Stories about shape-shifting are as old as speech, and there is one particular story that is quite recognizable through its many variations, and this is one tale I’ll be telling to my son…

While I’m going to summarize the elements of this story variation, you can read a complete version of The Swan Maiden…

A young man was out hunting (where all the magic happens) and see some swans land, take off their feathered clothing and bathe. Later they re-attire themselves and take flight. In the Swedish version mentioned here, the creature is a swan, but in the Irish tradition, it is a seal (called selkie or roane as in the Secret of Roan Inish), and I have read a Native American version when the creature is a snake. The animal varies from culture to culture, but the theme doesn’t.

The young man in the Swedish version tells his mother of what he saw, she tells him to take one of the “feathery garb” and hide it (in other variations, he comes to the same conclusion on his own).

He steals the clothes and hides them in a bundle, and in so doing the young woman is obliged to stay with him. They live happily together for many years and have some children, but eventually the woman finds her bundle of clothes and takes off never to be seen again. In the Swedish version, the young man foolishly flaunts the bundle of clothes to her.

So why do I like this story? Well, first of all, a story has to be entertaining or interesting to listen to, and second, there needs be some mental meat to digest once the embers of the story subside. But since I was complaining yesterday about simpering stories, I thought I would mention some good ones. So, what would a young lad gain from such a tale?

Well, I guess the first is that all is fair in love. But in all of the stories I’ve encountered, the creature in human form lives happily with the young gent… this isn’t servitude, but there is also a longing on the part of the creature to return to her form and to her family.

I suppose that symbolically the animal skin represents a young lady’s adventurous or wild side that the young man tames, but I believe that I will be telling my son this story for the more important moral— you need to nurture and protect the love that brought you your wife.