Seal Wife (c) Lomoherz

The Seal Wife

The Seal Wife is the tale of a maiden who came from the sea and shed her skin.
Some know her as Selkie in the Irish, Scottish, and Faroese folklore.
She and her sisters and brothers were cursed into the form of seals by a sea witch who could not bear their beauty and golden spirit.
Seal Wife (c) Lomoherz
Seal Wife (c) Lomoherz
“Once a year, from sundown to sundown, [the enchanted seals] would find a strip of shore concealed from human eyes, and here discard their silken skins of grey and black and golden brown, and step forth in their old, lovely shape.”
One day a Scottish fisherman happened upon the seals’ skins and stole a beautiful golden pelt “that shone with the brightest sheen of all”.
Of the sea-children, one maiden was forced to remain on the dry land as the sun set and she searched for her silken skin in vain.
She came by the fisherman’s cottage and told him of her loss, pleaded with him to find her skin so she may follow her family out to sea.
The fisherman told her that her skin had been stolen away, yet he could not reveal that it was he who had taken her golden pelt for he had fallen in love with the woman of the sea.
The fisherman offered her his protection and his home and hid her skin above the cottage door.
From then on she was called the Seal Wife. She grew to love the fisherman, cherished her earthen children.
Still, she never forgot her sea-brothers and sisters and longed to be surrounded by water once again. Her yearning knew no end.
Seal Wife (c) Lomoherz
“Throughout this time the Sea King’s daughter remembered always her great sorrow. She would walk alone by the shore, listening to the ceol-mara that is the music of the sea.”
One day, while the fisherman set out to work, a storm rolled over the Scottish coast, rattling the Seal Wife’s cottage so gravely that her silken skin fell from the place it was hidden.
The Seal Wife understood at once and clasped her long lost skin to her heart.
Without a bad thought towards the man who had deceived her for so very long – for she came to know „a little happiness” – she went down to the shore.
“With one last glance towards her home, she “clad herself in her skin of golden brown and swam out across the water. She saw her children standing forlorn upon the shore.
But the call of the sea was stronger”.“
Upon his return, the fisherman knew that his Seal Wife had returned to the ocean, leaving him and their children behind.
And he grieved her loss forever.

Alle Bilder wurden auf Rügen mit einer analogen Film-Kamera bei dickstem Nebel aufgenommen. Kein Photoshop (bis auf das Titelbild), keine Filter oder sonstiges.
Einfach pure Film-Fotografie.

Model: Corinna

Zitate: Oxford Fairy Tales from Scotland, Retold by Barbara Ker Wilson

Kamera: Kiev 60

FilmFuji Pro 400H

Entwicklung & Scan: Mein Film Lab 

Alle Bilder werden in geringer Auflösung gezeigt. 

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