In Nordic countries legends and myth have always played a crucial role in the society. They have been used to discern phenomenons which reason couldn’t explain.
This is a quest to discover the legend of the Seal Woman in the Faroe Islands. Nowadays her legacy still echoes in the faroese society and it’s common belief in the country that people born with their toes webbed together are descendants of the Seal Woman family.
It is 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.
In the middle of Kalsoy island lays the small village Mikladalur. The big valley, surrounded by mountains, echoes the presence of the Seal Woman.
Once a year, on the Twelfth Night, seals are able to take off their skins 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. Her hair were blown by the wind and her pale body was dancing under the moonlight. Enchanted by her beauty, the young man noted where she put her skin and stole it.
She had no choice but to follow him.
They had children and they lived together as other married couples, but the man had to hide the skin in a locked chest and kept the key with him because if she found it, she would have gone back into the sea.
One day the farmer forgot the key home. He was out fishing and when he came back, she was gone.
After that day, no one has seen her anymore but her presence is still alive.
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