Seal Lullaby

“Seal Lullaby” introduces the tale “The White Seal,” one of the few Jungle Book stories set in a location other than India. An animal fable, “The White Seal” follows a young seal named Kotick who attempts to save the other seals from human predators who kill the young males in an annual hunt. The seal departs on a quest to find a remote island where humans never go and where seals can live in safety. But Kotick finds it difficult to persuade his fellow seals to change their habits, even in order to protect themselves.

Rudyard Kipling’s stories from the Jungle Book collections examine human traits and behavior through anthropomorphic narratives. In these stories, animal heroes, like Kotick, and animal villains represent virtues and shortfalls of character, but which sustain a sense of the value and divinity present in all forms of life. Kipling’s early life and lifelong connection to Indian culture would have made him familiar with Jataka fables, centuries-old stories in which the Buddha becomes incarnate in various human and animal forms.

“Seal Lullaby” appears at the beginning of the story, and the writer of the story does not attribute the poem to any seal in particular. Near the start of the story, Kotick’s mother Matkah sings him a different song, one with instructions not to swim before six weeks old in order to avoid “summer gales and killer whales” (“The White Seal”).