Selkie

Selkies are marine creatures which look much like a seal. They were native to the islands of Orkney and Shetland. They can shed their skin and come ashore as a humans.

If a human finds the selkie's skin, he can hide it, forcing a female Selkie to be a good, if melancholy wife. Should she ever recover the skin, she will immediately return to sea, leaving her husband and any children behind.

If the sealskin is burned, it hurts the the selkie severely and if they survive, traps them in human form forever.

Selkies are thought to be responsible for storms and for the sinking of ships, when upset about humans hunting seals.

Roane was a selkie whose skin had been burnt but it was restored by Meredith's magic and he returned to the sea.