Episode Details

In this week's Bonus Episode, Martin and Eleanor dive into the murky history of Selkies.

Part of the "Three Ravens Bestiary" bonus series, we start by talking through the modern view of these mystical half-human, half-seal sea creatures, and chat about the most popular selkie myth of recent times - one of kidnap, stolen seal skins, and forced marriage. But then we wheel back to the origins of selkies, as found in Norse sagas, the Celtic 'Lore of Places' and elsewhere, too.

After a brief chat about the history of seal hunting, seal-skin products like Sporrans, and the Inuit goddess Sedna, we then explore the hidden depths behind selkie symbolism, from webbed feet and the number 7 to ideas of liminality and the surprising connections between selkies and swans in folklore...

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

About our Bonus Series 🌙

From 2023-2026 we released six different Bonus Series covering the following themes:

• Magic and Medicine - Eleanor’s 26-part exploration of the history of magical belief and folk practice.
• Three Ravens Bestiary - Martin’s A-Z of mythical creatures, legendary monsters, and things that go bump in the night.
• Dying Arts - Eleanor’s 13-episode series about endangered and heritage crafts from their earliest origins to their fates since mechanisation.
• Something Wicked - Martin’s 13-part exploration of historic True Crime stories with folkloric twists.
• Forgotten Melodies - Eleanor’s 13-episode foray into the history of folk music and song types featuring original recordings and new arrangements by us and our musical collaborators.
• Magus - Martin’s 13-part series about the magical lives of the most famous witches and wizards in history and their legacies in the magic of the modern day.

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