The Secret Commonwealth (Annotated): Of Elves, Fauns and Fairies

This annotated edition includes:

• A new historical introduction to Kirk and Highland fairy belief
• A chronology of Kirk’s life and the book’s publication
• Original annotations on folklore, theology, and second sight
• A glossary of Scots, Gaelic, and antiquarian terms
• Andrew Lang’s complete 1893 introduction, notes, and postscript
• A biographical note and selected sources

What if the fairies of Scottish tradition were not imaginary creatures, but an invisible people living alongside humanity?

Written in 1691 by the Scottish minister and Gaelic scholar Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth is one of the earliest and most remarkable studies of Highland fairy belief. Kirk describes beings of a “middle nature betwixt Man and Angel”: the People of Peace who inhabit fairy hills, steal food and milk, exchange children, appear as doubles and wraiths, and reveal themselves to those gifted with second sight.

Kirk approaches these traditions not merely as stories, but as evidence of an unseen order of nature. His strange and systematic account brings together folklore, theology, eyewitness testimony, witchcraft belief, prophecy, and early speculation about the supernatural.

This edition preserves Kirk’s original text together with Andrew Lang’s influential 1893 introduction, notes, postscript, dedication, and poem “The Fairy Minister.” It also adds a new introduction, chronology, historical annotations, glossary, biographical note, and selected sources.

An essential classic for readers interested in Scottish folklore, Celtic mythology, fairies, second sight, witchcraft, ghosts, and the history of supernatural belief.