Creature Feature: Selkies

Selkies are a mythological race of seals who shed their skin to take human form. According to one website, they are gentle creatures, with the ability to transform from seals into beautiful, lithe humans. Some tales say they could transform only once a year, usually Midsummer's Eve, while others state it could be “every ninth night” or “every seventh stream”.

One thing common in most of the legends is the power of their seal skins. If the skins were stolen or lost, the selkie could never return to the sea. The hansome selkie males were blamed for a lot of dallying about with mortal maids and were said to be very handsome indeed. Selkie women were often the tragic figures of trickery where a mortal man would steal her seal skin and force her to marry him. Often those legends ended sadly when one of her children would return the stolen skin and either return with her to the sea or stay with the human father on land forevermore.

Either way, selkies in human form were said to be beautiful and almost irresistable to the opposite sex. Maybe that's why there have been a few romance novels with selkie heroes of late. Writers looking for new kinds of shapeshifters to write about have rediscovered the selkie and all the magic they possess.