[Beitragsbild: „Stranded Selkie“ von ihave3kids ist unter CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 lizensiert
Nessie – davon hat wohl jeder schon einmal gehört. Der wohl berühmteste (vermeintliche) Bewohner des schottischen Loch Ness (loch = See) hat es in die Populärkultur geschafft, ist aber bei weitem nicht das einzige Monster aus der schottischen Sagenwelt.
Wie die Schülerinnen und Schüler der 10c im Englischunterricht bei Herrn Kern herausfanden, gibt es u. a. auch noch Kelpies (Wassergeister), Selkies (robbenartige Unterwasserbewohner, die Menschengestalt annehmen können), Glaistigs (hinterlistige kleine, aber starke Frauengestalten, die in Häusern spuken) und Brownies (nein, nicht die zum Essen, sondern männliche Hausgeister, die nichts als Schabernack im Sinn haben).
Diese in einer selbst geschriebenen Geschichte zum Leben zu erwecken war eine Aufgabe, die bei den Schülern großes kreatives Potential wachrief. Hier eine Auswahl von drei Geschichten:
The unique girl (Ida Schulmann)
The girl who united two completely different worlds (Paula Zierhut)
The Sailor (by Isabella Brock)
A long time ago, on the longest day of the year, the so called Krippa is celebrated at a stony bay with crystal clear water, the Krippa cliffs. A festival honoring a Scottish sailor who was braver than anyone before and snagged endless treasures for his country. The ancient Scottish people were won over with intelligence and charm, so he had had many loyal followers who even followed him in death.
But what the brave Warrior was best known for was his hunt for kelpies. The sailor saw himself admiring the beauty of the kelpies in human form and enjoying slitting the beastly creatures‘ throats. He still hadn’t forgotten the pain of the day he found his father’s drowned body. He vowed to destroy every one of the creatures that had seduced his father until the end of his life. May it cost his own life.
He killed, tortured and kidnapped many of them in seal as well as human form, except for one particularly beautiful woman with a soft voice, straight golden hair and rosy cheeks, who made him regret almost all his cruel deeds. A soft look in her eyes, while she was holding tight on her seal skin, captured behind bars was enough for the otherwise tough sailor to fall in love. The oath he had made to his father in blood and sweat broke that night. He led the imprisoned woman on board as soon as the sailor’s crew were asleep. The beauty had barely smelled the scent of salt water and felt the night breeze whets in her hair, when she daringly jumped headfirst off the ship. Before the captain of said ship could reply, the stunning lady was gone already turned back into a seal.
The warrior slowly went mad looking for her. The more he yearned for her love, the more he hated kelpies. He spent 10 years looking for the supposed love of his life, but never found her again. To put an end to the bitter nightmare, the sailor sailed one last time to the bay where he had once captured and kidnapped the unforgettable woman, the Krippa cliffs.
People say that to this day on the brightest day of the year at the highest point of the cliffs you can hear his sobbing and shouting, as well as miserable screams he let out just before his final jump. People celebrating the gift and curse of love till today on the sailor’s death day. And maybe if you are quite enough you can hear him too.
Once upon a time there was a little kelpie, which was living in Loch Lomond in Scotland. His home was beautiful – old trees on the shore, which reach into the water; dramatic mountains; fresh, blue water; lush green gras and breath-taking sunsets every day. But this kelpie wasn‘t very happy with his life as he should be. He was the only one that wasn’t able to assume human form and therefore he was excluded from all others of his tribe. They insult him, laugh about him and avoid him. Every single day.
But one day, when all the others were ashore to lure humans to the water and then eat them, the kelpie swam through the loch to explore new mysterious corners and to relieve the boredom. Suddenly he noticed a young, pretty girl at his age at the shore. She was sitting at the soft gras and reading a fantasy book. By nature his stomach grumbled and he hated the thought of attacking and eating her. But otherwise he hasn’t had anything in his stomach for a long time. He stayed under the water surface and struggled to make a decision.
But after some time he couldn’t hold back any longer, jumped out of the water and galloped towards the girl. She jumped up and held a golden glowing finger on the kelpie. The horse stopped. Water was dripping of his mane and his white fur shimmered in the last sunbeams of the evening, but he stood there completely still. “That couldn’t be real“, the kelpie thought. In front of him stood the human girl with magical abilities of which no one would have believed that she really existed, but it was only legend.
Fear overcame him. The girl promised that if the kelpie let her live, he would have one wish free. He was so scared that he agreed and he wished that he could assume human form and finally be like all the others. The kelpie returned to his tribe and to the surprise of all the others, suddenly he was the prettiest and strongest kelpie of them all. Of course they all wanted to be friends with him and he was the role model of everybody.
But he didn’t want to be like all the others, no… he wanted to be better. He didn’t make friends with all the kelpies, who loved him just for his looks and he didn’t want others to be excluded only because of their looks or characters, and what he definitely didn’t want was to eat humans anymore. So this kelpie improved a lot of things in his tribe and guess who became his best friend: the girl which changed his life.
The girl who united two completely different worlds
Once upon a time there was a selkie girl, who was living with her folk on the bottom of Loch Lomond, which is located in the middle of Scotland. Her name was Yuna and like all her family members she had the ability to take off her real skin once she entered land and assume human form. But she and all the other selkie kids sadly weren’t allowed to even get closer to the shore, because the humans were said to be very cruel and kill every mythical creature they see.
Yuna has had a tragic experience herself when her mother was captured by a human shortly after she was born and never returned. You could assume that because of this stroke of fate she would be really scared, but apparently this was not the case. She was extremely adventurous and her biggest wish was to see the breath-taking Scottish landscape, with its high dramatic mountains, wide fields and white sandy beaches, once in her lifetime. But her dad never allowed her to be out of the water even if she promised him to be very careful. So one day when her dad went to bed earlier than usual, she decided to sneak out and make a short trip to the surface of the loch.
Once she arrived at the top, she was overwhelmed and completely shocked by the beauty of the nature, she only used to hear about in the stories her father told her when she was younger. Yuna couldn’t stop herself from swimming nearer the shore and make her way out of the water. It was pretty easy to take of her seal skin and she immediately fell in love with her human form, even though it was kinda hard to walk with her new legs. After a while she figured out how to move correctly and started discovering the landscape next to the loch. The beautiful fields full of flowers with the light of the sunset shining on it were the most gorgeous thing Yuna has ever seen in her entire life.
But when she turned around she saw a human girl about her age standing behind her with a shocked expression on her face. Fear spread through her and her whole body started shaking. “Will this be my end?“ Yuna thought while she slowly stumbled backwards. But unlike all her expectations the girl put on a smile and started speaking slowly with a friendly sound in her voice: “Oh, don’t be scared, I won‘t hurt you. You’re a selkie, aren’t you? I saw you coming out of the water. I‘ve always wanted to see one in real life. I knew there still were some living in this loch.“ Yuna was speechless. “So you’re not going to kill me?“ she asked unsurely. “No, of course not!“, the girl replied immediately, “none of my people has ever killed one. A few of your kind actually live in my village, but I always thought there weren’t any active ones left in our area.“ The girls talked for a while and after it was time for Yuna to go back home, they decided to meet again.
By time they started hanging out more often and soon became best friends. She even found out that her mother was still alive and lived in her friend’s village. What really happened that time was that she lost her seal skin and wasn’t able to go back in the water. After some time her folk even got less suspicious and reunited with their relatives on the land. From that time on human and selkies lived together peacefully and when you walk next to a Scottish loch nowadays, you might still be able to see seal tails in the water.
