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WINNER OF THE 2005 TIR NA N-OG AWARD
Tales of seals and selkie maidens are commonplace around the coasts of Britain, and provide rich beachcombings for retellers of folk tales and maritime legends, but here, in her first ‘complete’ work as both author and illustrator, Jackie Morris paints new life into old traditions.
Setting the scene in her home area of St David’s, she weaves a convincing tale around the ruined cottages of Maes y Mynydd, a stone’s throw from her own cottage, providing, through the generosity of her imaginary seal-woman, the wherewithal for its 19th century inhabitants to leave their lives of poverty and hardship and sail across the seas to the New World, as many Welsh emigrants really did.
For Huw, the fisherman who falls in love with the maiden, only to lose her, as all human husbands must, to the sound of the sea and the seals, there is the added loss of his son Morlo who chooses to live with his mother beneath the waves, once their gift has been made. Yet his daughter Ffion sails with him from Fishguard Harbour, to a prosperous future made possible by a tiny casket of lustrous pearls, tied with golden ribbons of kelp.
The lyrical verse-like qualities of the text rest at ease with the wistful landscapes of the West Wales coastline, painted with that clarity and attention to detail which make them instantly recognisable to the book’s local readers, and so compelling to first-time virtual visitors to these fingers of gorse-lined land pulled sometimes gently, often savagely into the open sea, as if by Huw’s haunting music. These recurring landscapes, subtly altered as the story unfolds, and brought alive by a flash of silver scales, a cluster of lobster pots or a glimpse of scarlet Welsh flannel, provide the perfect setting for this tale of one family’s loss and loyalty, and one community’s old memories and new dreams, made possible by Morlo and Ffion, the seal children.
Chris S. Stephens
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
This title is categorised and/or sub-categorised as follows:
Children's Books (Novels and Short Stories) ( in English)
Stories for Children Aged 7-9 ( in English)
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