A three-meter-long naked mermaid with a seal skin in her hand emerges from the sea near the ancient town of Mickeldoor, hidden in the dark rocks of Kelsoy Island in the Faroe Islands. It is the work of local sculptor Hans Pauli Olsen, made of bronze and stainless steel, and was installed on the beach in 2014.
The master pushed the base of the statue very deep into the stone, so that the mermaid could withstand strong storms and waves up to 13 meters high.
However, it is not a mermaid at all, but a female seal (Kopakonan). And there is one ancient but grim legend associated with it. More precisely, a curse.
In the Faroe Islands, since ancient times it was believed that people who drowned in the sea become seals and once a year, at night, can come ashore and take human form again. But those who fail to return to the water before the first ray of the sun will remain on land forever.