The Blue Salt Road is where the selkies dwell as kings and queens of the deep. When a young woman named Flora needs to find a husband, she despairs of choosing any of the men on the small island where she lives. They’re hardened by work on the whaling ships and unrefined.
But when Flora’s grandmother teaches her a secret about mysterious beings called the selkies, she knows her search will soon be over.
“In tears he was summoned, salt as the sea,
In silver was his binding. In blood and betrayal, his calling he found.
In cedar, his salvation.” pg 87
Unlike other selkie stories I’ve read, like Sealskin, the person summoned from the waves is male, not female. I’m sure the fairytale has been told both ways, but it’s a nice change from other versions.
Joanne Harris writes interesting and nuanced fantasy in which she takes a look at older stories and puts her own spin on them. If you haven’t had a chance, you may want to read her duology about the Norse god, Loki. (The Gospel of Loki and The Testament of Loki)
“This is my story. The story of the land-folk and the seal-folk, and of treachery, and of the call of the ocean.” pgs 4-5
There’s quite a lot to unpack in the symbols of The Blue Salt Road and the selkie myth. (Warning, spoilers ahead for those unfamiliar with the selkie myth.) In Jungian psychology and dream interpretation, water is a common symbol for the subconscious mind. What floats or comes to the surface is what you’re aware of. Swimming about in the depths of the ocean, are the feelings or situations you’re perhaps unwilling to confront.
In the sad fairytale of the selkie, the fairytale creature emerges from the ocean as a free being, but then is prevented from returning to the depths where it belongs. He or she forced to live a life on land unless she can find the magical item, her sealskin, that allows her to return to the waves.
The added twist to the tale, sometimes, is the selkie has a child that either gets abandoned when he eventually returns to his home or he takes the child with him and the land-bound parent never gets to see the child again.
So, we have a fairytale examining the complex relationship between men, women, and how people handle having a child together. In addition, it looks at the loss of freedom some experience when a single person adopts a life with a family and how some people can’t deal with it.
It also speaks to the individual ways that people deal with growing up and choosing a trade or growing old and growing apart from the people and things they used to cherish.
In Joanne Harris’ version, there’s a family component with the secret passed between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren.
“I told you that within the year I should catch myself a prince, and bear him a pretty princeling,” she said. “Now I shall be the envy of all the maids on the island, and all the young men who missed their chance will curse their evil fortune.” pg 44
These secrets that we carry are unique as well and help create cultures among family groups. Sometimes, the spouses we choose to add to the mix don’t adapt well to these cultures and eventually leave, not because there’s a loss of love, but because they are never truly accepted into the family group.
All of this is symbolic goodness is packed into a story that is appropriate for young adults to read. There is nothing overly graphic in here, just layers of complexity that a tween might not be able to grasp.
Highly recommended for young adult and adult readers of fantasy fiction and mythology.
Thanks for reading!
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