"The Selkie and the Blacksmith" by Dolphin Silverwolf (a.k.a. Chris Rosenbaum)

            Sit down, child, sit down by the fire. Oh ho ho, yes, I’m sorry, you hate being called “child,” my girl. It is your twelfth birthday. I am so old now. I don’t look it? Well, I am flattered. You see getting older doesn’t mean you have to grow old. I am still strong, I can still swing a hammer or a sword if need be. I must give you your birthday present. Come, sit, I will tell you a story. One might call it a faerie tale…but that would imply it never really happened. Oh, this did. This did. It happened many years ago.

            You’ve heard the tales of the selkies, child? Ah, not like this. You see, we know how the seal-folk are…in the sea, they are seals, lithe living bodies under the waves, happy and carefree. Sometimes they come onto land like seals do…but selkies shed their skin, you see. They shed their skins and become the most beautiful lads and lasses you ever did see. Their beauty is so enchanting that men have tried to steal the skins of the selkie-folk to take the beautiful maidens for their wives. For a selkie without her skin is bound to the land, and bound to the man who captured her skin. She falls in love with the man and becomes a loving wife, but never forgets her first love, the ocean. When she finds her seal skin, she will leave for the ocean, never to return. Human maidens have cried seven tears into the ocean to meet a handsome selkie lad…but they cannot bring themselves to steal the skin. They pine for the selkie, and slit their wrists into the water, hoping to join themselves to the sea and become selkies. Nobody knows if they are right, or just driven to madness. Ah, this story begins much like the old tales…but it doesn’t end there.

            There was once a blacksmith named Ryan, who lived in a distant village long ago. He was expert in his trade, his skill and strength known for miles around. His horseshoes never threw, the anchors and chains he made for the ships never failed, and it was said that the blades he forged held their edge longer than any other. You have one of his blades now, it has been in our family for some time. Ryan had a few apprentices who since went on to become well-known smiths in other villages.

            But Ryan was a lonely man. His devotion to his trade left an empty space in his heart, a space he longed to fill. He was also a shy man when it came to matters of love. Always being taught in the trade of the smith, he’d never had much experience with women. You don’t believe he could be that occupied? Ah, he was taught very well. Too well. For the longest time he knew the forge and the anvil. He started out his apprenticeship as a weakling, mocked and teased as a runt. But he was dedicated, driven to learn, and he grew up to be the strongest man in the village. Alas…very lonely he was.

            One day, when working on the forge, cruel fate struck. Ryan was hard at work on an anchor for one of the local fishermen when suddenly the head of his hammer broke from the wood. It was his first hammer, you see, but had always been dependable. However while the steel was hard, the wood was not, and its years of use finally caught up with it. When he swung the hammer up to bring a blow, the head snapped off and caught him in the arm. His own strength was enough to break his own arm.

            Clutching his arm, nary an expression on his face, he headed straight to the village healer. Ryan had been in fights when a drunkard had decided to throw a punch to the blacksmith, and never taken a scratch…yet his own hammer broke his arm. The healer bade him to sit while he looked. “Ah, it’s not that bad, but it is broken,” the healer said. “You’ll need to have this in a splint and sling for a while, I’m afraid.”

            “For how long?” Ryan asked. “Without both arms, I cannot work the steel. And there are no children in the village yet old enough to be my apprentice.”

            The healer chuckled. “We will send word to the nearby village if we have pressing needs of a smith until your bones mend. But you, you must rest your arm for now. Don’t worry about your livelihood, the village speaks highly of you and will come to your aid.”

            Yet only a day after he had his arm splinted, Ryan missed the forge. He still went there on Sundays to worship. Ryan’s family once believed in the old ways, you see, but they had to change lest the village cast them out. Ryan disliked the crowded church, so he put up a cross in his shop. The other people at times thought he was a sinner by not coming into church to worship, but his work was so well crafted, even the work done on Sunday, that when people came into his shop and saw the cross they believed that he had been blessed and gave thanks through his good works. Yet Ryan’s faith was tested when his arm broke, and today all he did was stare at the cross on the wall.

