1 00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:13,330 Modern Fairies and Loathly Ladies podcast series one, second episode, Fairy Wives and Fairy Lovers. 2 00:00:13,330 --> 00:00:17,640 Hello, this is Faye Hield and this is Caroline Larrington. 3 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:24,250 In the first episode in this series, we introduced our project, Modern Fairies and Lonely Ladies in this project. 4 00:00:24,250 --> 00:00:31,990 We researched additional tales about fairies in the British Isles and then investigate Tascam contemporary musicians, writers and artists. 5 00:00:31,990 --> 00:00:39,670 Re mediates or are inspired by those tales to make new works of art that speak to our modern lives. 6 00:00:39,670 --> 00:00:41,140 In this second episode, 7 00:00:41,140 --> 00:00:49,930 we're going to look at some stories about men and women who are stolen away by the fairies and the efforts their lovers may go to try to save them. 8 00:00:49,930 --> 00:00:58,420 In some other stories, fairies have come into this world enticed or forced to marry human husbands to whom they bring wealth and happiness. 9 00:00:58,420 --> 00:01:03,100 But it's a domestic joy that doesn't necessarily last for long. 10 00:01:03,100 --> 00:01:11,770 And in one mediaeval romance, a fairy comes into this world to find the man she loves when his fortunes are at his lowest ebb. 11 00:01:11,770 --> 00:01:18,190 She rescues him more than once and finally takes him willingly off to the fairy world with her, 12 00:01:18,190 --> 00:01:23,440 as this world is too corrupt for a good night like him to prosper in. 13 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:33,260 Here's Brian McMahon reading for us. So landfall is a mediaeval romance recorded in middle English in the late 14th century. 14 00:01:33,260 --> 00:01:41,630 It is based on an earlier tale from the late 12th century, originally composed in Anglo Norman French. 15 00:01:41,630 --> 00:01:48,160 So landfall was a night of good birth at the court of King Arthur, but the queen disliked him. 16 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:56,120 And at the high festival, she gave everyone gifts but landfall. Eventually, he ran out of money and had to leave the court. 17 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:01,090 He took up lodging with a man who scorned him when he realised landfall was poor. 18 00:02:01,090 --> 00:02:07,370 The unhappy night was riding in the forest one day when his horse shied at something and he fell off into the mud, 19 00:02:07,370 --> 00:02:16,810 ruining his last set of decent clothes. Just then, two lovely women came toward him and invited him to come to meet their mistress, 20 00:02:16,810 --> 00:02:21,680 who was waiting for him in a beautiful pavilion made of silk. 21 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:28,550 Their landfall found a gloriously beautiful fairy woman called Traymore, 22 00:02:28,550 --> 00:02:34,700 who told him that she had long been in love with him and wanted him to be her lover. 23 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:39,760 Downfall very happily agreed, and they spent the day and night in lovemaking. 24 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:46,810 Next day, Traymore gave him a magic bottomless purse of coins and told him that whenever he wished to meet her, 25 00:02:46,810 --> 00:02:51,850 landfall should go somewhere private and call her name. Then she would come. 26 00:02:51,850 --> 00:02:56,740 But he must never mention her existence to anyone else. 27 00:02:56,740 --> 00:03:02,020 Landfall returns to court where his standing is much improved by his endless wealth. 28 00:03:02,020 --> 00:03:08,190 But he also attracts the Queen's attention. And one day she asks him to become her lover. 29 00:03:08,190 --> 00:03:14,980 Landfall refuses. And when the Queen asks pointedly why he is the only night in the court who seems not to have a 30 00:03:14,980 --> 00:03:21,490 lady of his own landfall snaps that he does have a lady who is much more beautiful than the Queen. 31 00:03:21,490 --> 00:03:28,600 The Queen, enraged, complains to the king that landfall has tried to seduce her and has insulted her. 32 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:33,590 And landfall is ordered to make good on his boast by producing his lady. 33 00:03:33,590 --> 00:03:40,430 Landfall goes off to someone, Traymore. But he has broken the taboo and now she will not appear. 34 00:03:40,430 --> 00:03:48,170 The king puts landfall on trial for his life and although his fellow knights support him, landfall fears that he is doomed. 35 00:03:48,170 --> 00:03:54,410 On the day of the trial, as he waits miserably for the verdict. Two lovely women ride into court. 