"The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry" is a traditional folk ballad from Orkney. I was recently lucky enough to hear a retelling of the embellished version: "The Play of the Lady Odivere". Native Orcadian, Tom Muir wove the tale so beautifully, impressing his listeners with his knowledge of the poems history.
Odin: The Germanic Pagan God
It is more than ninety stanzas long, opening with "in Norway land their lived a maid". That maid had wealth and beauty, which attracted suitors from across the globe keen to take her hand in marriage, but the maid was not easily won, uninterested she sent them packing. Word of this fair lady reached a man named Odivere: broad and strong, with an ego to match. Odivere was determined to win the heart of the wealthy fair maid. He wooed her. He wed her. And for a short while they were blissfully happy.
Odivere claimed his success was due to "The Odin Oath" (an unbreakable pact, made by ancient Orcadians) at the site of "The Odin Stone". But Odivere was not made for settling down, or marriage, and he soon became bored. Seeking adventure he headed off too war in the holy land, leaving Lady Odivere alone, waiting for her husband to return.
One night there was a knock at Lady Odivere's front door; it was a handsome knight, dressed for battle. He asked to speak with the lady of the house, but was abruptly turned away. Undeterred, he pulled a heavy gold ring from his pocket, insisting he had word from Sir Odivere (as he was now known). Lady Odivere agreed to see the knight, who said her husband had slain many soldiers, caused others to flee and in doing so, caught the eye of many fair maidens. Sir Odivere was seemingly in no hurry to return home. The hint at her husbands disloyalty was ignored, instead Lady Odivere ordered a banquet be prepared, with the finest food and red wine. As they ate and drank, the knight told Lady Odivere more stories from the Holy Land. Once the feasting was finished, and the servants all gone to bed, the pair spent the night together. But by the morning, Lady Odivere was alone once more.
Nine months passed. Lady Odivere bore a son, who she loved and cherished, but was fearful of the repercussions, because the child was not her husbands. One night, the babies father appeared at the end of Lady Odiveres bed. He had come for his son and heir, insisting he would return in six months with the nourice fee (a wet nurses fee). Lady Odivere demanded he tell her his name, and where he was from.
"My name is San Imravoe, a man on land, a selkie at sea, king of Soola-Skerry."
Lady Odivere did not want to part with her son, but was also terrified what her husband would do when he eventually returned, so she reluctantly agreed.
Six months passed, and true to his word, the selkie king returned for his son and heir. Distraught, Lady Odivere begged to go with them, but was denied. A long time before, when San Imravoe wanted her to leave with him, Lady Odivere wouldn't. Now, Lady Odivere wanted to leave with San Imravoe, and she couldn't. She tied a gold necklace (a wedding present from her husband) round her sons neck; a little piece of her to take with him. Lady Odivere's heart broke when her son left. This was her punishment, for a wife's infidelity.
Eventually, Sir Odivere returned home. One day, growing bored as before, he decided to go hunt otters on the shore. While doing so, a selkie appeared. Odivere swiftly killed him. Never before had he seen one with gold in its hair. He returned home, with the selkies body, and a menacing dark fury. He called for his wife, demanding she come see what he had caught. Her distress, on seeing her sons lifeless body, was heart breaking. Odivere demanded why this selkie had his wedding gift to her. The couple argued: Odivere furious his wife had bore a child with another, his wife venting years of frustration, being left alone with the knowledge her husband pursued many infidelities.
But it was a time when men carried all the power, Lady Odivere was locked in a tower, and would soon be burnt at the stake, for betraying her husband. Mourning her son, and desperate, she wished her parents were alive, to help free her from her plight. Her parents ghosts did not appear. However, the day before Lady Odivere was due to die San Imravoe, selkie king of Soola Skerry, father of Lady Odivere's son, called all the whales in the North Sea. Odivere gathered all his men and out to sea they rowed in boats, but not one whale did they catch. On returning home, every door was open, and Lady Odivere was gone, to Skoola-Skerry with selkie king San Imravoe.
Below, is a copy of the original text "The Play of the Lady Odivere" and an adapted version, written by Kate Fletcher and Corwen Broch, which I sourced on their website www.ancientmusic.co.uk.
My first introduction to selkie stories was: "The Selkie Wife".
It was sunset on an isolated beach, where a handsome man repaired his fishing nets. As he did so, he desperately wished to find a wife, and rid himself of loneliness. A short time later, from the next bay, the man heard voices and merriment. He crept to some rocks and looked on. There dancing, were a group of beautiful women. They were the selkie people: seals at sea, taking human form on land. Mesmerised, the man considered those women the answer to his prayers, and he made the decision one of those women would be his wife. Upon the beach, nearby the women dancing, lay a pile of selkie skins. The man slowly, silently crept up and stole one; then he returned home.
It would not be long before there was hammering on his door.
"My skin, my skin, give me back my skin. I need my skin, I can't return home without it."
The woman continued to knock on the door in a desperate lament, but the man did not open the door, nor did he return her skin.
Dawn came, and the sun rose up in the east. The man, finally opened his door, and invited the selkie inside. But he did not give back her skin, which he had hidden in the eaves of his cottage. The selkie stayed. A week passed before she ate. A month passed before she stopped crying. Within a year a baby had arrived: healthy and bonnie. Loved by both parents, the child grew up, happy and strong.
Years later, the child is hiding in the eaves of the cottage, and she finds her mother's selkie skin, that her father had stolen and hid years earlier. With the skin in her hand she goes to her mother. "What is this?" Overwhelmed, a tear forms in her mother's eye. The selkie sweeps up her daughter, with her skin and embraces them both. Will she stay? Or will she leave? Then she tells her daughter she will always love her, before walking out the door. The selkie runs down to the skerry with her skin. There she leaps into the air, twists into her skin, and dives into the sea, returning home.
Acknowledgements: Tom Muir, Sigurd Towrie, Kate Fletcher, Corwen Broch.
Add comment
Comments