Book Description
The late David Thomson, raised among Scottish fishermen and storytellers, was obsessed from childhood by the Celtic seal legend -- the large body of stories and songs about the "selchie," or gray Atlantic seal. In the early 1950s he took a journey to seek the legend out -- in the Hebrides, on the east coast of Scotland, on the west coast of Ireland, in the Shetlands and the Orkney Islands. He gives us here the fruit of his search as he found it -- in the pub, at a country dance, in a crofter's kitchen -- and something of the men, women, and children from whom he heard the stories. He also tells of his own encounters with seals, and the dream-like hold that these have had on him. The result is, in the words of his friend Seamus Heaney, "a poetic achievement," a work of "intuitive understanding, perfect grace, and perfect pitch."

Product Description
The late David Thomson, raised among Scottish fishermen and storytellers, was obsessed from childhood by the Celtic seal legend -- the large body of stories and songs about the "selchie," or gray Atlantic seal. In the early 1950s he took a journey to seek the legend out -- in the Hebrides, on the east coast of Scotland, on the west coast of Ireland, in the Shetlands and the Orkney Islands. He gives us here the fruit of his search as he found it -- in the pub, at a country dance, in a crofter's kitchen -- and something of the men, women, and children from whom he heard the stories. He also tells of his own encounters with seals, and the dream-like hold that these have had on him. The result is, in the words of his friend Seamus Heaney, "a poetic achievement," a work of "intuitive understanding, perfect grace, and perfect pitch."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The late David Thomson, raised among Scottish fishermen and storytellers, was obsessed from childhood by the Celtic seal legend -- the large body of stories and songs about the "selchie," or gray Atlantic seal. In the early 1950s he took a journey to seek the legend out -- in the Hebrides, on the east coast of Scotland, on the west coast of Ireland, in the Shetlands and the Orkney Islands. He gives us here the fruit of his search as he found it -- in the pub, at a country dance, in a crofter's kitchen -- and something of the men, women, and children from whom he heard the stories. He also tells of his own encounters with seals, and the dream-like hold that these have had on him. The result is, in the words of his friend Seamus Heaney, "a poetic achievement," a work of "intuitive understanding, perfect grace, and perfect pitch."

FROM THE CRITICS

Thomas Flanagan

A masterpiece.

Peter Davison

A nonesuch of a book. It carries the smell of the seaweed, the scratchiness of the crofters' life, the bitterness of their beer, and its very sound is music.

Atlantic Monthly

A nonesuch of a book that should raise the sights of any reader who relished, for example, Bruce Chatwin's 'In Patagonia.

The Boston Sunday Globe

It is, indeed, a strange and beautiful book . . . a paean to a vanishing world of dangerous and wondrous enchantment.

Library Journal

Originally published in 1954, this acclaimed recounting of an ancient legend was the first work of prolific Scottish scholar Thomson (1914-88). In this pioneering work, based on field research and extensive oral narratives, he explores the enduring Celtic legend of the "selchie," or great Atlantic gray seal. An eloquent introduction to this first American edition (after three in England) by the esteemed poet Seamus Heaney illuminates this masterpiece as an unrivaled achievement that "recovers and revives" the ageless trope of humans captured between animals and angels. Thomson documents birth legends from fisherfolk and raconteurs, who tell of this great sea mammal, its supernatural powers, and its profound impact upon the locals. Critically acclaimed in earlier editions, this compact work affords a poetic view of the selchie myth, embracing its rich and ancient Celtic essence while collecting the heretofore neglected lore of selected enclaves nestled in the Hebrides, the Shetlands, and the Orkney Islands. Aimed at scholars of cultural history, folklore, and Scottish studies, this volume will be welcome in all folklore collections concentrating on anthropology, regional lore, and the lore of the sea.--Richard K. Burns, MSLS, Hatboro, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Strange and wonderful and beautifully written . . . A neglected masterpiece . . . and a seminal text for this writer. — (Richard Adams Carey,author of Against the Tide: The Fate of the New England Firsherman)

A masterpiece, a book about an ancient way of life sustained by courage, courtesy, and above all, story.  — Thomas Flanagan