History Main / ShapeShiftingLover

* The Swanmays of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' are a secretive all-female order of humanoid rangers and druids who can turn into swans.

** Though the "lover" part is optional, this is the official explanation for the [[HalfHumanHybrid half-dragon]] template.

* ''WesternAnimation/SongOfTheSea'' features this as part of it's backstory, Ben and Saorise's mother Bronagh is a [[SelkiesAndWereseals selkie]] as is Saorise, their father being a lighthouse keeper who fell in love with the very willing Bronagh. However Bronagh returned to the sea on the night of her daughter's birth. The story focuses instead on Ben and Saorise's journey to save both the lives of the fae folk of Ireland and Saorise after their father throw's her selkie coat into the sea which makes her ill.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': All sorcerers can shapeshift into animals, although each one tends to find a form that suits their personality best and stick with it. Belgarath favours the form of the wolf and, while travelling in wolf form, ran into a very 'playful' she-wolf. Even though he didn't take advantage of her, she stayed by his side even though he spent most of his life as a human living in a tower. One day, he realised the she-wolf had been hanging around him for a thousand years, just watching him. When she discovered how his shapeshifting worked, she began to practice shapeshifting, particularly favouring the form of a snowy owl. When she finally accepts he's never going to take an interest in her the way she wants, no matter which animal form she takes, she secretly learns how to take human form. Giving herself the identity Poledra, she sets up home on the edge of the valley he lives in. Belgarath only learns who Poledra is after he's fallen in love with her. Garion only learns how to shapeshift when Belgarath decides to show him why his relationship with Poledra is not an InterspeciesRomance. By learning how to turn into a wolf, Garion learns that shapeshifting is absolute: he isn't a human who has turned into a wolf, he is a wolf. Poledra's human form was just as absolute and her twin daughters, Polgara and Garion's ancestor Beldaran, are entirely human. Polgara's love of shapeshifting into a snowy owl comes from Poledra while Garion's love of the wolf form comes from Belgarath, not Poledra.

* Poledra in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a variation: a wolf who befriends Belgarath, then becomes human to [[HappilyMarried marry]] him. Belgarath doesn't consider it an InterspeciesRomance, (when Garion comments on it, Belgarath says that no, "the change was absolute.") although she takes her wolf form as it suits her.

See Also: InterspeciesRomance, OurMermaidsAreDifferent, SelkiesAndWereseals and HumanityEnsues. Compare BeastAndBeauty, BalefulPolymorph, BoyMeetsGhoul, "Literature/TheFrogPrince". [[IThoughtItMeant Unrelated to]] PowerPerversionPotential and ShapeshiftingSquick. Not to be confused with ShapeshiftingSeducer.

* Heather Dale has a song about a woman/selkie pair where the woman finds an old selkie coat and turns into one herself.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11989539/1/Hakkōna Hakkōna]]'': [[spoiler:Feliciano ends up with Kiku. Kiku, a nekomataneko Obake who can shapeshift into just about anything.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Hana's boyfriend in ''Anime/WolfChildrenAmeAndYuki'' reveals himself to be a wolf-man after they'd been going out for some time. [[spoiler: His role is tragically cut short when he drowns in a storm drain while hunting.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheGoodNeighbors'' has two swan maidens - well, one maiden and her brother - among the many, many fae in the college town at the center of the book. The whole folk tale is rather deconstructed, as [[spoiler: when their skins are taken by a mortal, the girl is effectively forced into sexual slavery, and it's up to her brother to kill her and end her torment, as he can't act against her captor either.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''/''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' crossover ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8275728/1/The-Lady-of-the-Loch The Lady of the Loch,]]'' [[spoiler: Elinor is a selkie that was saved from the dragon Mor'du by Fergus, with whom she then stayed out of love and gratitude. Neither Fergus or her children are aware of this, which causes problems when the witch asks Merida to give her her mother's seal skin...]]

* In ''Literature/IslandOfTheAunts'' by Creator/EvaIbbotson, one of the titular aunts is friends with a seal. Eventually, events conspire to make it so that someone stabs him with a knife. Turns out, he's a selkie, and this was the requirement for him turning into a human male. They continue their, somewhat romantic (it's a children's book, after all, so nothing explicit) friendship, and he insists on teaching her how to swim. [[spoiler: She has to let him go when he decides that he wants to return to seal form and accompany a god-like kraken on a travel around the earth. She [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants him to be happy, and thus cries the seven tears that are necessary for him to return to seal form. It's all very sweet.]]]]

* The short story ''[[http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/ Jackalope Wives]]'' by Creator/UrsulaVernon. Human boy sees animals-turned-human-women dancing, decides he wants one for himself, and sets about stealing her pelt. It does not go well ''at all''. [[spoiler: His grandmother was a {{Jackalope}} once too. When her husband died and she found her pelt again, she chose to burn it so she wouldn't have to leave her children behind -- and besides, her second husband was nice.]]

