Robert Kirk

A finales del siglo XVII, un sacerdote escocés salió en busca de criaturas sobrenaturales de "naturaleza media entre el hombre y el ángel". Robert Kirk vagaba por las Tierras Altas, hablando con sus feligreses y otros campesinos sobre sus encuentros con hadas, espectros, elfos, faunos y otros seres del mundo espiritual. La magia formaba parte de la vida cotidiana de Kirk y sus compañeros montañeses, y este excepcional libro ofrece una vision poco comun de su reino encantado.Pasado un tiempo tras la muerte del autor (1692), el manuscrito fue publicado por primera vez en 1815 a instancias de sir Walter Scott. En 1893, el distinguido folclorista Andrew Lang reedito la obra junto con una introduccion suya. Durante muchos años, La comunidad secreta fue dificil de encontrar. Tanto los eruditos como los amantes de los mitos y las leyendas apreciaran esta nueva edicion."Kirk es un plato magnifico que se puede presentar ante cualquier estudiante del folclore o de la psicologia popular". Suplemento literario de The Times.

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. Kirks 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. Kirks book is the most curious imaginable. Written in 1691 by a Scotch divine, it is nothing less than a calm assumption of the existence at that time of a commonwealth of elves, fauns, and fairies, whose government, habits, etc., are minutely described upon the authority of "Men of Second Sight" (it is not clear whether the author himself was one of these by virtue of bis being a seventh son), the method of obtaining which gift is also carefully explained. These fairies are of a middle nature between man and angel; they inhabit subterranean abodes, which they change at each quarter of the year. "They are distributed in tribes and orders, and have children, nurses, marriages, deaths, and burials; their apparel and speech is like that of the people and country under which they live; they are said to have aristocratical rulers and laws, but no discernible religion, love, or devotion towards God," their weapons are most what solid earthly bodies, nothing of iron, but much of stone, like to yellow soft flint spa, shaped liked a barbed arrow-head, but flung like a dart, with great force." The moral character of these "subterraneans" is minutely described and the conclusion is, "But for swearing and intemperance, they are not observed so subject to those irregularities, as to envy, spite, hypocrisy, lying, and dissimulation." The author adds to the evidence given by his friends, etc., a letter from Lord Tarbott to the Hon. Robert Boyle, in which many additional instances of second sight are narrated.

Katharine Briggs, la conocida folklorista británica, decía en su espléndido Diccionario de las hadas que Robert Kirk (1644- 1692) fue “el autor del tratado más amplio y documentado del folklore del p

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 offers rare glimpses into their enchanted realm. Kirk believed that tales of fairies, witches, and ghosts, as well as stories claiming that many Scots were gifted with second sight, or extrasensory perception, were proof that the stories in the Bible were in fact true and supernatural phenomenon in fact existed. For many years, The Secret Commonwealth was hard to find available, if at all, only in scholarly editions. Academicians as well as lovers of myths and legends will prize this authoritative but accessible edition.

Robert KirkRelativism and Reality: A Contemporary Introductionexamines the philosophical tradition surrounding the question of reality and relativism, the belief that reality somehow depends on what

Katharine Briggs, la conocida folklorista británica, decía en su espléndido Diccionario de las hadas que Robert Kirk (1644-1692) era ´el autor del tratado más amplio y documentado del folklore del pe

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, doppelgangers, wraiths, and other beings of, in Kirks 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 Burtons 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 obtainavailable, if at all, only in scholarly editions. This new edition modernizes the spelling and punctuation of Kirks little book and features a wide-ranging and illuminating introduction by the critic and historian Marina Warner, who brings out the originality of Kirks contribution and reflects on the ongoing life of fairies in the modern mind.

Una investigación pionera del siglo XVII sobre duendes, hadas, elfos y todo tipo de seres elementales. Robert Kirk se adentra en el mundo invisible que, según antiguas tradiciones, convive con el nuestro. A partir de testimonios y leyendas populares transmitidas durante generaciones, examina la existencia de criaturas feericas, espiritus y otras entidades. Kirk analiza tambien fenomenos vinculados a la clarividencia y a las capacidades ocultas del ser humano, intentando armonizar estos relatos con el pensamiento religioso y cientifico de su tiempo. El resultado es un texto singular, a medio camino entre el estudio folclorico, la cronica sobrenatural y la reflexion espiritual, que sigue despertando la fascinacion de lectores modernos.Se trata de uno de los primeros trabajos que analizan de manera monografica el asunto de los seres elementales, su existencia, su origen, como verlos... Escrito en 1691 y publicado por primera vez en 1815, este manuscrito, que permanecio oculto durante mas de un siglo, continua siendo una obra clave sobre el mundo invisible. * * *Esta coleccion reune obras olvidadas, ensayos y testimonios que exploran los limites entre lo visible y lo invisible: esoterismo, fenomenos sobrenaturales, misterios historicos y experiencias del espiritu. Rescatamos del olvido textos antiguos, valiosos y dificiles de encontrar, no como curiosidades del pasado, sino como ventanas a una epoca en la que lo desconocido aun conservaba su poder de asombro. Cada titulo ha sido cuidadosamente seleccionado y revisado para ofrecer al lector contemporaneo una mirada distinta sobre los enigmas que nunca dejan de fascinarnos.

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