Unreal Tales; Part 1- Seal Legends
If you haven't heard, I wrote a novel. It's still a relatively undeveloped baby novel. It was officially born a week or two ago when I sent it to my first round of beta readers after a gestation period of just over a year. (Okay, I'm done. but I definitely understand why they call it a book baby!) This first round of readers were people like best friends, mothers, and soft-hearted writers who will be gentle but point out where things don't make sense. After fixing those issues, I'll get in front of some more critical eyes before pursuing an agent,
This story is a modern spin-off of some old legends. Most of it takes place underwater! To write a fantasy with ancient roots that also feels modern and real, I did A LOT of research. My search history includes things such as 'which types of coral live in arctic waters', 'what it feels like to drown', 'offensive battle strategies for out-numbered forces', plus all kinds of maritime mythology. (Fun fact, one of the tactics used is called 'the pincer', as in crab claw. The name never comes up, but I found that entertainingly ironic!)
Since I dug up so much interesting information, I thought I'd share some of it with you. Though I may share about the species in the book, I'd like to do a few posts about the blurry creatures I read about. What do I mean, blurry creatures? What do photos and footage of presumed bigfoot look like? Blurry. Space ships? Blurry. Mermaids? Blurry. Giants? Blurry. They're all blurry creatures. (Full Credit to Nate & Luke! Check out the Blurry Creatures Podcast people!)
Some people are skeptical of their existence. Others insist they are real. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being no way, Jose' and 10 being I know right where to find one), where do you fall?
So what blurry creatures do we have for today? Selkies & Muckle Men.
Like mermaids, seal legends seem to be often but not exclusively associated with females. A selkie was believed to be a seal that could shed its hide and become a woman on land. If a man could locate her hide and keep it, the woman would be his mate. Selkie wives were supposedly good wives and mothers, though they always longed for the sea. If she ever found her seal skin, a selkie woman would don it and return to her watery home without a second thought for her husband or children.
Selkies were associated with people in Ireland who had dark hair that contrasted with the rest of their fair-haired countrymen. Little peek into the Johnson love story: Nic has often teased this sea-gazing wife of his that he'll never let me find my seal fur. Last summer in Oregon a man walked up to Nic and said told him he was a selkie. He said he could see Irish genes in Nic's face (He wasn't wrong!) and said his 100% Irish mother would have picked Nic out of a crowd. He was surprised that he didn't have to explain the legend to us and I think all of our hearts smiled.
This leads me to male seals. Many of the legends called these muckle men. Fisherman and sealers in the British Isles regularly brought back tales of a specific seal, one they could identify by an injury or mark, whom they saw in human form in a harbor town. For instance, sealers would say they stabbed or bludgeoned a seal but it got away with their weapon in their flesh or in their mouth. After some time, a man in a little fishing town a man would hand them their weapon and say something like "don't ever do that again" sometimes plainly claiming that they were that seal. Like many blurry creatures of years gone by, these seal-men and seal-women were associated with giants or magical men called Fionn or Finn. Unfortunately for every Finnish man that ever wanted to make his livelihood on the water, Finns were associated with unpredictable magic that could bring on bad weather and unfavorable winds.
Because of such tales, sealing was frowned upon. This taboo was not limited to the British Isles. In fact, nearly everywhere that seals lived, they were associated with something a little magical and killing them had a very negative connotation. The modern narrative tends to explain this by saying those cultures probably saw a little too much humanity in seals.
I'm not going to lie, even though I love selkie stories, when I see fat harbor seals hanging out on the rocky prominences just offshore, I don't think they look particularly human or even magical. But I love them just the same.
One interesting thing to note, regarding typical "blurry" tales from across the ancient world: As I mentioned, many things we would consider paranormal were associated with races of giants, specifically the descendants of biblical giants- children of men and supernatural beings. From Asia to South America to Northern Europe, those giants were often described with red hair and fair skin. They would have been an obvious contrast to the dark-haired, darker-skinned indigenous peoples, obvious to be noted in historical writings from all over the globe. Yet in this tale, it seems reversed. Interesting right? Could these myths have included genetic engineering to stand out from the local people, no matter their appearance? Could the fair-colored giant stories be so prevalent because most of the locations were populated with dark-complected individuals?
Exploring myths and legends and cross-checking them with history and archaeology is so fun! The adventure is endless. And so are the stories waiting to be told.
Thanks for reading! Soon we'll explore mermaids, lake monsters (like Nessie, but there's more!!), ocean monsters, and relics from ancient Eurasia in the Bering Strait! Don't forget to comment below with your 1-10 blurriness rating.
