The Secret Commonwealth Of Elves Fauns And Fairies

Download or read book The Secret Commonwealth written by Robert Kirk and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic, enchanting document of Scottish folklore about fairies, elves, and other supernatural creatures. Late in the seventeenth century, Robert Kirk, an Episcopalian minister in the Scottish Highlands, set out to collect his parishioners’ many striking stories about elves, fairies, fauns, doppelgängers, wraiths, and other beings of, in Kirk’s words, “a middle nature betwixt man and angel.” For Kirk these stories constituted strong evidence for the reality of a supernatural world, existing parallel to ours, which, he passionately believed, demanded exploration as much as the New World across the seas. Kirk defended these views in The Secret Commonwealth, an essay that was left in manuscript when he died in 1692. It is a rare and fascinating work, an extraordinary amalgam of science, religion, and folklore, suffused with the spirit of active curiosity and bemused wonder that fills Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy and the works of Sir Thomas Browne. The Secret Commonwealth is not only a remarkable document in the history of ideas but a study of enchantment that enchants in its own right. First published in 1815 by Sir Walter Scott, then reedited in 1893 by Andrew Lang, with a dedication to Robert Louis Stevenson, The Secret Commonwealth has long been difficult to obtain—available, if at all, only in scholarly editions. This new edition modernizes the spelling and punctuation of Kirk’s little book and features a wide-ranging and illuminating introduction by the critic and historian Marina Warner, who brings out the originality of Kirk’s contribution and reflects on the ongoing life of fairies in the modern mind.

Download or read book The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries written by Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1911 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, which is first of all a folk-lore study, we pursue principally an anthropo-psychological method of interpreting the Celtic belief in fairies, though we do not hesitate now and then to call in the aid of philology; and we make good use of the evidence offered by mythologies, religions, metaphysics, and physical sciences.

Download or read book The Secret Lives of Elves and Faeries written by Robert Kirk and published by Godsfield Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the magical world of Faery! This book takes readers along on the journeys of the Reverend Robert Kirk, a seventeenth-century vicar of the parish of Aberfoyle, Scotland, into the heart of the faery world.

Download or read book Robert Kirk written by R. J. Stewart and published by R J Stewart Books. This book was released on 2007-05-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition in modern English includes a detailed commentary. Comparisons are made between the ancient rites and powers of fairy tradition and second sight, and those of shamanism, Native American tradition, Celtic myth and legend, and perennial magical arts.

Download or read book The Coming of the Fairies written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies written by Robert Kirk and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Secret Commonwealth is a guide to fairies, doppelgängers, wraiths, and other beings that its author Robert Kirk, an unusually inquisitive seventeenth-century Scottish minister, identifies as being ?of a middle nature betwixt man and angel.? Circulated in manuscript by its author, whose religious and scientific interests drew him at some genuine personal risk to investigate the hidden realities of the spiritual world, this short work was first published by Sir Walter Scott and then again in the late nineteenth century in an edition prepared by the famous collector of fairy tales, Andrew Lang, and dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson. Nonetheless, Kirk’s work, which is a fine example of English prose, an important document in the history of ideas, and an enchanting introduction to fairy lore has remained a rarity"--Publisher description.

Download or read book Fairies written by Richard Sugg and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don’t be fooled by Tinkerbell and her pixie dust—the real fairies were dangerous. In the late seventeenth century, they could still scare people to death. Little wonder, as they were thought to be descended from the Fallen Angels and to have the power to destroy the world itself. Despite their modern image as gauzy playmates, fairies caused ordinary people to flee their homes out of fear, to revere fairy trees and paths, and to abuse or even kill infants or adults held to be fairy changelings. Such beliefs, along with some remarkably detailed sightings, lingered on in places well into the twentieth century. Often associated with witchcraft and black magic, fairies were also closely involved with reports of ghosts and poltergeists. In literature and art, the fairies still retained this edge of danger. From the wild magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through the dark glamour of Keats, Christina Rosetti’s improbably erotic poem “Goblin Market,” or the paintings inspired by opium dreams, the amoral otherness of the fairies ran side-by-side with the newly delicate or feminized creations of the Victorian world. In the past thirty years, the enduring link between fairies and nature has been robustly exploited by eco-warriors and conservationists, from Ireland to Iceland. As changeable as changelings themselves, fairies have transformed over time like no other supernatural beings. And in this book, Richard Sugg tells the story of how the fairies went from terror to Tink.