Orkney Folk Tales by Tom Muir

Author:Tom Muir
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750955331
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

It was not just selkie women who had relationships with humans, sometimes selkie men would quite willingly seek out a human lover, as the following story demonstrates.

URSILLA AND HER SELKIE LOVER

Ursilla Balfour was the daughter of the laird of Stronsay, his only child and heir to his estate. She was a beautiful young woman, but she was proud, overbearing, strong willed and quick to anger. Her father tried to push her into marriage; not for love but as a good financial business transaction. If she married the son of another laird then it would unite two wealthy families and increase their fortune and reputation. But Ursilla was having none of it. No matter how hard her father tried she would always send away the hapless suitors who came to court her. It looked like Ursilla would never marry, but there was a very good reason why she refused to accept the proposals that she received. You see, Ursilla Balfour was already in love. The object of her desires was not the son of a rich laird, but the man who worked in her father’s barn. She watched him go about his work and the fires of love burned fiercely inside her. But she had to hide her feelings and she did this very well for she treated the poor man like dirt. He was often on the wrong end of Ursilla’s sharp tongue and many a row he received from her. However, as long as her father lived, Ursilla had to keep her love for the barn man a secret.

One day Ursilla’s luck changed and her father died, leaving her with all his land and money. The first thing that she did was to go to the barn man and say, ‘Right you; get home and wash and shave.’

‘Why?’ he asked, somewhat puzzled by her order.

‘Because you’re going to be married.’

‘Married,’ he spluttered, ‘married to whom?’

‘Why, married to me of course! Don’t you know that I love you?’

‘Eh, no,’ he said, even more confused than before, ‘I can’t say that I had noticed.’

‘Well, I do, and you need a wash and a shave before I get you ready for our marriage. Hurry up now; run along!’

The poor man was in a terrible fix. He certainly didn’t love her, in fact, he didn’t even like her. But she was the laird now and her word was law. If he refused he would be evicted from his house and would have to find himself a new home on another island. Maybe Ursilla would take out her anger on his family and his parents, brothers and sisters might suffer the same fate. No, he had to do it, no matter how much the idea appalled him. Ursilla, meanwhile, wasted no time in sending out the wedding invites to all the lairds whose sons had failed to win her. It caused quite a scandal; Ursilla Balfour marrying a common farm servant. How awful!

‘It won’t last,’ they said, ‘six months; that’s all I give it.

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