36 00:03:54,410 --> 00:03:58,880 Everyone exclaims that their beauty but landfall shakes his head. 37 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:05,810 Neither is his beloved. Then two more women appear bearing the message that their mistress is on her way. 38 00:04:05,810 --> 00:04:16,490 Again, landfall does not recognise them. But finally, Traymore appears in her radiant beauty and splendid gown and shows herself to the court. 39 00:04:16,490 --> 00:04:20,450 All agree that she is far lovelier than Queen Gwyneth here. 40 00:04:20,450 --> 00:04:30,470 And landfall is saved. Gwyneth, it is furious. The trio more blows on her eyes, blinding her trio, more remount her horse and rides away. 41 00:04:30,470 --> 00:04:36,410 And landfall leaps up on the horse behind her and vanishes with her to the Isle of Ruin. 42 00:04:36,410 --> 00:04:46,810 The other world. And once a year he comes back to offer combat with any knight who will meet him to keep his chivalric skills well honed. 43 00:04:46,810 --> 00:04:52,590 Here's the meeting between lound, fall and tremble in middle English. 44 00:04:52,590 --> 00:04:57,930 He found in the pavilion the king's daughter of Olive Hoon damed three or more. 45 00:04:57,930 --> 00:05:06,910 That height, her father was king of Fairy of OSINT Fair and NIJ, a man of Muckle MCT. 46 00:05:06,910 --> 00:05:12,790 In that pavilion, he found a bed of price yield with per purpose. 47 00:05:12,790 --> 00:05:23,080 That symbol was a site that in Lay that lady gent that after, say, landfall had a scent that left some limit bright. 48 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:28,930 For head to her clothes down, she did. All missed to her girdles stead. 49 00:05:28,930 --> 00:05:38,280 Then lay she uncovered she was as we as Lillian May or snow that snow in winter's day. 50 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:46,390 Her sigh never known so pert. The red rose when she is new again is her road ness. 51 00:05:46,390 --> 00:05:56,080 Not too few I Darwell say insert her hair Shawna's gold wire may no man read her attire. 52 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:02,670 No, no. Well, think in heart. She said, landfall, my lemon sweet, 53 00:06:02,670 --> 00:06:16,430 all my joy for the elite Sweeting Padmore then is no man in Christene Tay that E loves so mocker as they king, neither emperor. 54 00:06:16,430 --> 00:06:27,300 Landfall be held. That sweet white, all his love in her, was liked and kissed that sweet flower and sat her down her beside and said, 55 00:06:27,300 --> 00:06:33,020 Sweeting, what's so betide I am to thine honour? 56 00:06:33,020 --> 00:06:35,820 That was Brian McMahon. 57 00:06:35,820 --> 00:06:46,140 So for long fall, then the meeting with the fairy in the Greenwood was a glorious surprise and a very kind of happy outcome for him. 58 00:06:46,140 --> 00:06:52,590 And even though he was under a fairly strict taboo, which he breaks pretty quickly, she does forgive him. 59 00:06:52,590 --> 00:07:00,990 She does. There seems to be an element of true love in this one as well, that she admires his actions before they've even met. 60 00:07:00,990 --> 00:07:09,400 She she's developed a deep love for this human being because of how he behaves selflessly and his generosity and his valour. 61 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,960 And when he needs her, she comes for him. Yeah. 62 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:18,120 And I think her behaviour is pointed up very much against the behaviour of the queen, 63 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:22,590 who behaves rather like some of the more predatory fairy queens that we meet. 64 00:07:22,590 --> 00:07:31,650 In other stories, the queen just wants long. And when he went to sleep with her, she takes it out on him and she concocts false stories about him. 65 00:07:31,650 --> 00:07:36,510 So it's not surprising in a way that Long Vol is happy to go with his lady. 66 00:07:36,510 --> 00:07:42,870 Love to hear more into the other world because this world has been tested and really found wanting. 67 00:07:42,870 --> 00:07:49,470 And he's disobeying the rule to not expose this relationship that he has with the fairy. 68 00:07:49,470 --> 00:07:55,230 He has to do it in order to maintain his moral position with a queen that she's 69 00:07:55,230 --> 00:07:59,370 trying to seduce and she's trying to get him to do things you didn't ought to do. 70 00:07:59,370 --> 00:08:03,390 And his only defence in it is to be honest about what's going on. 71 00:08:03,390 --> 00:08:06,270 So it took me a while to puzzle the contradiction in this, 72 00:08:06,270 --> 00:08:11,760 because normally if you if you go against a rule a fairy is given you, then you don't get your rewards. 