Modern Mythology - Lang, Andrew

. .

Résumé :
Andrew Lang, (born March 31, 1844, Selkirk, Selkirkshire, Scot.-died July 20, 1912, Banchory, Aberdeenshire), Scottish scholar and man of letters noted for his collections of fairy tales and translations of Homer. Educated at St. Andrews University and at Balliol College, Oxford, he held an open fellowship at Merton College until 1875, when he moved to London. He quickly became famous for his critical articles in The Daily News and other papers. He displayed talent as a poet in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872), Helen of Troy (1882), and Grass of Parnassus (1888) and as a novelist with The Mark of Cain (1886) and The Disentanglers (1902). He earned special praise for his 12-volume collection of fairy tales, the first volume of which was The Blue Fairy Book (1889) and the last The Lilac Fairy Book (1910). His own fairy tales, The Gold of Fairnilee (1888), Prince Prigio (1889), and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia (1893) became children's classics. Lang also did important pioneer work in such volumes as Custom and Myth (1884) and Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887). Later he turned to history and historical mysteries, notably Pickle the Spy (1897), A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation, 4 vol. (1900-07), Historical Mysteries (1904), and The Maid of France (1908). His lifelong devotion to Homer produced well-known prose translations of the Odyssey (1879), in collaboration with S.H. Butcher, and of the Iliad (1883), with Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers. He defended the theory of the unity of Homeric literature, and his World of Homer (1910) is an important study. (wikipedia.org)

Biographie:
Andrew Lang (1844 - 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. Lang is now chiefly known for his publications on folklore, mythology and religion. The interest in folklore was from early life; he read John Ferguson McLennan before coming to Oxford, and then was influenced by E. B. Tylor. The earliest of his publications is Custom and Myth (1884). In Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887) he explained the irrational elements of mythology as survivals from more primitive forms. Lang's Making of Religion was heavily influenced by the 18th century idea of the noble savage: in it, he maintained the existence of high spiritual ideas among so-called savage races, drawing parallels with the contemporary interest in occult phenomena in England. His Blue Fairy Book (1889) was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. In the preface of the Lilac Fairy Book he credits his wife with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections. Lang examined the origins of totemism in Social Origins (1903).