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MYTH, RITUAL & RELIGION Volume Two
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400 pages, Paperback
First published December 22, 1995
18 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Lang
3,351Ìýbooks540ÌýfollowersTales of the Scottish writer and anthropologist Andrew Lang include
The Blue Fairy Book
(1889).
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonore Blanche Alleyne, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonore traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonore to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
Andrew Gabriel Lang, a prolific Scotsman of letters, contributed poetry, novels, literary criticism, and collected now best folklore.
The Young Scholar and Journalist
Andrew Gabriel Lang, the son of the town clerk and the eldest of eight children, lived in Selkirk in the Scottish borderlands. The wild and beautiful landscape of childhood greatly affected the youth and inspired a lifelong love of the outdoors and a fascination with local folklore and history. Charles Edward Stuart and Robert I the Bruce surrounded him in the borders, a rich area in history. He later achieved his literary Short History of Scotland .
A gifted student and avid reader, Lang went to the prestigious Saint Andrews University, which now holds a lecture series in his honor every few years, and then to Balliol College, Oxford. He later published Oxford: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes about the city in 1880.
Moving to London at the age of 31 years in 1875 as an already published poet, he started working as a journalist. His dry sense of humor, style, and huge array of interests made him a popular editor and columnist quickly for The Daily Post, Time magazine and Fortnightly Review. Whilst working in London, he met and married Leonore Blanche Alleyne, his wife.
Interest in myths and folklore continued as he and Leonore traveled through France and Italy to hear local legends, from which came the most famous The Rainbow Fairy Books . In the late 19th century, interest in the native stories declined and very few persons recounting them for young readers. In fact, some educationalists attacked harmful magical stories in general to children. To challenge this notion, Lang first began collecting stories for the first of his colored volumes.
Lang gathered already recorded stories, while other folklorists collected stories directly from source. He used his time to collect a much greater breadth over the world from Jacob Grimm, his brother, Madame d'Aulnoy, and other less well sources.
Lang also worked as the editor, often credited as its sole creator for his work despite the essential support of his wife, who transcribed and organised the translation of the text, to the success.
He published to wide acclaim. The beautiful illustrations and magic captivated the minds of children and adults alike. The success first allowed Lang and Leonore to carry on their research and in 1890 to publish a much larger print run of The Red Fairy Book , which drew on even more sources. Between 1889 and 1910, they published twelve collections, which, each with a different colored binding, collected, edited and translated a total of 437 stories. Lang, credited with reviving interest in folklore, more importantly revolutionized the Victorian view and inspired generations of parents to begin reading them to children once more.
Last Works
Lang produced and at the same time continued a wide assortment of novels, literary criticism, articles, and poetry. As Anita Silvey, literary critic, however, noted, "The irony of Lang's life and work is that although he wrote for a profession... he is best recognized for the works he did not write," the folk stories that he collected.
He finished not the last Highways and Byways of the Border but died.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
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January 16, 2015The reason for the two stars (now removed) is because I cringed at the racist language, such as "savage races" have spoken out with freedom, and: "Gods of the lowest races", and "The Australians [...] seemed the misrablest people in the world, without houses, agriculture, metals or domesticated animals. In this condition, they remain, when not under European influence", etc.
No wonder, the book was first published in 1913. The book is interesting enough when taking that into account, but I'd prefer to keep to abstaining from a rating in spite of, or rather because of? the fact that the book is obviously a product of its period.
I suspect that his book was, in its time, seen as an Anthropology textbook, with quite a wide scope, giving us mythology from the Australias through the America's to Egypt, India, Greece and a bit of Europe; and indeed, were it not for it's datedness, it could even have been a cite-able source currently, because Andrew Lang certainly uses an academic approach and cites all his own sources, which are sadly all from within the 1800's, so it's pretty old, and of course that explains the racist language.
In actual fact, the book itself is a piece of history, I guess. Because of its age and it's value as an artifact I'd rather not give it a star rating at all.
Be warned, also, that it's not comfortable reading, not just because of the racism, but because of other factors such as all the speculation and the namedropping, for instance, which along with the dated language just doesn't flow and doesn't give a a clear, concise, succinct picture of the subject matter.
Andrew Lang is (was?) a respected name in folkloric circles, (ha! I couldn't resist that)); he was the compiler of the Red, Blue Yellow and Pink Fairy books, so let's not write him off completely.
No wonder, the book was first published in 1913. The book is interesting enough when taking that into account, but I'd prefer to keep to abstaining from a rating in spite of, or rather because of? the fact that the book is obviously a product of its period.
I suspect that his book was, in its time, seen as an Anthropology textbook, with quite a wide scope, giving us mythology from the Australias through the America's to Egypt, India, Greece and a bit of Europe; and indeed, were it not for it's datedness, it could even have been a cite-able source currently, because Andrew Lang certainly uses an academic approach and cites all his own sources, which are sadly all from within the 1800's, so it's pretty old, and of course that explains the racist language.
In actual fact, the book itself is a piece of history, I guess. Because of its age and it's value as an artifact I'd rather not give it a star rating at all.
Be warned, also, that it's not comfortable reading, not just because of the racism, but because of other factors such as all the speculation and the namedropping, for instance, which along with the dated language just doesn't flow and doesn't give a a clear, concise, succinct picture of the subject matter.
Andrew Lang is (was?) a respected name in folkloric circles, (ha! I couldn't resist that)); he was the compiler of the Red, Blue Yellow and Pink Fairy books, so let's not write him off completely.
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