The Puppetry Institute

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Clíodhna & Muirín

From the storm-lashed cliffs and moonlit shores of the world’s forgotten edges, the Selkies rise graceful, mysterious, and bound by tides both physical and magical. By day, they are seals gliding through icy waves, guardians of deep ocean secrets and ancient songs lost beneath the foam. But when the moon calls and the sea breathes in silver light, they shed their sleek skins and step ashore as impossibly beautiful humans, wrapped in mystery and longing.

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Legends tell of their allure of sailors who glimpse them dancing along the rocks, laughter like wind chimes and eyes full of unknowable sorrow. It’s said a Selkie’s gaze can ensnare the heart, their voice can lull even the fiercest storm, and their touch is as fleeting and cold as the tide itself. But those who try to keep them,who steal their seal skins and bind them to land, soon learn that beauty can be dangerous, and love, when caged, becomes something wild and unforgiving.

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The Selkies are shapeshifters of deep, primal magic, connected not just to the sea, but to the balance between freedom and desire, nature and civilization. They are drawn to human shores by curiosity, by yearning, by fate, but they are not meant to stay. Their loyalty lies with the ocean, their true form forever tied to the vast and unknowable deep. Yet stories abound of Selkies who fall in love, who linger too long, who raise children with land-bound hearts and saltwater souls. And always, they vanish again, drawn home by a call older than memory.

Both blessing and warning, the Selkies are creatures of duality, tender and terrible, radiant and ruthless.

 

They remind us that love must be chosen, not taken; that magic is not ours to own; and that the sea, like the Selkie, cannot be tamed.