Please read the author's notes first.
WEAKER THAN WATER
"What's weaker than water?" When we in the mead hall
Heard our king's question quite quickly we thought.
Spoke up a stranger then, sat at the sideboards,
Not a near neighbour, nobody we knew,
"What's weaker than water? Well I will answer.
The tale is a traveller's tall tale I tell.
Water seems weaker than what you are drinking;
So seems the tide-stream when seen on the ebb;
Coastline consider, because the tide's flowing,
Till tide-turn tomorrow, strength takes to the flood;
Softly but steadily, slack water tightening,
Running up river in runnels by reeds.
"Swum in on spring tide, lands selkie by reed-bed,
Lost to the lapping waves, looking for love;
Sheds her soft selkie skin, man's desire seeking;
Dances till daybreak on dunes bonnie lass.
Girl o' the Gods, Aegir was her father,
Rarely restrained from a romp in the sea,
Lover though, searches the length o' the littoral,
Holding her hide hid, binds her to dry land.
"Living on lover's land, lovelorn for ocean's
Mysterious motion that makes the main rock,
Hears the wind hollering, howling in sympathy,
Begs her beloved to bring her hide back.
Loath to let love's light forever be lost because
She'd gang to sea awa' could she but swim,
Needs now her nearness to nurture their family,
Ranting, refused he her raw skin's return.
"Seeing her sad, their son seizes the selkie skin,
Folded by fireside he'd found in a nook;
Lately he'd looked on her lover admiring it;
Duty divides him now doubly distraught.
Filial faithfulness, first off, his duty there
Favours his father, he folds back the skin.
Mother's mad mis'ry might move his compassion,
Touched by tears, torn in two, takes her hide back.
Wrathful, hands wringing there, rages his father,
Losing the love of his life by distraint,
Gratitude graciously gifted by mother
Since in her selkieskin clad she can swim.
"Casting off clothing, unclad for her freedom,
She slips on her selkieskin: 'Swim, selkie, swim.'
Turning, wi' tide's ebb she takes off to liberty,
Summoned through surf by the sound o' the sea.
Leaving her lost love forlorn, on land keening,
Waves her farewell on wild water awa'.
You, king, are you yelping yet yesterday's question:
'What's weaker than water?' Muckle mair than you wit! "
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Author Notes
The selkie myths (selkie being Scots dialect for seal), are well known in many North European folk cultures under various names. This makes the alliterative verse form of the Anglo Saxons (the oldest written poetic form in the English language) appropriate to their retelling here. The medieval device of linking verses with a single word, phrase or even syllable hook that similarly links final and opening lines, is also employed here to give circularity to the whole piece. The central feature of most of these myths is that, having taken human form, selkie cannot return to the sea until they have put their selkie skins back on.
Aegir is the Norse sea god and I use his name under poetic license here as there is no record that I can find of his fathering any selkie, but given the proclivities of these deities, I wouldn't place it beyond the bounds of possibility.
The lover's need for the human selkie to nurture their family may smack of male chauvinism to the modern ear, but this is a tale of antiquity, where gender-orientated roles were more clearly defined than is the case today.
Probably the saddest feature of this story is that, despite being held by the fisherman against her will the union with the selkie is actually a happy one; in one version she bears him seven sons!
The final sentence of the poem is written in the full Scots dialect that I have used sparingly, in the interests of accessiblity - have you ever tried to read Robert Burns? But this is the punch line, so I felt it needed some authenticity. It translates as Much more than you know! A modern Scot would probably say ken rather than wit but then he doesn't have to alliterate!
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