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Paper short abstract

This paper explores contemporary cultural retellings of traditional selkie lore to reflect on the environmental messages articulated by the sonic dimension of seal stories.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores contemporary cultural retellings of traditional selkie lore to reflect on the environmental messages articulated by the sonic dimension of seal stories. Earlier studies suggested that the ‘[t]he plaintive-sounding barking of the seal would to primitive man hardly seem to lack overtones of human emotion’ (Puhvel 1963), to explain the wide-spread of seal-people legends across northern Europe. A close inspection of the sonic dimension of contemporary responses to selkie stories reveals a very nuanced spectrum of verbal (including dialogue and song) and non-verbal communication (ranging from silence to animal sounds), which arguably reflects the ambiguity and complexity of folkloric tales. On one hand, both the selkie’s elusive silence and verbal communication – and especially when selkies articulate their own voices – may draw attention to the boundary that separates the humans’ dry land and the selkies’ water, whilst questioning anthropocentric views on the environment. On the other hand, non-verbal communication, significantly performed in the liminal space that is the shore, frequently offers an attempt to break down binary human/animal categorical distinctions and, simultaneously, move beyond anthropocentrism altogether. Among others, this paper will make references to both verbal and non-verbal communication and sounds in Eric Linklater’s short story ‘Sealskin Trousers’ (1947), Amy Sackville’s novel Orkney (2013), Roseanne Watt’s poetry in Moder Dy (2019), Hanna Tuulikki’s sonic and choreographic performance Seals’kin (2022), Ellie Schmidt’s video works Three Selkie Songs (2022), and Nora Feingschidt’s film The Outrun (2024).