Finfolkaheem - the ancestral home

The stories of Finfolkaheem, the ancestral home of the Finfolk, have always described it as a true mythical paradise.

Situated at the bottom of an unknown sea, Finfolkaheem was the permanent and dearly beloved home of the Finfolk - the place they returned when the darkness of Orkney winter drew in, and the might of Teran whipped the seas up into boiling froth.

For countless generations, Orcadian storytellers waxed lyrical about this fantastic undersea kingdom, describing with great zeal its massive crystal halls and ornate gardens of multi-coloured seaweed.

Lit by the phosphorescent glow of the sea, Finfolkaheem was decorated with swathes of draped curtains whose colours shifted like the ever-changing shades of the "Merry Dancers" - the Aurora Borealis.

Towers of glistening white coral spiralled upwards, encrusted with pearls and precious gemstones. The kingdom was so rich that giant pearls were littered everywhere, often ground up by the merfolk to provide the powder that was scattered over the mermaids' tails to give them their sparkling sheen.

In the waters surrounding Finfolkaheem, the Finfolk raised sea-cattle and magical sea-horses.

Like the true gentry of their underwater world, they herded whales - from which they extracted milk - and, mounted on their aquatic steeds, would often hunt the animals of the sea using otters in place of dogs.

When it came to splendour and grandeur, nothing else in Orkney folklore could come close to the marine haven that was Finfolkaheem.

A Close Tongue Keeps a Safe Head