The Secret Commonwealth of Elves Fauns and Fairies
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Product Description
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These Subterraneans have Controverfies, Doubts, Difputes, Feuds, and Siding of Parties... As to Vice and Sin, whatever their own Laws be... they tranfgrefs and commit Acts of Injuftice... -from Chapter 11 As a study of 17th-century folklore, this mysterious and remarkable text is fascinating. As a document of the popular mindset of a time in which the odd or the outcast were still condemned and punished as witches, it is wholly astonishing. Robert Kirk's "A Study in Folk-Lore and Psychical Research" dates from 1691, and is perhaps a hallucinatory and delusional labor of love by a minister obsessed with psychic phenomena. Here, Kirk's treatise is accompanied by commentary written in 1893 by folklorist Andrew Lang that both celebrates Kirk's passion and wonders at his "savage metaphysics." By turns bizarre and enlightening, this little book continues to bewitch today's readers. Scottish minister ROBERT KIRK (c. 1640-1692) studied theology at St. Andrew's and Edinburgh Universities but was fascinated by the occult. The fact of his death is rumored to be "disputed." Scottish journalist and author ANDREW LANG (1844-1912) produced a stunning variety and number of volumes, including books of poetry, novels, children's books, histories, and biographies, as well as criticism, essays, scholarly works of anthropology, and translations of classical literature.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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About the Author
Robert Kirk (1644–1692) was the seventh son of James Kirk, Minister of Aberfoyle. He studied at Edinburgh and St. Andrews, became Minister of Balquhidder in 1644, and succeeded his father at Aberfoyle in 1685. Kirk published the first Gaelic translation of the Psalms and oversaw the preparation of the first romanized version of the Gaelic Bible. The Secret Commonwealth was left in manuscript at the time of his death.
Marina Warner is a writer of fiction, criticism, and history. Her award-winning studies of mythology and fairy tales include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary, From the Beast to the Blonde, and No Go the Bogeyman. In 2006 she published Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media, a study of ghosts, phantasms, and technology. Her most recent work of fiction is the novel The Leto Bundle. A Fellow of the British Academy, she is also Professor of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Marina Warner is a writer of fiction, criticism, and history. Her award-winning studies of mythology and fairy tales include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary, From the Beast to the Blonde, and No Go the Bogeyman. In 2006 she published Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media, a study of ghosts, phantasms, and technology. Her most recent work of fiction is the novel The Leto Bundle. A Fellow of the British Academy, she is also Professor of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's great to see a reissue of the greatest fairy book of them all, Robert Kirk's 1691 tome, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies. This amazing book--with its descriptions of second sight, of doublemen or co-walkers, and of fairy lives, customs and even past-times--has an amazing backstory attached to it too. Kirk, seventh son of a seventh son(in the Highlands, almost a guarantee of psychic powers) was a bilingual(English and Gaelic) Episcopalian pastor, working at Aberfoyle in the Trossachs area of the Highlands. The material he collected in this book comes direct from his Highland parishioners but he also compiled it for the delectation of his enlightened and curious friends in England, so the book is an eccentric mixture of the very folkoric and the proto-scientific. (Kirk also had a metaphysical reason for compiling the book--and an interesting one, given the attitude of many religious fundamentalists today to such beliefs. He felt that if people discounted or ridiculed such beliefs then it wouldn't be long before they started discounting all supernatural things, including a belief in God Himself.) Anyway, not long after the publication of the book, Kirk was found stone dead one morning at the foot of the Dun Sidh (doonshee, or fairy hill) at Aberfoyle. Though his red sandstone gravestone is in the Aberfoyle cemetery(with only a mention of his work in translating the Bible into Gaelic, and not his fairy work), it's said that his body is not in that grave but that he was spirited body and soul into the great tall Scots pine that sits at the top of the Dun Sidh, surrounded by an army of little oaks. That was because the fairies were reputedly so angry with him for divulging their secrets! Today, the site is still extraordinary, spooky--with hundreds of wishes on ribbons tied to all those little oaks, and the Scots pine standing there alone..It's easy to believe in Kirk's curious and piteous fate.
A must-have addition for the library of anyone interested in fairies, Highland folklore, and myth. For those who are interested, I have a piece about Kirk on my site at http://users.northnet.com.au/~smasson And for those interested in reading novels inspired by this book, the greatest is Australian writer Christopher Koch's 'The Doubleman.'
A must-have addition for the library of anyone interested in fairies, Highland folklore, and myth. For those who are interested, I have a piece about Kirk on my site at http://users.northnet.com.au/~smasson And for those interested in reading novels inspired by this book, the greatest is Australian writer Christopher Koch's 'The Doubleman.'
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
... written in the late 17th Century by a Scottish Episcopalian Minister with an apparently sincere belief in the world of the supernatural. At a time when witches were still being condemned, Robert Kirk was collecting the stories of his parishioners and fashioning them into an account of a parallel world of sprites, wraiths, fauns, elves and spirits. The book also includes an excellent introduction by Marina Warner.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've been curious about this book for a while and it was as charming as I had hoped. The Rev Robert Kirk must have been some man. It's just a shame that the 19th century introduction by Andrew Lang (which takes up a full 50% of this short book) is tediously repetitive and far more interested in psychic phenomenon than in fairy belief. This is a curio, probably only worth buying for those with some connection to the topic either through their heritage or their belief system. It will teach you only a little, but is an interesting read (assuming you skip the introduction).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Version with a Better Commentary is Available
This Extraordinary book is ruined by its terrible introduction and commentary by Andrew Lang which seems completely off the mark. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rohan White
Very short and not well explicated
As this little treatise was written over 300 years ago it almost needs translation for a lay readership. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2009 by Silver Moon Sailor
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