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In this episode we wander along the coastlines of many Northern places; these are often stark and lonely places, the people who live there quiet to outsiders, but somehow a tale is always shared around a campfire as the whiskey passes from hand to hand.

The tales of of the SEAL PEOPLE, the special magical selkies sometimes called silkies, sometimes thought to be quite different from the seals you normally see tearing apart your fishing nets. Don't run afoul of these beings or you might rue the day! Legend has it that these are the beings made from the souls of the drowned, those lost at sea, now magically changed.

Join me on this little walk as we share the tale of the Seal People.

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REFERENCES
Episode title is from, "The Selkie Wife's Daughter", Jeannine Hall Gailey. 2006. "Jeannine Hall Gailey's poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Rattle, Columbia Poetry Review, and other journals. The poem, which is based on selkie legends, first appeared in Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books, 2006). For more information, visit the author's blog."

Tales of the Seal People, Duncan Williamson, 1992; 2019. "A collection of 14 selkie (half-seal half-human creatures) tales from the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern tip of Scotland which embrace the fantasy, romance and unusual perspective of the Scottish travellers."

On Mermaids, Meroveus, and Melusine; Reading the Irish Seal Woman and Melusine as Origin Legend, Gregory Darwin (August 2015), Folklore Journal issue 126. "‘The Seal Woman’, a migratory legend attested throughout north-western Europe, is commonly associated with particular families in Ireland. A structural reading of this legend reveals similarities with other tales and dynastic origin myths involving supernatural, aquatic female ancestor figures, and identifies similar social functions for such narratives."

David Thomson (2018) The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk: "Introduced by Seamus Heaney, The People of the Sea brings to life the legend of the mythical selchies, in beautiful, poetic prose."

Want more selkie tales? Visit Orkneyjar, a website curated by folk enthusiasts and those historically minded. You can read many tales here, some selkie, and find out more just in general about these kinds of stories.

WILDERNESS IRELAND, “Irish Myths & Legends Part 4: The Selkie,” Dawn Rainbolt. This is just a super fun website with stories and little facts and more.

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Welcome to PART TWO, or another two-part episode of LOST IN THE RABBIT HOLE. In this episode, we cover just some of the variants of The Wild Hunt tales, which come from Europe, but can also be found in some form all over the world.

The Wild Hunt is a tale of a pack of spectral beings riding horses, sometimes flying, late at night. Sometimes there are demon dogs, or other packs of animals. These tales are moral tales, with the riders or hunters presaging something really bad -- war, plague, discord, or even the death of the person who sees the riders.

We see in this episode (both parts) that the frame of the pack of ghost hunters carries across cultures, but with some interesting shifts and detail changes.

PART ONE: focuses on the background of the tale frame; from WODEN/ODIN leading the pack to the HERLE KING, this is an old lore that is still somehow very elastic. Part one includes the history of FRAU BERCHTA , one of the female figures to lead the pack of night riders.

PART TWO: shares other cultures' tales, including THE NIGHT OF A HUNDRED DEMONS from Japan, HAWAIIAN NIGHT MARCHERS, the Canadian New Years tale of THE BEWITCHED CANOE, and the Old American West tale of the GHOST RIDERS.

References for Part Two of this episode:

NIGHT OF A HUNDRED DEMONS
Elizabeth Lillehoj, in her article “Transfiguration: Man-Made Objects as Demons in Japanese Scrolls” (Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp 7-34; 1995)
Michael Dylan Foster (Author), Shinonome Kijin (Illustrator), The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
Masako Watanabe, Storytelling in Japanese Art
Matthew Meyer's Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
Maria Kitsunebi's blog, HYAKKI YAGYO: THE NIGHT PARADE OF ONE HUNDRED YOKAI
Amelia Starling's blog, Tsukumogami: Japan’s Household Spirits, is also really fun

LA CHASSE-GALARIE
Donovan King, Haunted Montreal
Honoré Beaugrand, La chasse galerie: Légendes Canadiennes

THE HAWAIIAN HUAKA'I PO
Martha Warren Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology
Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast, Night Marchers: Huaka'i Po'
This is a blog post from the To Hawaii website The Legend of the Nightmarchers

AMERICAN OLD WEST GHOST RIDERS
Fairweather Lewis's blog post on the song Ghost Rider's In The Sky

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Welcome to another two-part episode of LOST IN THE RABBIT HOLE -- this is PART ONE. In this episode, we cover just some of the variants of The Wild Hunt tales, which come from Europe, but can also be found in some form all over the world.

The Wild Hunt is a tale of a pack of spectral beings riding horses, sometimes flying, late at night. Sometimes there are demon dogs, or other packs of animals. These tales are moral tales, with the riders or hunters presaging something really bad -- war, plague, discord, or even the death of the person who sees the riders.

We see in this episode (both parts) that the frame of the pack of ghost hunters carries across cultures, but with some interesting shifts and detail changes.

PART ONE: focuses on the background of the tale frame; from WODEN/ODIN leading the pack to the HERLE KING, this is an old lore that is still somehow very elastic. Part one includes the history of FRAU BERCHTA , one of the female figures to lead the pack of night riders.

PART TWO: shares other cultures' tales, including THE NIGHT OF A HUNDRED DEMONS from Japan, HAWAIIAN NIGHT MARCHERS, the Canadian New Years tale of THE BEWITCHED CANOE, and the Old American West tale of the GHOST RIDERS.

References for Part One of this episode:

Jacob Grimm, German Mythology, volume 1

D. L. Ashliman, THE WILD HUNT LEGENDS

Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures

Brian Branston, The Lost Gods of England

Ari Berk and William Spytma, Penance, Power, and Pursuit: On the Trail of the Wild Hunt

Jennifer Westwood. Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain

The Old Magic of Christmas, Linda Raedisch

The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil, by Al Ridenour

Ridenour also has a terrific podcast, here is the episode on Frau Berchta

Also, from 2011, the VoVatia blog, Baby, Baby, It's a Wild Hunt