* {{Kitsune}} (fox-spirits) and Tanuki (raccoon dog spirits) - Japanese trickster animal spirits. They don't leave skins behind, but they sometimes transform into beautiful women and marry men. They must leave if the man discovers their identity. Sometimes they are malicious and sometimes they are kindly. They are also sometimes female as humans, but male in their true animal forms. Among the best-known traits of the Tanuki are its ''ridiculously large testicles''.. On occasion it's implied that ''both sexes'' have the testicles, which, as far as fantastical creatures go, makes a certain amount of sense (dwarf beards, anyone?), but considering the tanuki is also a real animal is just plain weird. The strong vulpine predisposition to womanhood is also by no means binding; they are known often to have impersonated men, although a lower percentage of these are for romantic purposes.

** They seem to like this trope. In their album ''The Hazards of Love'', the main singer is able to change into a fawn, and takes advantage of this power to, er, [[RapeIsLove "initiate" his relationship with the innocent Margaret.]] Being a human adopted by the Queen of the Forest has its perks.

It's ... complicated.]]

''"A man spies a group of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting magical shapeshifters]] bathing. Seeing that they must shed their creature skin when they [[HumanityEnsues transform from a creature into a beautiful woman]], he steals one of the skins. [[ShapeshifterModeLock Unable to transform]] and join her sisters, one poor creature is left behind. The man makes the abandoned one his wife. One day, many years later (sometimes after bearing children), she finds the skin and may finally return to her kin. Dilemma on whether or not she will may or may not ensue."''

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}''/''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' crossover ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8275728/1/The-Lady-of-the-Loch The Lady of the Loch]]'', [[spoiler: Elinor is a selkie that was saved from the dragon Mor'du by Fergus, with whom she then stayed out of love and gratitude. Neither Fergus or her children are aware of this, which causes problems when the witch asks Merida to give her her mother's seal skin...]]

* The short story ''[[http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/ Jackalope Wives]]''. Human boy sees animals-turned-human-women dancing, decides he wants one for himself, and sets about stealing her pelt. It does not go well ''at all''. [[spoiler: His grandmother was a {{Jackalope}} once too. When her husband died and she found her pelt again, she chose to burn it so she wouldn't have to leave her children behind -- and besides, her second husband was nice.]]

* Poledra in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is a variation: a wolf who befriends Belgarath, then becomes human to [[HappilyMarried marry]] him. Belgarath doesn't consider it an InterspeciesRomance, although she takes her wolf form as it suits her.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Considering that ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' is influenced quite a bit by the ballet version of ''Theatre/SwanLake'', it's probably no surprise that the anime indirectly references this legend, as well. Tutu sometimes appears as a swan to people, and was in love with the Prince from her fairytale--but ''she's'' the one who has to hide something, instead of the Prince.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In the {{Brave}}[=/=]WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon crossover [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8275728/1/The-Lady-of-the-Loch The Lady of The Loch]] [[spoiler: Elinor is a selkie that was saved from the dragon Mor'du by Fergus, with whom she then stayed out of love and gratitude. Neither Fergus or her children are aware of this, which causes problems when the witch asks Merida to give her her mother's seal skin...]]