73 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:17,370 And yet she does come back and he does go away with her. And I've been trying to work out why that would be. 74 00:08:17,370 --> 00:08:21,840 And that's the only explanation I can find for it in that she understands why he had to do it. 75 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,950 If he'd been showing off about this amazing lover he's got in the fairy world. 76 00:08:25,950 --> 00:08:28,690 I don't imagine it would've had the same outcome. 77 00:08:28,690 --> 00:08:35,490 One of the things I think is so wonderful about this story is that once she's got him off the hook, as it were, she doesn't say anything to him. 78 00:08:35,490 --> 00:08:39,540 She just gets onto her horse and prepares to ride away. 79 00:08:39,540 --> 00:08:46,960 And he has to decide whether he's going to take that leap of faith and jump up behind her on the horse and go with her. 80 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:51,390 And he's got that split second in which to wave goodbye to her forever. 81 00:08:51,390 --> 00:08:53,730 But he's now got his standing back in the court. 82 00:08:53,730 --> 00:09:02,060 He can now be a respected knight or whether he wants to go with her, leave this world forever and just wholly commit himself. 83 00:09:02,060 --> 00:09:10,620 Yeah. I think he made a good choice. I think he did, too. So in the long fall is quite a clear story going on there between this relationship. 84 00:09:10,620 --> 00:09:16,210 But there's other songs which are a bit more complicated. And Tamlin is a great example of this. 85 00:09:16,210 --> 00:09:23,370 So we have a human woman who is seduced in the woods by this figure, Tamlin. 86 00:09:23,370 --> 00:09:30,860 And there is debate as to whether she is willingly seduced or if there is an element of rape there. 87 00:09:30,860 --> 00:09:35,250 Right. And the result is that she is pregnant. 88 00:09:35,250 --> 00:09:43,620 And she has to free the father of the child from the grasp of the fairies because he himself was captured by the fairies. 89 00:09:43,620 --> 00:09:49,890 So Tamlyn is this strange fairy figure. And yet he's he's a human, actually. 90 00:09:49,890 --> 00:09:54,840 And he has some of that danger, doesn't he, that you get with the stories of the the male fairies, 91 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:58,800 the kind of elf knights who do prowl around in the woods looking for the girl, 92 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:06,750 is looking for adventure and trying to seduce her or take advantage or even in some cases trying to murder her. 93 00:10:06,750 --> 00:10:14,820 But then Tamlin turns out to be just another human and he's looking for his way to escape the fairy world in order to escape. 94 00:10:14,820 --> 00:10:19,410 He needs somebody to care so deeply about him, to help him escape. 95 00:10:19,410 --> 00:10:26,730 And the only way he can make somebody care so deeply is to get her pregnant so that she has to rescue him so that she can have a husband. 96 00:10:26,730 --> 00:10:33,000 So he almost sets Janice up on Margaret's or whatever her name is put into the song, 97 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:38,790 sets her up to be in a situation that she then he is her saviour as well as her being his saviour, 98 00:10:38,790 --> 00:10:43,050 because to be an unwed mother wouldn't be desirable for her either. 99 00:10:43,050 --> 00:10:53,520 Yes, it's it's a dangerous situation for her. And I always wonder, as the poet Liz Lochhead does in her poem Tamlin, what happens afterwards? 100 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:58,710 What happens when Janet's or Margaret or whatever her name is from? 101 00:10:58,710 --> 00:11:06,720 Got we've got Tamlin away from the the fairy queen who curses him and says, if I'd known what I was going to see this night, 102 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:15,330 I would have poked your eyes out, just as, in fact, the fairy mist just long vol blows on the Queen's eyes there and turns her eyes into into wood. 103 00:11:15,330 --> 00:11:21,720 So she's blinded. So here the fairy pin would have blinded Tamlin if she'd known about the betrayal. 104 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:29,370 But then what happens after that? Is Tamlyn going to be happy? Back in the human world with Janet in domesticity? 105 00:11:29,370 --> 00:11:35,600 Or is he going to perhaps get back to his old tricks and just disappear off with the fairies again? 