SELKIE

The selkie folk live in the cold northern waters around the isles of Great Britain. They have two forms. In the sea, they are as seals and move swiftly and smoothly through the water in their sleek, furry bodies. But when they come to land, they shed this skin to reveal their human form, which is generally quite beautiful.

Should someone capture the skin of a selkie, the creature is then in his or her captor’s power, and many the tale is told of a female selkie forced to marry a human man. Some of these marriages are happy, some not, but always there is a part of the selkie’s heart that longs to return to the water and once more be a seal in the sea.

A human woman may summon a male selkie by shedding seven tears into the sea at high tide. Though these sea‐men tend to be very handsome, generally such meetings do not end well.

—Abelard Chronicus, Gnome