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Folklore and Mythology]]
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River_Dolphin Pink Dolphin]] of the Amazon is thought to take human form at night, whereupon it seduces young, impressionable girls with its charm and impregnates them, returning to the river by the morning. Typically, when a girl in that region turns up pregnant and the father is unknown, fatherhood is attributed to the dolphin. A striking feature is that its blowhole remains even when the dolphin is in human form, which demands that it use a hat to conceal it when on land. Another identifying feature is that the dolphin people wear white while on land, and the dolphin-fathered children tend to have dolphin-colored skin.
** According to P.J. O'Rourke, Amazonian Indians hold it is bad luck to kill a dolphin. And worse luck to date them.
* There is an Inuit legend about a petrel who is in love with a beautiful maiden, and transforms himself into a man so that he may marry her; however, his eyes are still those of a petrel and so he wears snow goggles to hide them. When the maiden takes them off, she sees his eyes and the spell is broken.
* A fairly common Russian folk story is that of a Frog Tsarevna (princess). The story usually goes as follows: a tsar commands his three sons to shoot an arrow each, and where the arrows fall, there they shall find wives for themselves. The youngest son finds a frog holding his arrow, and so must marry her. When he does, she becomes a woman. She proves to be an excellent wife, not only beautiful but also smart and cunning... but then he finds and burns her frog skin, and so she leaves him.
* Swan Maidens - Common to mainland Europe, and Russia. The women (occasionally men too) in question are normally swans, but they leave their feathered cloaks behind when they bathe as humans. This has influenced many stories, modern and old including the ballet ''Theatre/SwanLake'', Swanmays in ''Literature/ThreeHeartsAndThreeLions'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Literature/AnitaBlake's Swan Men, etc.
** {{Fairy Tale}}s incorporating this in the Quest for the Lost Wife include [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/swanmaiden/index.html "The Swan Maiden"]] and [[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/swan.html#meier "The Three Swans"]].
** Fairy tales that end with the wife's escape include [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/swanmaiden/stories/sweden.html "The Swan Maiden"]].
* {{Selkies}} - [[Myth/CelticMythology Celtic]] and Nordic legendary seal people. If a man captures a female Selkie's skin, she is in his power and must be his wife, but she will return to the sea as soon as she finds her seal skin. In some versions of the story, the children follow their mother and transform into seals, or alternatively, drown. In others, most famously the film "[[http://madnessmonster.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/jaaaaaaaamie-review/ The Secret of the Roan Inish]]", the children cannot change as they are ([[HalfHumanHybrid mostly]]) normal humans and are left behind (and confused unless their father explains what happened). The male Selkies are seducers of women. There is a similar American Indian story of a seal boy. This again crops up often in modern fiction and other works, and has also inspired a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' race.
* Melusine - There are ''many'' versions of this romantic French tale. In one version, Melusine fell in love with a human and appeared to him as a beautiful woman. When they were married, she made her husband promise that she would have some time to herself each week. Wouldn't you know it, one day he breaks his promise and sees that she is actually [[OurdragonsAreDifferent a dragon]] (depending on other variants, she's even half-snake). Melusine is forced to go back to her family, but her children stay with the humans and a group of French nobility claimed to be her descendants for many years.
* The hero of "Literature/EastOfTheSunAndWestOfTheMoon" is a bear and once he wins the heroine, he can only take on his human form at night. Similarly with [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/stories/norroway.html "The Black Bull of Norroway"]], [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/stories/brownbear.html "The Brown Bear of Norway"]], [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/stories/enchpig.html "The Enchanted Pig"]], the dog in [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/stories/daughterskies.html "The Daughter of the Skies"]], and [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/stories/whitewolf.html "The White Wolf"]]. When the heroine [[ForbiddenFruit violates a prohibition]], he must leave her. However, when she [[TheQuest finds him]] after a long search, she is able to recover him.
** "Hans My Hedgehog" is yet another variant. It is probably best known for being dramatized in an episode of the cult favorite Creator/JimHenson series, ''Series/TheStoryteller''.
* In [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/2myrtle1911.html "The Myrtle"]], a woman wishes for a child, even a sprig of myrtle, and gives birth to one. A prince is so enthralled by it that he buys it from her, and the myrtle changes to a Fairy in his rooms at night.
* In [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/slavonic/wratislaw/shewolf.html "The She-Wolf"]], the bride was a wolf, with a wolfskin, before the miller's son nailed it down so it would not fly back to her; then, later, her son tells her where to find it.
* In the variants of the ChivalricRomance ''The Swan Children'', the bride is more or less clearly a swan-maiden; she gives birth to children who are first [[MosesInTheBulrushes exposed]] and then [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting transformed into swans]] by removing the chains they wear about their necks. When this is discovered, the children are changed back by restoring --except that one chain was melted down, trapping that child in swan form.
* Tennyo (Heavenly Maidens) - Japanese imports of Indian and Chinese Buddhist figures. The males are called Tennin. They don't change from animals but they do need a feathered garment (a hagoromo) to fly back to the heavens. The Noh play ''Hagoromo'' features the core story where the garment in question is stolen.
* {{Kitsune}} (fox-spirits) and Tanuki (raccoon dog spirits) - Japanese trickster animal spirits. They don't leave skins behind, but they sometimes transform into beautiful women and marry men. They must leave if the man discovers their identity. Sometimes they are malicious and sometimes they are kindly. They are also sometimes female as humans, but male in their true animal forms. Among the best-known traits of the Tanuki are its ''ridiculously large testicles''.. On occasion it's implied that ''both sexes'' have the testicles, which, as far as fantastical creatures go, makes a certain amount of sense (dwarf beards, anyone?), but considering the tanuki is also a real animal is just plain weird. The strong vulpine predisposition to womanhood is also by no means binding; they are known often to have impersonated men, although a lower percentage of these are for romantic purposes.
* One particularly famous positively-depicted Fox Wife is Kuzunoha, mother of the Japanese Merlin. (A guy with the bonus cred of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_no_Seimei actually having existed.]])
* Gumiho are the Korean version of the [[FantasticFoxes nine-tailed fox]]. They occasionally seduce men, though normally they're trying to win his heart (or liver) in a [[ToServeMan more literal sense]].
* Toyotama-hime (also known as Oto-hime) - Her story is remarkably similar to that of Melusine's. Once again, she was a dragoness, specifically, the daughter of Ryujin, the Dragon King of Japan, and fell in love with the fisherman Urashima Taro. And as always, it didn't end well for them. Note that she ''has'' had at least one (slightly more) successful relationship, albeit with the god Hoori.
* The Crane Wife. A poor man finds an injured crane, and nurses it back to health. It flies away, and soon a beautiful woman shows up and marries him. She helps make him wealthy with her weaving, with the condition that he never watch her weave. He gets greedy and breaks this rule, and sees her in Crane form weaving her feathers into the silk. She then leaves once her identity is discovered.
* A Japanese story featuring a yuki-onna followed Melusine's path in a way. A man got lost in a blizzard and this snow woman showed him the way out: she made him promise never to speak of the encounter to anyone or she would kill him. Later this man meets a beautiful woman and marries her. Many years, and a son, follow and one night, after a bit of sake, the man tells his wife of the yuki-onna. The wife stands up and reveals herself to be the yuki-onna, immensely annoyed, and leaves but does not kill him. It varies on whether her reason for sparing his life was that she had given him a son and hence had some sort of emotional attachment or that since he hadn't technically told anyone ''else''.
* Second husband of Inuit sea godness, Sedna turned out to be a petrel-spirit in disguise. In some myths it’s the reason she left him later. Other Inuit legends claim that in the TheTimeOfMyths it was normal for spirits to cross border between human and animal world and vice versa. Many of them are love stories.
* In the Indian tale of Urvashi and Pururavas, Urvashi, unusually, had voluntarily chosen to marry him, and his violation of a taboo, tricked by her fellow nymphs who wanted her back, not the recovery of an item, made her leave him. However, when he is searching for her, she and the others take the form of swans.
* In "Völundarkviða" of the ''Literature/PoeticEdda'', [[Myth/WaylandTheSmith Völundr]] and his two brothers encounter three valkyries spinning flax in the wild and take away their swan-shirts which the valkyries need to transform into birds. After living with the brothers for nine years, the valkyries retrieve their magic shirts and fly away.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Three selkies feature prominently in a chapter of BadMachinery. One came ashore as a young pup/girl and had her seal-skin stolen/hidden, so she's lived as a human ever since. Years later, in the present day of the story, another selkie girl ends up losing her skin accidentally, and then an adult male selkie (her dad) comes looking for her. In the end, both girls have their skins given back so they can go home to the sea, but the one who'd been human for years had ''outgrown'' her pup-sized skin so she ends up stuck human (and driven just a bit crazy from the whole experience and being repeatedly rejected by the boy who had taken her skin in the first place).