            Later that day he went out into the sunlit village and decided to take a walk on the beach to take his mind off his arm. He took a deep inhalation of the salt air and looked over the rolling green hills behind the village, then turned to see the blue-green sea just down the dirt path. Ryan walked down to the seashore, feeling the breeze in his red hair. He walked down the shore, away from the wharf and the fishing boats moored there. His travels seemed to on, he was lost in himself, hearing the cry of the gulls as they glided back and forth over the shoreline, until he came to an outcropping of rocks.

            Ryan ducked as quickly as he could when he saw what was beyond them, as he did not want to scare them away. Selkies lay upon the shore, sunning themselves. Their seal skins were set aside, glistening pelts of brown and gray. Some rolled over lazily to catch more of the sun on their bodies. Ryan was entranced. Then he saw her, the girl with the beautiful selkie-gray eyes and brown hair. She lay there unashamed, carefree, never even giving a thought to a human who might be looking upon them. Ryan felt that empty spot in his heart again, and saw her beauty. Of all the selkies, she seemed to be the most beautiful of all. His heart ached for her. He had to have her.

            Ryan crept over the rocks, looking for the seal skin that must have been hers. Ah, but he was no great thief, and as he was coming over the rocks, one of the selkies caught sight and shouted. “Human!” Immediately the shore was alive as selkies got up and scrambled for their skins. Ryan remembered the legends well. He swiftly jumped the last rock, and grabbed for a seal skin, which he clutched in his hand. It must have been hers, it was deep chestnut brown, brown like her hair. In the confusion, Ryan stuffed the skin into his sling, and ran for home, feeling triumph.

            Yet triumph gave way to remorse that night when he thought of what he had done. By taking the skin of a selkie, he had bound her to the land. Ryan wondered whether it was really worth what he had done as he prodded a burning log in the fireplace. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. When he answered it, he saw her, the selkie-girl on the beach with the chestnut hair. She stood there unashamed, without clothes, her waist-length hair giving her some satisfaction of modesty. She looked at Ryan pleadingly.

            “Please, I must have my skin back. I must return to the sea.”

            Ryan’s thoughts of remorse were wiped away when he beheld her beauty and felt that ache in his heart again. “I cannot do that,” he said, “I have been alone all my life, yet when I saw you on the beach I couldn’t bear to be without you. If I had let you go I would have wasted away with regret.”

            She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Please…without my skin I cannot go back to the sea. I will be a prisoner of the land.”

            Ryan stood his ground. “I am sorry…please…forgive me, I cannot. My heart longs for you, it has since the moment I laid eyes on you. Please…would you come inside? I will get you something to wear and something to eat.”

            “Do you really love me so much?” The selkie said, entering the house of the smith.

            “I do.” He rummaged through his chest for a change of clothes and gave them to her. They fit loosely, but they covered her nonetheless. “What is your name?”

            “Pinnia,” she said softly.

            “Pinnia…” he repeated the name, which sounded as beautiful as the woman before him. “Pinnia, would you stay with me and be my wife?”

            Ah, this is the same old story, my girl, but be patient. Sometimes they start this way. It gets better.

            At first, Pinnia saw herself as a prisoner to Ryan, who had hidden her skin well, for he knew if she took it she would go back to the sea, never to be seen again. But Ryan truly loved her with all his heart, and it showed to her in his blue eyes. Blue like the sea, Pinnia would say. He could not bear to let her go, and when Pinnia saw how much he loved her, her apprehension gave way to love. It was such with selkies, they fell in love with their captors.

