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.

No stories were more potent, more engaging, more subtle or profound than these half-animal, half-human tales of the sea. Time and time again listeners enthralled by Duncan Williamson's lore would ask him for the silkie tale. Duncan grew up with the seals, slept nights stranded by the tide in their colonies, heard countless stories from crofters, fishermen and travellers alike about the strange people who were related to the seal; the silkie stories magically link the two worlds, animal and human, sea and land. This new and expanded edition contains twenty-four stories, including thirteen that are previously unpublished, with a new introduction by Linda Williamson which examines the background of the West Highland belief in the seal people. The Land of the Seal People is a work of a master narrator, Scotland's greatest contemporary storyteller. The book is adult fiction of high intellectual and literary standards, and, as Scottish folk tales, suits children and adults alike. From the oral tradition of the West Coast, these stories are a vital part of Scotland's heritage.

David Thomson visited the remote sea coasts of the Scottish Isles and the West of Ireland on journeys in search of the legends of the selchies - mythological creatures who transform from seals into humans. A magical world emerged, in which men are rescued by seals in stormy seas, take seal-women for their wives and have their children suckled by seal-mothers. Mysterious and fascinating, these stories retain their spellbinding charm through Thomson's beautiful prose. The People of the Sea is a timeless and haunting book, rich in rewards and surprises.

A fisherman named Ewan falls in love with a selkie--half-woman, half-seal--who bears him two children before returning to her own people below the waves. Reprint.

An Irish storyteller revisits the little-known legend of the Mermaid Saint in a haunting, beautifully illustrated tale of kindness, music, and longing. Long ago, on the eastern coast of Ireland, a monk from the Abbey of Bangor was collecting driftwood along the wave-tossed shore when he found a boy washed up amid a circle of seals. At first the boy, wrapped in a shawl of woven seagrass, could barely move or speak. But when he regained his strength, he recalled being brought ashore by a lady with long golden hair who sang him to safety and gave him a silver ring. The monks knew the legend of a mermaid who had wandered the coast for three hundred years. Could it possibly have been her? Inspired by a story told in medieval chronicles of Irish history about a wondrous happening in the year 558, debut author Marianne McShane weaves a captivating tale, while Jordi Solano captures the legend’s spare but welcoming abbey on the rocky shore — a setting that makes you believe that if you listen hard enough, you too can hear the mermaid’s song.

ELIN JEAN HAS always known she was different from the others on their remote island home. She is a gentle soul, and can’t stand the annual tradition of killing seal babies to thin the population. Even Tam McCodron, the gypsy boy to whom she is strangely drawn, seems to belong more than she does. It’s just a matter of time until Elin Jean discovers the secret of her past: her mother, Margaret, is a selkie, held captive by her smitten father, who has kept Margaret’s precious seal pelt hostage for 16 years. Soon Elin Jean faces a choice about whether to free her mother from her island prison. And, as the child of this unusual union, she must make another decision. Part land, part sea, she must explore both worlds and dig deep inside herself to figure out where she belongs, and where her future lies. Poignant, meaningful, and romantic, Selkie Girl is a lyrical debut about a mesmerizing legend.

Folk and fairy tales come from all around the world, but Scottish stories have an age-old atmosphere which sets them apart. The fourteen in this collection are varied and each has at least one classic folk talk ingredient - fairies, ghosts, wizards, sea monsters, frog-princes, mermaids and tiny green men are just some of the characters to be found in these ancient legends.