106 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:46,240 You never know. And now we're going to hear you, Faye, singing parts of the ballad The Tamlin Lady Margaret Lady by her to say, 107 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:53,400 oh, oh, they see her and she's old Eastern Bloc. 108 00:11:53,400 --> 00:12:01,550 Whoever thought came to her to run into the wall, then pull the flowers to her for her. 109 00:12:01,550 --> 00:12:05,850 My boy is two purple flowers to. 110 00:12:05,850 --> 00:12:14,980 Ha! She's hoisted up her petticoats a bit above her, nay, nay, nay. 111 00:12:14,980 --> 00:12:25,420 She's tripto the pipeline until she came to the Mary Green bow and she's bow then her chest down. 112 00:12:25,420 --> 00:12:33,340 No, she's pulled them branches. Oh, certainly. 113 00:12:33,340 --> 00:12:40,570 She's by the final man. Still needs the tree. 114 00:12:40,570 --> 00:12:47,080 Say how hell you pull those branches down without the bath. 115 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:52,660 Me lady without the leave of me. 116 00:12:52,660 --> 00:12:57,370 She say, is this a little while? Oh it is my love. 117 00:12:57,370 --> 00:13:09,040 We. My father gave it to me and I composed these branches down without the leave of the young. 118 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:22,410 Without the leave of the. He's taken by the only body turned on by the chorus green sleeve. 119 00:13:22,410 --> 00:13:30,760 He's laid her down at four. No, he never wants us to leave, my boy. 120 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:37,420 He never once asked. When it was doing. 121 00:13:37,420 --> 00:13:44,350 She has turned herself about to was Kirchherr, who loves my birching. 122 00:13:44,350 --> 00:13:51,530 Nothing so nothing. Her nolder were screwed him bowis. 123 00:13:51,530 --> 00:14:02,310 No, the wounds grew. The only true young term, she said. 124 00:14:02,310 --> 00:14:11,710 Hey, I thought a lot about you. Oh, I know, lies Lady Margaret, who said I was Christian. 125 00:14:11,710 --> 00:14:19,720 The same as the. I was Kurson. The same as the the Tesi Road. 126 00:14:19,720 --> 00:14:29,290 Now daughter called and that night from off me home signed for the Queen above London. 127 00:14:29,290 --> 00:14:37,030 She took me and gone grain hell to do in law then to go green. 128 00:14:37,030 --> 00:14:41,950 Hell to do. This is nine. 129 00:14:41,950 --> 00:14:45,570 So it is who we who. 130 00:14:45,570 --> 00:14:51,740 And they of course will write in if you would your true load. 131 00:14:51,740 --> 00:15:03,610 When. By the old mill bridge. You must buy me loads by the old mill bridge you must buy. 132 00:15:03,610 --> 00:15:10,770 That was face singing some excerpts of Tamlin. So Lin was in the end. 133 00:15:10,770 --> 00:15:18,180 Happy to be taken out of the fairy world and to be rescued from that life by Janet's loving persistence in holding on, 134 00:15:18,180 --> 00:15:21,900 holding on to bring him out of his enchantment. 135 00:15:21,900 --> 00:15:30,300 But in some of the other stories, it's the fairy who's dragged out of her own world into the human world, sometimes by force. 136 00:15:30,300 --> 00:15:41,670 And she's not always best pleased about it. In the story of Wild Edrick, there's a fairy who is forced into a human marriage and things don't go well. 137 00:15:41,670 --> 00:15:48,620 Here's Brian again. Wild Edric. 138 00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:53,300 Shropshire men must have been well acquainted with the fairies five hundred years ago, 139 00:15:53,300 --> 00:16:01,220 it was reported then that our famous champion, Wild Edric, had had an elf maiden for his wife. 140 00:16:01,220 --> 00:16:09,770 One day, we are told, when he was returning from hunting in the forest of Cloon, he lost his way and wandered about till nightfall alone. 141 00:16:09,770 --> 00:16:17,380 So for one young page at last, he saw the lights of a very large house in the distance towards which he turned to his steps. 142 00:16:17,380 --> 00:16:23,570 And when he had reached it, he beheld within a large company of noble ladies dancing. 143 00:16:23,570 --> 00:16:33,000 They were exceedingly beautiful, taller and larger than women of the human race, and dressed in gracefully shaped linen garments, 144 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:41,300 their so-called round with smooth and easy motion, singing a soft, low song of which the hunter could not understand the words. 145 00:16:41,300 --> 00:16:46,550 Amongst them was one maiden who excelled all the others in beauty, at the sight of whom are heroes. 