Not Just the Tudors When Elves & Fairies Lived Among Us
Feb 26, 2026
Rachel Morris, historian and author who studies early modern magic, religion and emerging science. She unpacks Robert Kirk’s belief that fairies were a hidden, law‑bound people. Short takes cover second sight, Kirk’s parish fieldwork, Scotland’s uncanny landscape, continuities between elite and popular magical thought, and the strange afterlife of Kirk’s manuscript.
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Kirk Framed Fairies As A Real Hidden Nation
- Robert Kirk treated fairies as a structured, physical society with laws, bodies, and households rather than childish folklore.
- He wrote The Secret Commonwealth as an anthropological account, arguing fairy existence could support belief in spirits and ultimately God.
Fairy Belief Used To Reinforce Christian Faith
- Kirk saw documenting fairies as compatible with Christianity, using spirit belief as a bridge toward belief in God.
- He and other intellectuals argued proving lesser spirits like fairies made belief in the greatest spirit easier.
Second Sight Presented As Local Empirical Evidence
- Second sight meant certain people could perceive invisible fairies and co-walkers who shadowed individuals until death.
- Kirk collected villagers' accounts of such visions as empirical evidence for fairy existence.
