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This week we're taking a look at a strange little book detailing the lore surrounding the fae folk of the Scottish Highlands. Written in 1692 by the reverend Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth is one of the earliest works in the same tradition as the work of John Keel and a whole host of other weirdos who put on their Sunday best, go traipsing around the sparsely populated hills and forests, and start asking questions they maybe shouldn't. What's really remarkable about The Secret Commonwealth is just how much of the fairy lore from Scotland in the 600's matches up almost exactly with modern UFO folklore. Not only in the nature of the entities and encounters, but also in how much time Robert Kirk spends talking about psychics or, to use the terminology of the day, those born with \"the second sight.\" Weirder still, Kirk's mysterious death and events that transpired afterwards led to rumors that Kirk did not, in fact, die, but was instead taken away to fairyland as punishment for revealing the secrets of those strange folk that dwell beneath the Earth.

In the late 17th century, a Scottish minister went looking for supernatural creatures of "a middle nature betwixt man and angel." Robert Kirk roamed the Highlands, talking to his parishioners and other country folk about their encounters with fairies, wraiths, elves, doppelgangers, and other agents of the spirit world. Magic was a part of everyday life for Kirk and his fellow Highlanders, and this remarkable book offers rare glimpses into their enchanted realm. Left in manuscript form upon the author's death in 1692, this volume was first published in 1815 at the behest of Sir Walter Scott. In 1893, the distinguished folklorist Andrew Lang re-edited the work. Lang's introduction to Kirk's extraordinary blend of science, religion, and superstition is included in this edition. 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 inexpensive edition.

Este escrito fue un intento serio de explicitar las creencias que los escoceses de origen gaélico tenían acerca de los seres preternaturales, desde una perspectiva popular de orígenes folclóricos, para contrastarlas con la ciencia y la religión de finales del siglo  xvii . El concepto de hada que maneja Kirk es el propio de los seres feéricos que coexisten con la especie humana y son anteriores a ella.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (London, 1893), in 166 bookmarked and searchable pdf pages. Kirk was an inquisitive 17th-century Scottish minister, who investigated and described accounts of beings "of a middle nature" between humans and angels. This short work was first published by Sir Walter Scott and again in the late 19th century by Andrew Lang, who wrote a lengthy introduction.  Book digitized by Google and compiled by Robert Bedrosian.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (London, 1893), in 166 bookmarked and searchable pdf pages. Kirk was an inquisitive 17th-century Scottish minister, who investigated and described accounts of beings "of a middle nature" between humans and angels. This short work was first published by Sir Walter Scott and again in the late 19th century by Andrew Lang, who wrote a lengthy introduction.  Book digitized by Google and compiled by Robert Bedrosian.

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, by Robert Kirk and Andrew Lang (London, 1893), in 166 bookmarked and searchable pdf pages. Kirk was an inquisitive 17th-century Scottish minister, who investigated and described accounts of beings "of a middle nature" between humans and angels. This short work was first published by Sir Walter Scott and again in the late 19th century by Andrew Lang, who wrote a lengthy introduction.  Book digitized by Google and compiled by Robert Bedrosian.

1Robert's Rules of Order

By Henry M. Robert

Originally written in 1876 by Major Henry M. Robert of the US Army Corps of Engineers, <i>Robert's Rules of Order</i> is the most widely used authority in the United States today for "parliamentary law, based...upon the rules and practice of Congress" for "organizing and conducting the business of societies, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies." (Summary by TriciaG and from Preface)