146 00:16:46,550 --> 00:16:54,020 Heart was inflamed with love, forgetting the fears of enchantment, which at the first moment had seised him. 147 00:16:54,020 --> 00:16:57,770 He hurried round the house, seeking an entrance and having found it. 148 00:16:57,770 --> 00:17:04,500 He rushed in and snatched the maiden, who was the object of his passion from her place in the moving circle. 149 00:17:04,500 --> 00:17:08,910 The dancers assailed him with teeth and nails, but backed by his page. 150 00:17:08,910 --> 00:17:14,650 He escaped at length from their hands and succeeded in carrying off his former captive. 151 00:17:14,650 --> 00:17:22,050 For three whole days, not his utmost caresses and persuasions could prevail on her to utter a single word. 152 00:17:22,050 --> 00:17:30,530 But on the fourth day, she suddenly broke the silence. Good luck to you, my dear, she said, 153 00:17:30,530 --> 00:17:37,040 and you will be lucky to enjoy health and peace and plenty as long as you do not reproach me on account 154 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:43,940 of my sisters or the place from which you snatched me away or anything connected with it for on the day. 155 00:17:43,940 --> 00:17:48,410 When you do so, you will lose both your bride and your good fortune. 156 00:17:48,410 --> 00:17:55,110 And when I am taken away from you, you will pine away quickly to an early death. 157 00:17:55,110 --> 00:18:01,950 He pledged himself by all that was most sacred to be ever faithful and constant in his love for her. 158 00:18:01,950 --> 00:18:11,610 And they were solemnly wedded in the presence of all the nobles from far and near whom Edric invited to their bridal feast at that time. 159 00:18:11,610 --> 00:18:20,370 William Norman was newly made king of England who hearing of this wonder, desired both to see the lady and to test the truth of the tale, 160 00:18:20,370 --> 00:18:24,780 and bade the newly married pair to London, where he was holding his court thither. 161 00:18:24,780 --> 00:18:28,350 Then they went and many witnesses from their own country with them, 162 00:18:28,350 --> 00:18:33,390 who brought with them the testimony of others who could not present themselves to the king. 163 00:18:33,390 --> 00:18:38,700 But the marvellous beauty of the lady was the best of all proofs of her superhuman origin. 164 00:18:38,700 --> 00:18:47,540 And the king let them return in peace, wondering greatly. Many years passed happily by till one evening. 165 00:18:47,540 --> 00:18:55,850 Edric returned late from hunting and could not find his wife. He sought her and called for her for some time in vain. 166 00:18:55,850 --> 00:19:00,510 At last she appeared. I suppose began here with angry looks. 167 00:19:00,510 --> 00:19:06,010 It is your sisters who have detained you such a long time, have they not? 168 00:19:06,010 --> 00:19:11,920 The rest of his upbraiding was addressed to the at. For the moment, her sisters were mentioned. 169 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:17,480 She vanished. Patrick's grief was overwhelming. 170 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:24,500 He sought the place where he had found her at first, but no tears, no laments of his could call her back. 171 00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:30,680 He cried out day and night against his own folly. And pined away. 172 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:40,350 And died of sorrow. As his wife had long before foretold. 173 00:19:40,350 --> 00:19:45,330 So poor Edric there lost his wife for. Was he to blame in that? 174 00:19:45,330 --> 00:19:49,410 Well, he does pine away and die when he loses his wife. 175 00:19:49,410 --> 00:19:59,340 He did, I suppose, truly love her, that you've got to ask some questions in some ways about snatching your wife, forcing her into marriage with you. 176 00:19:59,340 --> 00:20:05,970 And even though she becomes a respectable wife and she brings good fortune and wealth and she's so famous, 177 00:20:05,970 --> 00:20:09,390 even William the Conqueror comes to Inspecteur. 178 00:20:09,390 --> 00:20:17,880 There's something about his expectations of how she should be back home ready, cooking his dinner, presumably when he comes back from hunting. 179 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:24,990 And then when he shouts at her, perhaps it's indicative of the way that some marriages work, particularly when the bride is unwilling. 180 00:20:24,990 --> 00:20:33,380 But there is always a mistake. Yes. And the consequence is that he frees her and then she can go back to where she was longing to be herself. 181 00:20:33,380 --> 00:20:38,370 And off she goes as fast as she possibly can, which is not unknown. 