realized, for he is able to play the most enchanting music, which is one of the ways we have of bridging the gap between this world and the Otherworld
The sea represents emotions, but these are not just personal emotions and ordinary human bonds. The sea signifies the longings of humanity--all the memories and feelings of the ages that are too overwhelming, too deep ever to be cast aside by a being as sensitive as the Selkie. She belongs to the collective emotional pool, and she must dance the dance of Life--she has far more to experience than simply the domestic joys of marriage and motherhood. For us, the Selkie represents the longing of the soul for its true home, which may be very distant and different from our everyday home. The Selkie teaches us to listen to the deepest songs of our heart and to follow its yearnings, for only ni that way can we find peace.
The message of the Selkie is there for you--in the grey and green, the purple and wine of the northern ocean, as it swirls around pewter rocks and ripples out to meet the misty horizon. Hear the call of your heart, but first understand that you must be honest with yourself. If you are keeping up appearances in order to feel secure and accepted, you may be paying too heavy a price. Don you seal-skin and have the courage to plunge into the waves.
No comments:
Post a Comment