Robert Kirk (folklorist)

Robert Kirk
Born(1644-12-09)9 December 1644[1]
Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland
Died14 May 1692(1692-05-14) (aged 47)
Doon Hill, Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland
Other names"The Fairy Minister"
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews (1664)
University of Edinburgh (1661)
Occupation(s)Minister, scholar, folklorist
Known forThe Secret Commonwealth (1692)
An Biobla Naomhtha (1688)
Psalma Dhaibhidh an Meadradchd (1684)
Ministry at Balquhidder
Spouse(s)Isobel Campbel (died 1680)
Margaret Campbell of Fordie
Children2
ParentJames Kirk

Robert Kirk (9 December 1644 – 14 May 1692) was a minister, Gaelic scholar and folklorist, best known for The Secret Commonwealth, a treatise on fairy folklore, witchcraft, ghosts, and second sight, a type of extrasensory perception described as a phenomenon by the people of the Scottish Highlands. Folklorist Stewart Sanderson and mythologist Marina Warner called Kirk's collection of supernatural tales one of the most important and significant works on the subject of fairies and second sight.[2] Christian philosopher and religious studies scholar David Bentley Hart has praised Kirk for writing The Secret Commonwealth to defend "harmless Scottish country folk who innocently dabbled in the lore of their culture" and "found themselves arraigned by Presbyterian courts for practicing the black arts."[3]

In the late 1680s, Kirk travelled to London to help publish one of the first translations of the Bible into Scottish Gaelic. Gentleman scientist Robert Boyle financed the publication of the Gaelic Bible and pursued inquiries into Kirk's reports of second sight.[4] Kirk died before he was able to publish The Secret Commonwealth. Legends arose after Kirk's death saying he had been taken away to fairyland for revealing the secrets of the Good People.[5]

Scottish author Walter Scott first published Kirk's work on fairies more than a century later in 1815.[6] Andrew Lang later gave it the popular title, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (1893). Multiple editions of The Secret Commonwealth have since been published, with notable scholarly analysis by Sanderson, Mario M. Rossi, and Michael Hunter.

  1. ^ Sanderson 1964, p. 4.
  2. ^ Sanderson 1964, p. 1; Warner 2007, p. viii.
  3. ^ "The Secret Commonwealth". First Things. 20 October 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  4. ^ Löffler 2006, p. 207; Goodare 2003, p. 180.
  5. ^ Henderson & Cowan 2001, p. 172-173: "It was thought unwise to speak of one's knowledge of the fairy folk, for revelation of their secrets would incur their displeasure and subsequent infliction of punishment...it was commonly held that those who had been in some way close to fairies would end up in the fairy realm at the termination of their earthly existence...Rev. William M. Taylor...reported that at the time of Kirk's death people believed that he had been taken by the fairies because he had been prying too deeply into their secrets." See also Cheape 2004, p. 19: "Such was his familiarity with the wee folk, it was said in the district, that he was carried off by them the following year and his headstone stands over an empty tomb."
  6. ^ Hunter 2001a, p. 48.