Folklore
Iona the Selkie

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A female selkie named Iona. Selkies are magical sea-dwelling people who can transform into seals. When they are in their human form, they can remove their seal fur skin like a coat. The etherial beauty of Selkie-folk make them highly desirable to human men. Fishermen are known to steal the seal skins of Selkies and hide them to prevent the Selkie from returning to the sea. Thus, a human may coerce ta Selkie into marriage. Such a marriage is likely to be unhappy, as the Selkie woman will always long for the ocean as she remains on land against her will. Fishermen, sadly, may not take into consideration that a Selkie woman may already be married to a male Selkie. Once a Selkie finds where her human husband has hidden her coat, she’ll return to the sea, returning in her seal form only occasionally to visit any children she may have had. (Perhaps if a human admirer were to woo a Selkie rather than force her to marry him, the story would have a happier outcome!)