Her Eyes Held all The Mourning of the Darkest Sea Artwork

Lost in the Rabbit Hole

This is a podcast about some of the lesser known things, maybe-hidden things, found deep inside of tales that we give over to our children sometimes without even thinking about it. Join me as I travel over, under, around, and through some of the better and some of the lesser known folktales. You may be surprised about what you hear!

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Lost in the Rabbit Hole

Her Eyes Held all The Mourning of the Darkest Sea

March 04, 2021 • Kat Kiefer-Newman • Season 1 • Episode 5

In this episode we wander along the coastlines of many Northern places; these are often stark and lonely places, the people who live there quiet to outsiders, but somehow a tale is always shared around a campfire as the whiskey passes from hand to hand.

The tales of of the SEAL PEOPLE, the special magical selkies sometimes called silkies, sometimes thought to be quite different from the seals you normally see tearing apart your fishing nets. Don't run afoul of these beings or you might rue the day! Legend has it that these are the beings made from the souls of the drowned, those lost at sea, now magically changed.

Join me on this little walk as we share the tale of the Seal People.

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REFERENCES
Episode title is from, "The Selkie Wife's Daughter", Jeannine Hall Gailey. 2006. "Jeannine Hall Gailey's poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Rattle, Columbia Poetry Review, and other journals. The poem, which is based on selkie legends, first appeared in Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books, 2006). For more information, visit the author's blog."

Tales of the Seal People, Duncan Williamson, 1992; 2019. "A collection of 14 selkie (half-seal half-human creatures) tales from the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern tip of Scotland which embrace the fantasy, romance and unusual perspective of the Scottish travellers."

On Mermaids, Meroveus, and Melusine; Reading the Irish Seal Woman and Melusine as Origin Legend, Gregory Darwin (August 2015), Folklore Journal issue 126. "‘The Seal Woman’, a migratory legend attested throughout north-western Europe, is commonly associated with particular families in Ireland. A structural reading of this legend reveals similarities with other tales and dynastic origin myths involving supernatural, aquatic female ancestor figures, and identifies similar social functions for such narratives."

David Thomson (2018) The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk: "Introduced by Seamus Heaney, The People of the Sea brings to life the legend of the mythical selchies, in beautiful, poetic prose."

Want more selkie tales? Visit Orkneyjar, a website curated by folk enthusiasts and those historically minded. You can read many tales here, some selkie, and find out more just in general about these kinds of stories.

WILDERNESS IRELAND, “Irish Myths & Legends Part 4: The Selkie,” Dawn Rainbolt. This is just a super fun website with stories and little facts and more.