            Soon Ryan’s arm was healed, and he was able to resume his work. Yet not even his work would tear his heart from Pinnia, and he devoted as much to her, if not more. True, his skill never wavered, and with no barriers between them, Ryan and Pinnia were soon married. Ryan worked no longer with cold iron, as he heard selkies were kin to the faer folk. Instead he worked the iron well, heating it with his forge, working it into fine steel and making finer pieces than he had done before. Pinnia was a devoted wife, cooking the delicacies of the sea and keeping the house in fine shape.

            But Pinnia, too, had a second love, one that she, too, could not deny. Not more than a year after they had wed, Pinnia got up at nights when Ryan was sound asleep, looking around for her precious seal skin. Ryan had hidden it well, you see, and he never seemed to go back to its hiding place to be sure it was still there. She searched the house every week, feeling the longing for the sea. At times she neglected the house to wade and swim in the surf, the unrelenting ache in her heart never abating completely. She had lost her true home.

            Ryan got up one morning to find the house a wreck, dishes scattered, shelves and tables out of place, any loose floorboard removed, even the cross on the wall in his shop had been cast down. Pinnia was nowhere to be found, and Ryan cursed himself, thinking that people had taken her. She could not have found her skin so easily, even if she tore the house from its foundations. How could they have taken her and destroyed his house, yet still left him sound asleep?

He quickly dressed and ran out to find the village magistrate, when he saw her coming up the path, wrapped in a robe, her hair glistening with water and sadness in her eyes. “Please forgive me,” she said, running into his arms. “I stole a bit of sleeping draught from the healer so I could be sure you slept soundly. I can’t bear this anymore…”

Ryan held her close, closing his eyes and realizing that he couldn’t keep her here. He loved her, yes, and she had been ever so devoted…but he had done her a great wrong since the first day he saw her. He took her hand. “Come with me,” he said, and led her into his shop. He knew what he had to do. Even if he pined away to nothing, he would not inflict it on Pinnia.

“Ryan, love, why are we here?”

Ryan went to his anvil, the heaviest piece of equipment in his shop, so massive it took two grown men to put it in place. But Ryan crouched down, picked up the great hunk of metal in his strong arms, and lifted it by himself, taking it off the stone mount on which it lay.

Underneath the anvil was a hidden alcove, well secured by the weight of the anvil itself. Folded neatly inside, glistening like the day it had been found, was a chestnut-brown seal skin. Ryan picked this up.

“Though my heart will ache forever,” he said, looking into her gray eyes, “I cannot bear to see you like this. I love you too much and I pray you will forgive me. I only wish I could join you under the waves, and swim with you as a seal.” He held out the skin. “Take it. Go home.”

Pinnia was amazed. The selkies, too, have their own history, you see, and not once had there ever been a man who, after stealing the skin of a selkie maiden, had willingly set her free. A selkie who freed herself by stealing back her skin would leave, never to return…but Ryan, of his own will and by his own heart, gave her back her freedom.

With trembling hands, Pinnia gingerly took her skin, looking at it like it was too good to be real. She caressed it, held it to her, and then looked once more into the sea-blue eyes of Ryan. Then she leapt into his arms and held him in a loving embrace. “Would you really give up everything, your life on land, your craft, everything here?”

“I can’t bear to be without you, I would live forever as a seal as long as it was with you.”

Pinnia stepped back, looking at him. She could go back to the sea again…but to leave him…

Ryan escorted Pinnia down to the shore that night, Pinnia clutching her seal skin protectively. They stood in the sand, the waves beating the shore. Pinnia looked into Ryan’s eyes one more time. “Come back here on the night of the full moon,” she said, and gave him one final kiss. She let her robe drop to her feet, and put on the seal skin, becoming a chestnut-brown seal with gray eyes. With one last look at her lover, she went into the surf and disappeared.

