Experience The Legend of Kalsoy, Faroe Islands

This is a not-to-miss stop on your visit to Kalsoy. And yes, it is easy to do the whole island in between the morning ferry drop-off and 5pm pick-up. The statue really was beautiful. Make sure to read the story on the trip down or up. Once you get down walk over the rocks to the waterfall. It is stunning. 

Seal people are people who, drowning in the sea, took their own lives. According to legend, the seal people gather on Mikladalur's shore once a year on the eve of Three Kings. They are shedding their sealskins, becoming human again and dancing away the night. They slide back into their skins before the sun rises and disappear into the ocean. A Mikladalur young man, who wanted to see if the legend was true, was hiding on the shore behind a rock. It was, and he saw an exceptionally beautiful woman among the seal people. He snuck out of his hiding place while the seal people were dancing and stole her sealskin to prevent her from going back to the sea.

The seal people put on their sealskins before the sun came up, and they jumped into the water one by one. Finally, there was only the seal woman left, crying because she couldn't find her skin. The man finally came forward, telling her that her only option was to come with him.

They've gone home. The man locked in a chest the sealskin and kept the key tied at all times to his belt. As husband and wife, the man and the seal woman lived together, and they had children.

One day he noticed that the key was missing when the man was out fishing. He shouted agonizingly, "Today my wife will leave me!”. To prevent the woman from leaving, the men rowed back to Mikladalur as quickly as possible. But he saw his kids sitting on the bench when the man came home. The fire was cold, hiding from the kids all the sharp objects, so they wouldn't hurt themselves. The chest was open and the sealskin and the seal woman were missing.

The years passed but one night before the men were going on a seal hunt in Mikladalur, the seal woman came to the man in her dreams. She begged him to have compassion on her husband and two sons. She told him how they looked and where they would find themselves in the cave. But the man ignored the dream, and he killed all the seals in the cave together with Mikladalur's men.

The man got his share of the murder, and he cooked the seal meat for himself and the kids when he came home. While eating, the door was ripped open, and as a terrifying troll, the seal woman entered the room.  She shouted, "There is my mate's head and my sons ' hands and feet. You've had your revenge–and now Mikladalur's men will be visited with revenge. Some will drown at sea, others will fall from the cliffs, and so it will continue until as many have died as it can connect arms around Kalsoy's entire island. The seal woman disappeared after cursing the man and the village, never to be seen again. 

By falling from cliffs or drowning at sea, a large number of men from Mikladalur have lost their lives. And yet, to link arms around Kalsoy, they are still too few. And so the curse of the seal woman remains unfulfilled.

A seal woman's statue stands on Mikladalur's shore. She holds the sealskin in her hand and looks at the rocky ground where the legend says the seal people dance once a year.