182 00:20:38,370 --> 00:20:41,640 Is it in those stories of animal brides? Yes. 183 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:52,200 Well, it's got echoes of a salkey stories which are Cele women, so mythical beasts that live in the water, who come onto the shore at certain times, 184 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:59,130 remove their seal skins and dance as beautiful women, and then dress again in the skins and return to the water. 185 00:20:59,130 --> 00:21:08,460 And a chap steals away one of the skins to to ensure that this beautiful woman he's fallen in love with cannot return to the sea. 186 00:21:08,460 --> 00:21:12,960 A must come home with him. So again, it's the same story of entrapment. 187 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:23,880 And it's it's so sad because it's borne out of an utter love and desire for this beautiful creature rather than a selfish, rapey culture. 188 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:29,100 It's more of a I need you because I love you so much. 189 00:21:29,100 --> 00:21:35,280 And that she doesn't have choice in it. She has to go back and she's trapped and they have children in the Salkey story. 190 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:36,600 And so at some point, 191 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:46,220 she she rediscovers her skin and has this terrible choice to make as to whether she should stay a land bride in the house that she's got. 192 00:21:46,220 --> 00:21:50,370 It's been a fine marriage and they've they've produced these wonderful children 193 00:21:50,370 --> 00:21:54,900 or if she should leave her family and and world and return back to the sea, 194 00:21:54,900 --> 00:21:57,840 which I think she ultimately does. Yes. 195 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:04,470 And it's interesting that in one of the best known of the selfie stories, she already has a husband amongst the selkie folk. 196 00:22:04,470 --> 00:22:12,420 So when she gets her skin back and she dashes back into the waves, a huge male seal rises up to meet her. 197 00:22:12,420 --> 00:22:18,750 And that makes you realise it's it wasn't just snatching an innocent girl away and 198 00:22:18,750 --> 00:22:23,270 introducing her to marriage in the way that human marriage marriages always work, 199 00:22:23,270 --> 00:22:27,300 that the reluctant bride has to leave her family and marry somebody. 200 00:22:27,300 --> 00:22:32,220 But this is a story where an already existing relationship is disrupted. 201 00:22:32,220 --> 00:22:38,490 And yes, her husband loves her and she makes the best of it in many ways and she gives him these wonderful children. 202 00:22:38,490 --> 00:22:43,890 There must be so hard to make that decision to leave your children behind. 203 00:22:43,890 --> 00:22:46,720 Yeah. And so heartbreaking for the husbands as well. 204 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:54,330 We started with we started with Rich pining away and dying after his wife left back to the fairy world. 205 00:22:54,330 --> 00:23:00,390 And again, it's kind of borne out of a desire to please the woman and create the most amazing world for her. 206 00:23:00,390 --> 00:23:05,490 But it's lacking the thing that she needs. So she must return. 207 00:23:05,490 --> 00:23:13,080 And I suppose it may be some comfort that in some stories about fairy brides and even I think in some selkie stories, 208 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:23,160 the fairy mother or the selkie mother can come back to the beach or to the lake that she lives speare beneath and make contact with her children. 209 00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:29,760 And in one fairy story, the lady clearly ran. The fairy woman returns to the lake that she lives in, 210 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:37,110 but she comes back to see her children and teaches them healing law so they don't lose all the contact with their mother. 211 00:23:37,110 --> 00:23:43,440 And I'd like to think that in the the Orkney stories of the selkies, that the children to be who are, after all, 212 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:51,300 help selkie can go down to the edge between the salt water in the sea strand and call to their mother, who will come to see them. 213 00:23:51,300 --> 00:23:54,420 And that is very unusual to my understanding of fairies. 214 00:23:54,420 --> 00:24:01,080 It's either this world or this world this time or this time, and there's choices to be made there. 215 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:04,920 But that very much bridges the gap. Yeah, well, when children are involved, 216 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:13,380 I think that really does kind of tug on the heartstrings and and storytellers recognise that it can't be as as black and white, 217 00:24:13,380 --> 00:24:22,220 as decisive as all that. Here's Brian giving us the best known of the Orkneys selkie stories. 