Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

The Seal’s Skin and the saga of Guðmundr Arason entail animistic ideas. Both stories contain a seal that can be seen as a hybrid, half-seal and half-human. The talk analyses human and animal characteristics, relations with humans and discovers different perspectives connected with the seals.

Paper long abstract

In animist beliefs, animals have a similar interiority to humans, and they confirm social relationships, have ethical precepts and norms as humans do (Descola, 2014, 129). Still, they are different from humans in their bodily form (2014, 138). In addition, animals have human qualities such as intentionality and knowledge of language. This talk presents beings on the borderlands between humans and animals: supernatural seals in the Icelandic texts that can take both seal and human forms. Do the seals' characters conform social relationships with humans, and can they be connected with systems of attitudes? Do they have human behaviour?

The examples discussed stem from two texts: Selkolla from Gudmundar Arasons saga, and a seal woman from a folk tale. In the saga of Guðmundr Arason, the metamorphosis isn’t permanent, and Selkolla can take different bodily forms: a seal-headed demon, Vigdis, or even a horse bone. The seal described in a folk tale can also take a human form, but the transformation is more constrained: when a farmer steals her seal skin, the seal maiden cannot return to her seal form. After the transformation, she also has a personhood and inward being that make her more human than an animal. In this tale, a clear animist ontology is evident. The seal-headed demon can also be seen as a person. However, another perspective can be seen in her demonic nature. Both texts contain animistic ideas, metaphorical symbols, and show seals as animals and humans with personhood in a broader or narrower sense.