Gioga's Son

Dear Journal,

Well, I'm on the ferry again, heading back to Aberdeen after a marvelous time in the Shetland Islands.  Shetland was a breathtaking juxtaposition of charming, tiny little towns — only 22,000 people consider the islands home — and gorgeous, untamed coasts.  My destination was Papa Stour, the small, western island where my grandfather grew up.  Today, the island is virtually uninhabited.  If I have any relatives on Grandpa Willie's side still living, I don't know where they went.  Even so, I stumbled upon a connection to my grandfather that I did not expect.

It happened while I was exploring the coastline of Papa Stour.  Picture high, rugged cliffs covered with wildflowers (but no trees!), overlooking a sea dotted with "stacks" — huge rocks jutting out of the water.  As the waves crashed against the stacks, it was hard to believe that this is where my grandpa had been a fisherman.  I heard there were reefs around there, too, though I didn't get a closer look at them.  Even in June, the temperature hung down in the fifties, and the water was probably freezing!  I got a closer look at some of the spectacular caves along the cliffs, though, with the help of a guide and a small boat.

Later, I picnicked near a gravel beach where many seals, called "selkies" here, lay.  They almost reminded me of mermaids as they soaked up the sun and gracefully slid in and out of the ocean.  As I stared at them, mesmerized, a voice behind me made me jump.  It was an old man.  "The selkies there, they look almost human, don't they?" he remarked.  We were soon talking, and it wasn't long before I found out that he, too, had been a fisherman here, and what's more, he had known my grandfather!  "Willie Tulloch was a good friend of mine," said the old man.  "He had a heart of gold."  With that, he began to tell me a story.




He and my grandfather had been quite the adventurers.  One rainy day, they and some friends were out fishing when they spotted some selkies resting on a huge stack.  They decided to try and get some seal skins to sell back on land.  Well, they succeeded in cutting the skins off some of the selkies, but before they were nearly finished the tide began to roll in fast.  As the waves grew higher and higher, they barely had time to get to their boat.  All of them made it, along with the skins — all, that is, except Grandpa Willie.  In vain his friends tried to rescue him.  A storm was coming, and the waves and the rocks would not let the little boat near.  Finally, with heavy hearts, they headed back to land, leaving Willie stranded on top of the stack as the waves crashed nearer and nearer.

Suddenly, Grandpa Willie spotted a group of selkies swimming towards the stack.  To his astonishment, when they landed below him, they stepped out of their skins as if they were garments.  Their beautiful, human-like forms revealed what they truly were: sea-fairies!  Willie watched, amazed, as they dove into the water, bringing the skinned selkies to higher ground.  Soon, the injured selkies had been revived, and they, too, appeared in their fairy forms.  However, there was no celebration.  Instead, the fairies all began to weep and wail in such a heart-wrenching manner that Willie could no longer contain his remorse.  Calling out to them, he offered to do anything he could to help, if he didn't die first.  Startled, the fairies looked up, and Willie was surprised to see compassion in their eyes.  One of the fairies, named Gioga, approached him. 

"I'm afraid our sorrow was too great at the fate of my son and his friends for us to notice your plight earlier," said the fairy, tears mingling with rain on her cheeks.  "Without their selkie skins, they can never again return to our home at the bottom of the sea."  Willie sorrowfully apologized for his part in the matter and again offered to do anything he could.  Gioga looked thoughtful.  "Perhaps we can help each other," she said.  She offered to give him a ride to shore if he would bring back the missing skins.  He gratefully obliged.

So it was that Grandpa Willie got back to Papa Stour, safe and sound.  "And faithful Willie kept his end of the promise, to be sure," finished the old fisherman.  "He saw to it that those selkie skins got back to their proper owners, and he never again hurt a selkie in his life." 

What a strange, fascinating story!  Like the changeling story I heard in Dumfries, I'm not sure if I can believe it.  Still, so many around here seem to believe in fairies that it really makes me wonder.  Who knows?  Either way, these stories will always be true in the sense that they are a living connection to the grandparents I never really knew.

Maggie