218 00:24:22,220 --> 00:24:30,300 Selkie story, The Good Man of Westernness, A Tale from Orkney. 219 00:24:30,300 --> 00:24:36,840 The good man, or Westernness, was a handsome, well-to-do young fellow, strong, well-liked and with a profitable farm, 220 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:42,630 it will come as no surprise to learn that many of the unmarried local girls had their sights on him. 221 00:24:42,630 --> 00:24:50,550 However, despite their ample attentions, the good man was a man who was simply not interested in marriage. 222 00:24:50,550 --> 00:24:57,810 So it came to pass that one fine day, the good man was down on the beach at the ebb tide when he saw a short distance away. 223 00:24:57,810 --> 00:25:02,470 A number of selkie folk lying out on a flat rock. 224 00:25:02,470 --> 00:25:08,290 Some of these selkie folk was sunning themselves, while others jumped and played in the clear water. 225 00:25:08,290 --> 00:25:13,200 All were naked with unblemished skins as white as snow. 226 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:18,770 Their seal skins lay strewn carelessly on the sand and rocks around them. 227 00:25:18,770 --> 00:25:24,170 The good man crept closer as he neared the place. The silky folk played. 228 00:25:24,170 --> 00:25:28,790 The good man leapt to his feet and ran toward them for all he was worth. 229 00:25:28,790 --> 00:25:35,570 With a shriek, the selkie folks snatched up their sealskins and quickly retreated to the safety of the sea. 230 00:25:35,570 --> 00:25:38,330 However swift as they were, the good man was quicker, 231 00:25:38,330 --> 00:25:44,690 and he managed to seise a skin belonging to one beautiful seal maiden in the hasty rush to safety. 232 00:25:44,690 --> 00:25:54,430 This poor creature had forgotten to retrieve his skin. The selkie folks swam out a little distance and turned to gaze mournfully at the good man. 233 00:25:54,430 --> 00:26:00,760 He stared back and realised that also one had taken the shape of SEALs, grinning. 234 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:07,390 He put the captured seal skin under his arm, whistling a merry tune he set out for home. 235 00:26:07,390 --> 00:26:17,440 No sooner had he left the ebb than he heard the most sorrowful, wailing and weeping coming from behind him turning, he saw a fair woman following him. 236 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:27,010 She was a most pitiful sight. Sobbing and howling in grief, she held her arms out and pledged to have her skin returned. 237 00:26:27,010 --> 00:26:33,900 Huge tears ran from her large, dark eyes and trickled down her ivory cheeks. 238 00:26:33,900 --> 00:26:38,340 Falling to her knees. She cried. Oh, handsome man. 239 00:26:38,340 --> 00:26:43,740 If there is any mercy in your human breast. Give me back my seal skin. 240 00:26:43,740 --> 00:26:51,850 I cannot live in the sea without it. I cannot live amongst my own people without my sealskin. 241 00:26:51,850 --> 00:26:57,480 The good man was not a soft hearted man. But he could not help but pity the poor creature. 242 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,100 Pity, however, was not the only emotion he felt with the pity. 243 00:27:02,100 --> 00:27:13,480 Came the softer and sweeter passion of love. The icy heart that had yet to love a mortal woman was soon melted by this seal maidens beauty. 244 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:22,210 Eventually, the good man managed to wring from the selkie wife a reluctant consent to remain with him as his wife. 245 00:27:22,210 --> 00:27:31,010 She had little choice in this matter. For as all Orcadian, no, she could not return to her kin in the sea without her skin. 246 00:27:31,010 --> 00:27:35,900 So the Sea Maiden went with the good man and stayed with him for many a day. 247 00:27:35,900 --> 00:27:44,770 She turned out to be a thrifty, frugal and kindly wife. And although she was a creature of the sea, the good man had a happy life with her. 248 00:27:44,770 --> 00:27:47,690 The selkie wife bore the good man, seven children, 249 00:27:47,690 --> 00:27:56,000 four boys and three girls came from their union and it was said that there were no children as beautiful as them in all the aisles. 250 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,960 And all the while, the sea wife and her human husband seemed content. 251 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:05,010 And Mary. But all was not as it seemed. 