The Wounded Seal
About our Spoken Story Series
In this time of ebb and flow—when so much around and within us is shifting—ONE offers a series of spoken stories to honor the depths of the Ocean and the ancestral wisdom carried on her tides. These tales invite you to soften, to listen, to be carried by story as by a gentle current—nourishing spirit, soothing the nervous system, and rekindling memory through myth and legend.
Our storyteller, April Thanhauser, a cherished member of the ONE Visioning Council and lifelong lover of folk and fairy tales, shares:
“Stories, like hearth fires and campfires have always brought people together —for sharing wisdom, laughter, tears, and comfort. No matter where our people came from, stories are part of our heritage. The traditional tales I will be telling originate from many different parts of the world, but please accept them as a gift from the old ones of our shared human culture.”
About this Episode
From the folklore of Scotland’s western shores comes the haunting tale of The Wounded Seal.
For those who live close to the Ocean, the bond between human and sea creature is deeply felt. Folktales from these coastal lands often carry stories of kinship and entanglement between humans and marine beings—sometimes even shapeshifting between the human and more-than-human realms.
A man might fall in love with a seal woman as she dances by moonlight on a lonely beach, stealing her seal-skin so she must remain with him as a wife. If fortune favors her, she may one day recover her skin and return to the sea where she belongs. (Powerful interpretations of this well-known “selkie” story can be found in Sharon Blackie’s If Women Rose Rooted and Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves.)
But The Wounded Seal is a different kind of tale—less romantic, perhaps, but no less profound. Though it begins with harm and sorrow, it offers a path toward healing, reparation, and the possibility of reconciliation between humans and the seal folk.
Listen to other Ocean Stories and an Ocean meditation:
Sedna, Mother of the Sea
