The Selkie Wife

Alicia explores the beautiful sadness of the Celtic folktale “The Selkie Wife”. Topics discussed include a Christian perspective on literary tragedy; the themes of exile, the stranger, and a dual nature; and ocean imagery in Scripture.

Resources

• Daniel Sarlo, entry for “Sea” in the Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016
• More resources on the Biblical image of the sea:
  • John H. Walton’s Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible.
  • H.R. Balz and G. Schneider’s Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament, volume 2
  • Tsumura, David Toshio, The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A Linguistic Investigation.
  • Gunkel, Hermann. Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton: A Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12.
• The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
• Song of the Sea (2014)
• “The Music Man” musical
• Ladies in Lavender (2004)
• William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Othello,” and “Macbeth”
• Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex” and “Antigone”
• Christopher Marlowe’s “The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus”
• John Gardner: “There are only two plots in all of literature: 1) A person goes on a journey., 2) A stranger comes to town.”
• Christianity and Literature 2017 conference, “Beauty in Exile,” Grove City College

Music: Intro from Adam Saban’s “Tales from the Past”; episode segments from “West” by Shimmer