The 'mean and ugly' mermaids of Arnhem Land are unlike any other legend
Kate Forsyth gets a mention in the ABC news story about mermaids, as well.
Kate Forsyth is someone I ran into at the Byron Bay Writers Festival in 2016 and had a fascinating chat to at the book signing tent when Kate signed my copy of her book 'The Wild Girl' (which I'm still yet to read ... sorry Kate) and showed me the eye that had the artificial tear gland in it from when a dog savaged her as a youngster.
She has a particular connection to the Scottish iteration of the mermaid — known as Selkies.
Selkies were creatures that, when in the water, took the form of a seal.
Selkies were creatures that, when in the water, took the form of a seal.
On land they shed their seal skin and took the form of a beautiful woman.
They too had angelic singing voices.
The fable goes that a fisherman found a selkie skin and hid it.
Unable to return to the water, the selkie married the fisherman and had children together. Eventually the selkie found her skin and returned to the sea.
It is believed that the first man to marry a Selkie was from the Macfee family — originally meaning son of the dark fairy.
Ms Forsyth, who is a descendent of the MacPhee family, says anthropologists believe the story was perhaps inspired by the sight of Inuits, indigenous people of northern Canada and parts of Greenland and Alaska, paddling in their kayaks made from seal fur.
"In the ocean they looked like they had the body of a human from the waist up and the tail of a seal in their kayaks — but it is only conjecture no-one really knows for sure," Ms Forsyth said."
Interesting times we are all swimming in on a "collective unconscious" level for sure, I think.
Heaven or Las Vegas: Sirens, Saucers, & Psyops?
It is believed that the first man to marry a Selkie was from the Macfee family — originally meaning son of the dark fairy.
Ms Forsyth, who is a descendent of the MacPhee family, says anthropologists believe the story was perhaps inspired by the sight of Inuits, indigenous people of northern Canada and parts of Greenland and Alaska, paddling in their kayaks made from seal fur.
"In the ocean they looked like they had the body of a human from the waist up and the tail of a seal in their kayaks — but it is only conjecture no-one really knows for sure," Ms Forsyth said."
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