Ryan was never the same after that, after the one love of his life had gone. Every day he worked the forge, though his work was never quite as good…he knew his skill would live on in his apprentices. Yet he would rather lose it all than be without Pinnia. Every night he looked up at the sky, seeing the moon, seeing it go from crescent to half to gibbous. Her face always seemed to appear in it. Remembering her, Ryan finally understood what her heartache must have been like, to lose the thing she loved, to have it so close and yet never embrace it. She had gone. With each passing day, the loss became even more unbearable. He couldn’t look at another woman in the village without seeing her face, her selkie-gray eyes, her chestnut-brown hair.

Finally, the night of the full moon came, bathing the seashore in silvery light. Ryan went down to the ocean, a knife in his belt. If she never came, he could end his suffering then and there. If he slit his wrists into the surf, maybe he would become one with the sea, and join his love.

Minutes passed. Hours. The moon was nearing zenith as midnight approached. She’s not coming, he thought. She’s not going to come. Ryan drew the blade from his belt, a dagger of shimmering steel, edges sharpened to razors. He looked into the moon and saw her face. He pressed the edge to his wrist…

“Ryan!”

Her voice was surely no hallucination. Ryan’s eyes looked over to see Pinnia, seal skin in one hand. Dropping the knife, he ran over and took her in a passionate embrace, his eyes welling with tears long unshed.

“My dearest…you’ve captured my heart so…I want to be like you. I want to swim with you.”

“Ryan…” She said, holding him tight. “We can be together. No human has ever returned a selkie’s skin before. I came back to you. Ryan…do you really want this?”

“I love you,” Ryan said. “I was ready to die to be with you.”

Pinnia smiled and started taking off Ryan’s shirt.

In minutes, the two lovers were on the beach under the full moon, Ryan embracing Pinnia tightly. Only Pinnia had her arms free. Deftly, she took her selkie skin and worked it over her head, then stretched it so that it would cover Ryan as well. Carefully, she slid it over their bodies, covering both of them. Ryan held her close, even as the skin seemed to take on a will of its own, flowing like liquid over their bodies without Pinnia’s motions to guide it. It covered them, embraced them as they embraced each other. When the moon had passed its zenith, the lovers stared into each others’ eyes.

Where Ryan was lay a muscular gray seal, his flippers about his mate in what looked like an embrace. Ryan, true to his word, gave up everything on land, and that night, became a selkie, too. The two lovers nuzzled each other, then moved for the surf. Together, they dove into the sea and swam away.

Ah…but my girl, the story doesn’t end there. You see years later, the two selkies returned to land, and guarded each other’s seal skins with great care. They came to shore to a town that had no blacksmith. Ryan, much to the consternation of the village boys, selected the weakest, yet the most hopeful, boy from the lot. Then Pinnia became heavy with Ryan’s child, and as he trained the boy in the art of blacksmithing, he took good care of her. They stayed in their human shapes for a long time, enduring the longing for the sea together. Ryan and Pinnia had a fine daughter, and when she was born, Pinnia’s heart longed for the sea more than ever.

“I’ll raise our daughter here, “ Ryan told her, “and when I have finished training the boy in this art, we will come home to you. You know I will, for now I feel the call to the sea and the love for you.”

With one last kiss, she went back to her home in the ocean.

Ah, you say it is a fine tale, my girl? Aye, that it is. But it is more than just a tale. I have finished training the village blacksmith, he is as skilled as I am. Yes. You heard me correctly. As skilled as I am. You always called me “father,” or heard the villagers call me “smith.” You never heard my real name, have you? You see, my daughter, I am Ryan. For twelve long years I have trained a weak village boy to become the expert blacksmith he is today. I have given him my new hammer, which one day will break and bring him to the shore. Twelve years, you have never known your mother. You’ve felt the pull, haven’t you? The pull of the tide? The song of the surf? I have been keeping you from the sea because I did not want you to find out before you knew the truth. Now that you know, it is time. Come! I will fetch my seal skin and take you to the shore so you can finally grow into your own. Then we will go home together.

Come, my child. Your mother has been waiting for us.