One of the most sought after and enigmatic texts about Celtic fairies. Written by a Scottish clergyman, Robert Kirk, in 1691, and not committed to print until the early 19th century, The Secret Commonwealth is an unusually sympathetic account of the denizens of fairyland, and a complex of still mysterious extrasensory phenomena including poltergeists, clairvoyance and doppelgangers.Magic was a part of everyday life for Kirk and his fellow Highlanders, and this remarkable book offer...

In "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies," Robert Kirk delves into the rich and often mystical folklore of the Scottish Highlands, presenting a nuanced examination of the beliefs surrounding the faerie realm. Written in the late 17th century, the text is characterized by its vivid descriptions and meticulous observations, blending elements of personal narrative with scholarly inquiry. Kirk employs a lyrical prose style that invites readers into a world where the boundaries bet...

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies opens as both a scholarly inquiry and an enchanted memorial, honoring the Rev. Robert Kirk while questioning the book's publication history and the possibility that the surviving 1815 text is the earliest true edition. Kirk emerges as a Highland minister, scholar, and seventh son whose life, work on Bible translation and Gaelic psalmody, marriages, children, and mysterious death have all been absorbed into the fairy legends he recorded. ...

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 s...

"Kirk is a magnificent dish to set before any student of either folk-lore or folk-psychology."—Times Literary SupplementIn the late seventeenth century, a Scottish minister went looking for supernatural creatures of "a middle nature betwixt man and angel." Robert Kirk roamed the Highlands, talking to his parishioners and other country folk about their encounters with fairies, wraiths, elves, doppelgangers, and other agents of the spirit world. Magic was a part of everyday l...

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies is an extraordinary journey into the hidden folklore and mysticism of Scotland’s magical realms. Written by Reverend Robert Kirk in the late 17th century, this classic text dives into the secret lives of supernatural beings said to inhabit the Highlands—elves, fauns, fairies, and other mysterious entities that coexisted with humanity just beyond the visible world. Kirk’s observations capture the beliefs, sightings, and stories of these enti...

“The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies” is the famous and mysterious treatise on fairy folklore, witchcraft, second sight, and ghosts by Gaelic scholar and minister, Robert Kirk. Written before he died in 1692, the work was not published until 1815 after many legends had grown around Kirk’s death, which imagined that he was secreted away by the fairies themselves for revealing their secrets. Most famous during his own lifetime for publishing one of the first translations of ...

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairiesby Robert Kirk and Andrew LangThis monograph, originally written in 1691, is a classic of Scottish fairy folklore.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 documen...

A minister of Aberfoyle sets down, in 1691, what his parishioners knew about the fairies: their bodies of congealed air, their dwellings under the hills, their seers, their thefts and their two-way commerce with men. Robert Kirk was a seventh son and a Gaelic scholar who translated the psalms; he disappeared on the fairy knowe above his manse and the country said he had been taken. Lang edited the manuscript in 1893 and could not decide how much its author believed. Sixty plates of paintin...

This book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer. Mr. Kirk's little book was written in 1691 and was probably not printed until 1815, when an edition of only one hundred copies appeared at Edinburgh from the press of James Ballantyne & Company for Longman & Company of London. Mr. Kirk's book is the most curious imaginable. Written in 1691 by a Scotch divine, it is nothing less than a...

Kirk is a magnificent dish to set before any student of either folk-lore or folk-psychology."--"Times Literary Supplement"In the late seventeenth century, a Scottish minister went looking for supernatural creatures of "a middle nature betwixt man and angel." Robert Kirk roamed the Highlands, talking to his parishioners and other country folk about their encounters with fairies, wraiths, elves, doppelgangers, and other agents of the spirit world. Magic was a part of everyday life for Kirk a...

This book is all about how companies are applying the key principles in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and shows this by use of extensive examples of UK company accounts.The book provides coverage of the key points of each standard and links that with actual practice. It is not a detailed guidance book as such, or a transistion book from UK standards to IFRS, but a quick reference for the busy accountant which shows how to apply the key points of each standard b...