* One tale from the Hebrides islands has a mermaid princess who is unhappy that [[UnscaledMerfolk she has webbed feet instead of a tail]], [[HalfHumanHybrid having inherited human genes]] from her great-grandfather (a sailor). After her mother dies, her father remarries a [=SeaWitch=], who is (not surprisingly) a WickedStepmother, jealous of the princess' beauty. When her biological mother was alive, she would come up on land and save an apple for the princess. The [=Sea Witch=] tricks the princess into going up on land...only instead of eating an apple, convinces her to eat a wild grape. The grape turns her into a seal, except for one night each year.

* One tale from the Hebrides islands has a mermaid princess who is unhappy that [[UnscaledMerfolk she has webbed feet instead of a tail]], [[HalfHumanHybrid having inherited human genes]] from her great-grandfather (a sailor). After her mother dies, her father remarries a [=SeaWitch=], who is (not surprisingly) a WickedStepmother, jealous of the princess' beauty. When her biological mother was alive, she would come up on land and save an apple for the princess. The [=SeaWitch=] tricks the princess into going up on land...only instead of eating an apple, convinces her to eat a wild grape. The grape turns her into a seal, except for one night each year.

May overlap with SweetSeal. Related tropes include OurMermaidsAreDifferent, OurWerebeastsAreDifferent, {{Animorphism}}, and ShapeShifting. See also UnscaledMerfolk.

Selkies (also known as silkies, selchies and seal wives) are mythological creatures that are found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore. Traditional Selkies can [[FurIsClothing become human by taking off their sealskins and return to seal form by putting the skin back on]]. Stories concerning selkies are often ShapeshiftingLover romantic tragedies. Sometimes the human will not know that their lover is a selkie, and wakes to find them gone. Other times, the human will hide the selkie's skin, thus [[ShapeshifterModeLock preventing them from returning to seal form]]. A selkie can only make contact with one particular human for a short amount of time -- seven years, at most, and often less -- before they must return to the sea.

* In ''Series/ManVsWild'', Bear Grylls makes a sealskin wetsuit. This has suggested to at least one viewer how selkies might be [[{{Demythification}} demythtified]].

* In ''Series/ManVsWild'', Bear Grylls makes a sealskin wetsuit. This has suggested to at least one viewer how selkies might be [[{{Demythtification}} demythtified]].

* Creator/UrsulaVernon's short story "Jackalope Wives" adapts the myth for the American southwest by exchanging seals for [[FearsomeCrittersOfAmericanFolklore jackalopes]]. In an additional twist, it's customary to burn the skin of a captured jackalope wife, thus forever locking her in human form. Because the skin is still connected to the creature, it causes her unbearable pain. One young man relents partway through the procedure out of pity and has it pointed out that capturing someone to be an unwilling wife is cruel, to begin with.

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* US singer Alexander James Adams sings "First Rising Tide", about a selkie man, on his 2008 CD "A Familiar Promise".

* Singer/songwriter S.J. Tucker created a song "Seafaring Satyr" based on Catherynne M. Valente's story about a female satyr and a male selkie.

* "The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry", [[Literature/ChildBallad Child]] #113.
** The Joan Baez song called "Silkie" on her second album in 1961 is a version of this.

* In Creator/SeananMcGuire's ''Literature/OctoberDaye'' novels, selkies and Roane are two fae races. The selkies' tragic origin story appears in one volume.

* In ''Webcomic/HannaIsNotABoysName'' by Tessa Stone, the character [[JerkassWoobie Veser]] is the HalfHumanHybrid of a human/selkie marriage. Kind of a {{Deconstruction}}: it seems to posit that a guy who would knowingly hold a selkie against her will is likely a JerkAss (he also [[AbusiveParents abuses his son]] and [[spoiler:murders his best friend]]), their marriage is a sham, and Veser [[http://hanna.aftertorque.com/?p=415 seems to]] [[http://hanna.aftertorque.com/?p=419 acknowledge]] that his mom would abandon him if given the chance.

* Selkies in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' are [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] {{Monstrous Humanoid}}s whose true form is [[UnscaledMerfolk part human and part leopard seal]]. They tend to be [[TheTrickster tricksters]], and range from somewhat feral to [[ImAHumanitarian out-and-out nasty]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Wishfart}}'', selkies appear as humanoid seals who resemble regular seal pups as babies. In the episode "Baby Seal Thingy", Akiko finds a baby selkie who immediately imprints on her and thinks she's his mother. Not wanting the responsibility, Akiko wishes the selkie was big enough to look himself and Dez's leprechaun magic makes this happen, only for the selkie to end up with an adult body, but still the brain of a baby.

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