* The Pink Dolphin legend shows up in ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'', but with a girl who Eliza believes to be a shape shifting River Dolphin who wants to transform Debbie into a River Dolphin because she wants a friend and is lonely. Debbie doesn't transform but it is never confirmed whether the girl in question was a Dolphin or not. Knowing about the above story [[LesYay gives the episode a distinctive lesbian subtext]].

* ''TearsToTiara'' uses a variation on the selkies, Llyr is a 'sea elf' who uses a seal pelt to transform into a seal. When Awarn accidentally burns it, she announces she is his wife (sea elves give their husbands their pelt, or must marry anyone who steals it).

* Considering that ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' is influenced quite a bit by the ballet version of SwanLake, it's probably no surprise that the anime indirectly references this legend, as well. Tutu sometimes appears as a swan to people, and was in love with the Prince from her fairytale--but ''she's'' the one who has to hide something, instead of the Prince.

* Every member of Tsukune's UnwantedHarem in ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' is merely disguised in human form, the exception being [[CuteWitch Yukari]], whose species looks human by default, and [[OurVapmiresAreDifferent Moka]] who simply looks like an impossibly beautiful human with fangs. Their true forms are all [[CuteMonsterGirl cute monster girls]].

* Every member of Tsukune's UnwantedHarem in ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' is merely disguised in human form, the exception being [[CuteWitch Yukari]], whose species looks human by default. Their true forms are all [[CuteMonsterGirl cute monster girls]].

A popular variation has a creature fall in love with a human and ''willingly'' take on human form to marry him. But when he finds out about it, often by [[ForbiddenFruit breaking a promise]], she must leave him. A lesser but still plentiful one is where he gives back the skin, and she is grateful -- which is good, because there is invariably a villain whose tasks for him are impossible without her advice.

* Swan Maidens - Common to mainland Europe, and Russia. The women (occasionally men too) in question are normally swans, but they leave their feathered cloaks behind when they bathe as humans. This has influenced many stories, modern and old including the ballet ''Theatre/SwanLake'', Swanmays in ''Literature/ThreeHeartsAndThreeLions'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', AnitaBlake's Swan Men, etc.