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Recent reading
Feb. 9th, 2021 10:39 pmSome reading in preparation for some day writing a fairy tale/folklore AU of Flight of the Heron...
The Other Country: legends and fairytales of Scotland by Marion Lochhead (1978)
Many of these feel awfully familiar, compared with Scandinavian folk tales I've read--I guess there are a lot of similarities at least among western European fairy tales: things happening in threes, animal helpers, etc. Then again, I'm pretty sure I read some of Andrew Lang's books of fairy tales when I was younger, so perhaps I have indeed read some Scottish ones before. Anyway, these retellings are well written, and I enjoyed them!
The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk (1692)
I'd come across references to Robert Kirk in various history books: the minister who wrote a treatise on fairies and then mysteriously disappeared... There's an introduction by Andrew Lang from 1893 which I only skimmed; he spends a lot of time relating Kirk's text to the spiritualism of his day which I wasn't very interested in. Awww, I do like his poem on page vii, though; how charming! Anyway, Kirk's text is interesting: it's quite matter-of-fact in telling us what fairies are like and how they relate to humans. Also there's a lot on the second sight, which of course is useful for fic. I like that he is quite uninterested in condemning people as witches--in fact, he considers the existence of fairies and of the second sight as compatible with Christianity and thinks it might even bring people to religion (by disproving atheism/skepticism about the supernatural).
I suppose this is where Philip Pullman got the title of his book?
The Other Country: legends and fairytales of Scotland by Marion Lochhead (1978)
Many of these feel awfully familiar, compared with Scandinavian folk tales I've read--I guess there are a lot of similarities at least among western European fairy tales: things happening in threes, animal helpers, etc. Then again, I'm pretty sure I read some of Andrew Lang's books of fairy tales when I was younger, so perhaps I have indeed read some Scottish ones before. Anyway, these retellings are well written, and I enjoyed them!
The Secret Commonwealth by Robert Kirk (1692)
I'd come across references to Robert Kirk in various history books: the minister who wrote a treatise on fairies and then mysteriously disappeared... There's an introduction by Andrew Lang from 1893 which I only skimmed; he spends a lot of time relating Kirk's text to the spiritualism of his day which I wasn't very interested in. Awww, I do like his poem on page vii, though; how charming! Anyway, Kirk's text is interesting: it's quite matter-of-fact in telling us what fairies are like and how they relate to humans. Also there's a lot on the second sight, which of course is useful for fic. I like that he is quite uninterested in condemning people as witches--in fact, he considers the existence of fairies and of the second sight as compatible with Christianity and thinks it might even bring people to religion (by disproving atheism/skepticism about the supernatural).
I suppose this is where Philip Pullman got the title of his book?
