What becomes of the child born between sea and shore—who must choose whether to hold on, or to let his mother return to the sea where she belongs? Reimagining the tale of the Selkie from the perspective of the Selkie’s son, a liminal figure who carries love and loss in equal measure we come to see the deeper currents that give the story its enduring power. As his mother reclaims her stolen self, he is left to navigate the ache of her absence. Woven with archetypal insight and rich folklore, the story moves like the tides under the pull of many moons—revealing different phases of the whole depending on the vantage point of each character in the story. We descend into the sacred depths of loss, witnessing the grace of a soul who restores what is stolen, frees what is held captive, and weaves back into wholeness a shattered world.

The Norwegian folktale “East of the Sun West of the Moon” and the Japanese (indigenous Ainu) folktale entitled “Crescent Moon Bear” are folktales featuring fearless young women who dare to engage in greater intimacy with a bear whether it is marrying a bear, or having the courage to pluck the whisker of a bear. Both involve traversing a formidable boreal forest landscape to save their husbands from a “spell”. These folktales are so strikingly similar in theme and shared values, giving voice to their parallel nature deepens our sense of interconnected history, and rekindles a feeling of belonging to a shared storied boreal landscape, weaving together people, bears, ancestry, stories and hearts. . .