252 00:28:05,010 --> 00:28:16,040 There was a wait in the selkie wife's heart, many was the time that she was seen to gaze longingly out to the sea, the sea that was her true home. 253 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:21,410 So to all the islanders and to the good man himself. All seemed well with his family. 254 00:28:21,410 --> 00:28:28,290 But as is always the case in these tales, the bliss was not to last. 255 00:28:28,290 --> 00:28:34,650 One fine day, the good man and his four sons were out fishing in their boat with the menfolk out of the house. 256 00:28:34,650 --> 00:28:40,440 The selkie wife sent three of the girls down to the app to gather limpets and welks for that tea. 257 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:47,400 The youngest girl had to remain at home because she had hurt her foot, climbing on the sharp rocks by the shore, as usual. 258 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:54,450 Soon as the house emptied the selfie, wife set to looking for her long lost seal skin. 259 00:28:54,450 --> 00:29:00,720 She searched high and she searched low. She searched, but she searched Ben. 260 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:05,580 She searched out and she searched in, but to no avail. 261 00:29:05,580 --> 00:29:14,150 She could not find the skin. The time passed and the sun swung to the west, lengthening the shadows, 262 00:29:14,150 --> 00:29:22,930 the little last seated in a straw back chair with her sore feet on the creepy stool, watched her mother carry out the frantic hunt. 263 00:29:22,930 --> 00:29:26,340 Mother, what are you looking for? 264 00:29:26,340 --> 00:29:35,440 Oh, child, don't tell, but I'm looking for a pretty skin to make a shoe that would cure your soul feet, replied the selkie wife. 265 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:41,200 But, mother, I know where it is one day when you are out, and my father thought I was asleep in bed. 266 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:51,020 He took a pretty skin down, glowered at it for a short time and folded it and put it away in the ACS over the bed. 267 00:29:51,020 --> 00:29:59,150 When the selkie wife heard this, she clapped for joy, rushed to the place where her long concealed skin lay fare thee weel. 268 00:29:59,150 --> 00:30:06,200 P.D. Budo good bye, little child, she said to her child as she ran from the house. 269 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:13,280 Rushing to the shore, she threw on her skin and with a wild cry of joy, plunged into the sea, shifting again into her silky form. 270 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:19,520 She swam out through the waves where a selkie man was waiting for her and greeted her with delight. 271 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:25,280 All the while, the good man was rowing home and happened to see these two selkies from his little boat. 272 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:29,120 His wife uncovered her beautiful face and cried out to him. 273 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:38,540 Fare thee wheel good man or Westernness farewell to the I like the whale enough for you were good to me. 274 00:30:38,540 --> 00:30:48,470 But I love better me man of the sea. Ferries are often predatory in their sexuality. 275 00:30:48,470 --> 00:30:54,840 We can distinguish between the kind of ferry woman who wants to take her lover away to Fairyland for good or ill. 276 00:30:54,840 --> 00:31:01,160 This is a pattern in which a supernatural woman wants to or is made to live in human world. 277 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:07,820 The fairies are difficult to escape from. But with courage and determination, men and women can rescue the people they love. 278 00:31:07,820 --> 00:31:12,680 And the woman who is taken to live in a different culture, forced to confirm against her well, 279 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:18,110 may often snap and escape to her own place, even leaving her children behind. 280 00:31:18,110 --> 00:31:26,780 And as we've seen here in the case of Bow, even knights are not immune to the problems of corruption and favouritism in the king's court, 281 00:31:26,780 --> 00:31:32,030 and they too can find a better and fairer life amongst the fairies. 282 00:31:32,030 --> 00:31:35,960 If you've enjoyed this podcast, join us in the next one in this series. 283 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,370 Well, we'll talk about positive interactions between fairies and humans. 284 00:31:40,370 --> 00:31:43,460 And if you happen to be able to come to the Sage Gateshead, 285 00:31:43,460 --> 00:31:49,610 there'll be a residency with open rehearsals and actual performances of the artist's new work in progress. 286 00:31:49,610 --> 00:32:19,604 On April 26, 27 28, 2090.