Emanuele Camerini: The Twelfth Night

When the farmer rowed back home, the Seal Woman was gone. Since the woman found the skin she was unable to control herself. She ran down to the beach, put it on and jumped into the water again. From there comes the expression: "Unable to control herself, like a seal when it sees its skin."

Fishnet used for seal hunting, late 19th century. Natural History Museum, Torshavn. One day the farmer was out fishing with other villagers and suddenly, while he was drawing a fish into the boat, he touched his belt where the key used to hang. He was horrified by discovering that he forgot it at home, and cried with sorrow: "Today I am going to lose my wife!”

Maria Guldbrandsø Tórgarð, 17 years old. Torshavn. “Since I was a child, my grandmother told me faroese sagnir (old legends and tales). Especially the seal woman one. She said we come from her family because of our toes. For me that legend is a sad story, and even if my friends made fun of me at school because of my feet, I didn’t care. I kind of like to think that I have something special.”

The Seal Woman legend include in itself many different layers. It's a story about desire, love and fear; about being allowed to create a new identity away from the native land and about longing to return home both literally and figuratively. It tells about feelings which are both universal and contemporary. Emotions are a decisive factor in people’s lives and supernatural makes it possible to give them form and expression in the legends.

Seal. Natural History Museum, Torshavn. The Seal Woman legend becomes a way to learn how to respect nature and how to deal with wildlife in the Faroe. A proof of this is the fact that seal-hunting is not practiced anymore since very long time and nowadays there’s a kind of respect for seals. Respect which comes directly from the Seal Woman story.

Once a year, on the Twelfth Night, seals are able to take off their skin and become beautiful human beings. They gather on a rocky beach to dance and play all night long. That night a farmer, hidden behind a rock, saw the seals come swimming ashore. Among them, a beautiful girl slipped out of her skin and he fell in love with her immediately. Enchanted by her beauty, the young man noted where she put her skin and stole it. She had no choice but to follow him.

Old key from a wooden box, 19th century. Natural History Museum, Torshavn. The farmer hid the Seal Woman's skin in a locked chest. He hung the key to his belt in order to carry it always with him, because if the Seal Woman found it, she would have gone back into the sea.

Wooden box used to store different items, 19th century. Natural History Museum, Torshavn. When the farmer stole the seal skin, he had to hide it in a locked chest and kept the key always with him because if the Seal Woman found it, she would have gone back into the sea.