Dennison grew up on Sanday and the tale is set in the place he knew. Magnus intends to skin the pups for a waistcoat but the seals behave so much like frightened parents that he puts the young back. Many years later, fishing at the same spot, he is cut off by the rising water and would drown. At the last moment he is picked up by the collar and carried to the shore. The tale says it was the mother seal he had spared.
It is a mild story compared with the selkie wife tales, and it shows the belief that seals were more than animals. The place is on the Sanday coast and the pin is approximate because Hacksness could not be fixed on a map.
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