The People of the Sea: A Journey in Search of the Seal Legend

By David M. Szonyi

Raised among Scottish fishermen and storytellers, David Thomson was obsessed from childhood by the Celtic seal legend - that the seal was once human, and can sometimes resume human form - and about the Celtic fishing families who still tell and sing the tales and songs about the selchie, or gray Atlantic seal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582431841
• ISBN13: 9781582431840
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Haunting

Read the book. It's one of the best I've ever found. It will haunt your forever.

A Glimpse of a Lost World

A charming book with a telling title. In The People of the Sea, Thomson recounts many evenings on the more remote coasts of the British Isles in the first half of the twentieth century. While he is chasing stories about his little obsession (folklore of the grey seal -- one "people of the sea"), a modern reader may be more fascinated by the fishermen, ferrymen, farmers and families that he meets as he drops in on these...

Oh, that I could give more than five stars

I first came across this book in Ireland during the late 70's. It has become one of my very favorites. I've given copies to people and at one time gave away my last one to a writer who also wrote Selkie tales. Fortunately, I was able to get more. As I read the book I feel as though I'm right there with him...the look, the feel, the smell of the air, the ground, inside the homes...he captured it perfectly. I can't agree...

selchies forever

I was fifteen when I first read this book, in 1967. I had never heard any of the Selchie legends, and I was completely enchanted by them, and by Thomson's writing. He doesn't just retell these tales; he finds those people who still tell them, and lets them speak for themselves. We hear about how they lived then, and how they live now, showing how beautiful some of the old ways were, and how sad their loss is. I have re-read...

A wonderful glimpse into a different world

This is one of the most marvelous (in all senses of the word) reading experiences I've had in a long time. Thomson's book was originally published in the 1950's, but had fallen out of print and was resurrected through the efforts of Seamus Heaney, a friend of the author's who also provides a very helpful introduction. As a child, Thomson became fascinated by legends of seals who transform themselves into human beings (or...