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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 call Kirk's collection of supernatural tales one of the most important and significant works on the subject of fairies and second sight.〔Sanderson 1964, p. 1; Warner 2007, p. viii.〕 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.〔Löffler 2006, p. 207; Goodare 2003, p. 180.〕 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.〔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."〕 Scottish author Walter Scott first published Kirk's work on fairies more than a century later in 1815.〔Hunter 2001a, p. 48.〕 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. ==Life== Kirk was born in Aberfoyle, Scotland, the seventh and youngest son of James Kirk, minister at Aberfoyle, Perthshire. He studied theology at St Andrews and received his master's degree at Edinburgh in 1661.〔Hunter 2001b, p. 12.〕 Kirk became minister of Balquhidder in 1664,〔Or possibly as late as 1669. Narváez 1997, pp. 98–99.〕 and later of Aberfoyle, from 1685 until his death.〔 In 1670,〔Smith (1921) gives the date as 1677. Needs verification.〕 he married his first wife, Isobel Campbel, the daughter of Sir Colin Campbel of Mochaster. Isobel produced a son, Colin, who became a writer to the signet. When she died on 25 December 1680,〔Smith 1921, p. 240.〕 Kirk cut out an epitaph for her with his own hands. His second wife, Margaret,〔Kirk (1976) p. 6〕 the daughter of Campbell of Fordy, bore him a second son, Robert, who became a minister at Dornoch, Sutherlandshire.〔Lang 1893〕 Kirk was a Gaelic scholar, the author of the first complete translation of the Scottish metrical psalms into Gaelic, published at Edinburgh in 1684 as ''Psalma Dhaibhidh an Meadrachd'', &c. (Psalms of David in Metre, &c.).〔Smith 1921, p. 238.〕 During its preparation Kirk learned that the synod of Argyll intended to bring out a rival version, and stories are told of how he used to keep himself awake while working to be first in the field. In 1689, Kirk was called to London to superintend the printing of ''An Biobla Naomhtha'', the Gaelic Bible that had begun decades earlier under the direction of Bishop William Bedell. It was published in 1690. To this version Kirk added a short Gaelic vocabulary (6 pp.), which was republished, with additions by Edward Lhuyd in William Nicolson's ''Historical Library'' (London, 1702). Kirk's involvement in Bedell's Bible was at the request of his friend James Kirkwood, a promoter of Scottish Gaelic literacy. The printing was funded by scientist Robert Boyle, a member of the Royal Society.〔Henderson & Cowan 2001, pp. 172–175.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Kirk (folklorist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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