Category:Selkies
From UnknowableWiki
| Creature profile | |
|---|---|
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| Selkie | |
| Species | merpeople |
| Ministry of Magic Classification | XXXX |
| Appearance | human body with fishtail, ugly, greyish skin, long green hair, yellow eyes |
| Origin | Scotland |
| Known specimens | Murcus; tribe in the Hogwarts lake |
| First appearance in canon | The Second Task (GF) |
Selkies are merpeople from Scotland. Unlike Greek sirens, they are far from beautiful. They have green hair, greyish skin and yellow eyes (GF26). Like all merpeople, they speak Mermish and live in organised communities on the bottoms of lakes and the sea. They love music.
Selkies are classified as beasts instead of beings by their own request (FBAZ).
A selkie tribe lives inside the Hogwarts Great Lake. They have built a village consisting of rather crude stone dwellings around a village square decorated with a roughly hewn statue of a merperson. Outside the village, there is a painting on a large rock that shows a hunting scene in which merpeople armed with spears chase the giant squid. The tribe is governed by a merchieftainness named Murcus.
During the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions each have to rescue a hostage from the selkies (GF26). They are given a clue at the end of the first task: a golden egg that emits a song in Mermish when opened. To understand the song, the egg has to be opened under water (GF25). During the task, the selkies sing the same song to lead the champions to their village. Harry Potter is the first champion to reach the hostages who are tied to the village square statue. He waits until Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum have taken their hostages, and decides to save Fleur Delacour's hostage as well as his own when she does not come. The selkies try to hinder him, but he threatens them with his wand, and as they know no magic themselves, they let him take both hostages. Murcus later tells Albus Dumbledore about this, which leads the judges to give high marks to Harry even though he left the lake well out of the time limit (GF26).
The Hogwarts selkies pay their respect to Albus Dumbledore at his funeral with a song (HBP30).
